Hi there, I am a beginner using Inkscape and spent hours trying to achieve a seemingly easy task...

Please find the attached File. There are two path's from a street map. one path is the result of a "stroke to path" operation followed by a "union". The other are classic paths "combined" together. In the next step, I want to get rid of all the street paths reaching into the big streets. This would be possible with a "cut path" command and delete the leftover ends. But I am sure there has to be a possibility to do this automatically with union as well. But with union wouldnt give me the expected results and is creating some weird islands instead of just cutting the path and get rid of it. 

I feel like the problem is a similar one like on this post. https://inkscape.org/ru/forums/cutplot/bug-path-union-creates-artifacts/ but the solution seems to be a different one.

Your help is greatly appreciated, I am losing my mind.

If the end needs to just satisfy the visual, you could fill the big streets with white.

Or to get more elaborate, maybe this way:

This is wonderfull - thank you so much! I cant belive it.

I guess I didnt, and probably still dont know how the "difference" operation works. Anyway, thank you so much for helping me out

Greetings

Oh I just see both ways are just to "satisfy the visual"

I would like to laser cut this, what if I want the small streets go back to single paths again?

For laser, I'd do a Cut path operation. Yes, there will be a fair amount of whiskers to trim, but that's the best way I can see at the moment.