You must have sharper eyes/ears than I do. I haven’t been aware of a lot of truck bashing. There has been some hero worship when a driver takes extreme measures to avoid harming someone on the road.
I would have to assume that the poster was referring to the article in which Cecil claims that there is an exponential degradation of roads when you increase the weight per axle.
If the poster did mean this, and Cecil’s facts are correct, then it is not truck bashing, no matter how vital they are to the economy.
I would think it’s infrastructure bashing, and well deserved.
That’s not universal. “Freeway” and “expressway” are generally synonymous in the U.S., although many people will avoid using “freeway” for toll roads to avoid confusion.
Lumpy is correct that the “free” refers not to the lack of a levy placed on drivers but rather to the free flow of traffic along the carriageways.
Powers &8^]
I’ve lived in the Northeast and in Southern California, I have relatives I visit in several places in the Southeast, and have travelled in the northern Midwest. The only place I’ve ever heard the term “freeway” used is Southern California.
FWIW, I always thought the generic term for freeway, expressway, parkway, etc.—i.e., a road with on- and off-ramps and no crossing traffic—was “limited-access highway.”
Come on up north, to the SF Bay Area. We call them “freeways” too. Just not “the 5” etc.
We call that one I5.
One woman got hired on a local tv station and tried to get everybody to adopt the LA model and say “the 5”, but a jillion or so emails etc convinced her to drop that idea. Silly woman. 
Talking GPS units may induce some shifts. (Until recently, TomTom (a Dutch company) said “motorway”, which is purely British, but they seem to have shifted to “freeway” for US use.)
I guess the influence of Hollywood might explain why many non-Americans would use that particular phrase as a catch-all term.
I’ve lived almost my entire life in the northern Midwest, and I’ve heard “freeway” used almost exclusively.
Hmmm… I’m not sure whether “limited-access highway” or “divided highway” would be the better translation of UK “motorway”. I’ve never seen anything in Britain comparable to, for example, the section of US 22 in NJ between Newark and Somerville.
We’d probably call that a “dual-carriageway” - these are A-road rather than full motorways, but have motorway speeds, divided roads, and two lanes in each direction, and the often travel through urban and suburban areas as well as cross-country routes.
These roads tend to follow older routes (e.g. the A1 coach road) and have been upgraded over the years, whereas motorways were often created from scratch across virgin countryside.
This is an example of what I mean - the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon - does that look similar to the 22 as you described it?
Those have always sounded very exotic to this American because no matter how many times I hear the phrase, it sounds like “jewelled-carriageway”.
I can’t speak generally, but that’s not true in the SF Bay Area. Here, an expressway is an arterial road. Some, but not all access is through grade-separated interchanges. Speed limits are <=55 MPH.
Freeways of course have full grade separation and >=55 MPH speeds.
Alas, no. This is an example of US 22 in eastern New Jersey. Note that this shows only the westbound half – the eastbound half is on the other side of the buildings to the left. Bloody 'orrible, innit? (Note that this in the outskirts of a suburban town of some 50,000.)
I’ve lived in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Limited access divided highways are generically called “freeways” or “the interstate”. Many people avoid “freeway” for toll roads. Those are called “tollways” or “tollroads” or by their specific designation (e.g. “Beltway”, which actually refers to the non-toll highway that the elevated tollway -the Sam Houston Parkway- replaced in most areas).
“Tollroad” spelled thus, not as two words? That’s a new one to me.
I don’t know - it’s usually spoken, not written, so maybe it’s two words.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that most any two words used together may be spoken or written together.
For example, “doorhinge”, as coined by Eminem to rhyne with the unrhymable “orange”.
Man’s a genius!
Pah, Etrigan the Demon came up with “whore binge”.
I’ll have to say that one a few times, but I don’t think it’ll work.