Green’s Dictionary of Slang

instinctive knowledge as opposed to learned knowledge.

1978		New Yorker 20 Nov. 113: Like the A’s, these Yankees have street-smarts. They win.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 56: She had spirit, independence, street smart [...] and a lethal tongue.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 8: He gave each cop [...] the same admonition: ‘I gotta have people with street smarts and moxie’.
1995		(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 19: In retrospect I wince at my lack of street smarts for accidentally humiliating the man who was crucial [...] to my continued access to the crack scene.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 121: This shows he’s got the street smarts too.
2016		Chillicothe Gaz. (OH) 5 Nov. 6A/3: [He] rambles on like a loose cannon with no retraints. This person does not have street smarts.