In delineating public domains, the Talmud speaks of “s’ratya” (a wide street) and a “p’latya” (a wide, open plaza in a city where people gather for business). In discussing the p’latya, the Rashba (Avodat HaKodesh, Sha’ar 3, 1:1) writes that such an area is a public domain even if the doors to the larger area that it is in [as opposed to specific doors of the p’latya itself] are closed at night. This view is also found in the Meiri, citing Gedolei Tzarfat, and thus asserts a difference between the rules of a p’latya and those of a s’ratya (although see B’er Heitev, 345:7, citing Resp. Chacham Tzvi, questioning the acceptance of this view).

R. Asher Weiss (Minchat Asher, Shabbat, 20:2) notes that there are two ways one can distinguish a p’latya from a s’ratya: a) in the type of public that is involved; b) in the type of public usage. A p’latya may be a public domain because it is given over to the inhabitants of the city to do what they need to, and thus the local citizens make it into a public domain. A s’ratya, though, as the thoroughfare leading to the city, becomes a public domain due to the outsiders who use the road to get to the city. Accordingly, a p’latya would continue to be a public domain even when the outer doors of the area are closed, as it is still accessible to the population that gives it its public status.

Alternatively, it may be that s’ratya and p’latya represent two different types of public status: the first is for public travel, and the second is for public general usage. Again, the outer doors being closed at night would thus affect the first but not the second.

Similarly, the Ramban (Eiruvin 59a), in disputing the position of Rashi that a public domain always requires 600,000 people, at one point distinguishes between a p’latya, which may have such a requirement to qualify as public, and a s’ratya, which is public in any event as it serves as a public thoroughfare.