Alley may be paved, or unpaved, and a blind alley is a cul-de-sac. Modern urban developments may also provide a service road to allow for waste collection, or rear access for fire engines and parking. Because of geography, steps (stairs) are the predominant form of alley in hilly cities and towns. This includes Quebec City in Canada and in the United States Pittsburgh (see Steps of Pittsburgh), Cincinnati (see Steps of Cincinnati), Minneapolis, Seattle, and San Francisco as well as Hong Kong, Genoa and Rome. Some alleys are roofed because they are within buildings, such as the traboules of Lyon, or
Three Blind Mice in 1842 when it was published in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell. Amateur music composer Thomas Oliphant (1799–1873) noted in 1843 that: This absurd old round is frequently brought to mind in the present day, from the circumstance of there being an instrumental Quartet by Weiss, through which runs a musical phrase accidentally the same as the notes applied to the word "Three Blind Mice". They form a "third" descending, C, B, A. Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana #7, which is arguably about a cat (Murr), appears to be based upon "Three Blind Mice", but in a predominantly minor key. "Three