It doesn’t sound dumb in a foreign accent, so don’t worry about it. Drop the “I” and people will think you are a transplant who now lives in LA and probably works in the movie industry.
Again, this is simply a regionalism. Here in Upstate New York we would tell somebody to take 390 to 490 to 90 and never use “the” in front of the bare number. Pieces of I-90 are part of the New York State Thruway, so use of “the Thruway” instead of 90 is almost universal, but that may be because the Thruway is 90 east-west and 87 north-south. But most likely it’s because the Thruway dates back to the 50s. Same with Connecticut. You’d say take the Merritt Parkway or take 95, not I-95. The Parkway is from the 30s.
I’m pretty sure that the bare number is used in more American places than put a “the” in front of the number. There are more than 300 metro areas in the U.S. though and somebody would have to survey each to be sure. I wonder if the Dictionary of American Regional English has made this a project.
But you make up for it by not saying “the” before hospital.
The Van Wyck Expressway (I-678) predates the Interstate Highway System, and is rarely referred to by its number by traffic reporters. Same for the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, I-278). I doubt if the people who drive it every day could tell you the number off the top of their heads. (Well, maybe they could, but they’d never use the number in normal conversation.)
By the way, what’s with the obsession of renaming roads in Chicagoland. I’m from Minneapolis, and I still think of them as “The East-West Tollway”, the “Calumet Expressway”. Do people from Chicago use their new names. By the way we say “I-94”; or “highway 62” or just “77” for non-interstates. Roads don’t really have names here, except for old-timers that still use “Crosstown” and “Cedar” instead of 62 and 77.
I’ve done this and can report it was done by at least 1972.
This may be the origin of the speech pattern though. Not the Van Wyck in particular, but a carry-over from named highways.
Nor Cal all my long life.
Highway 1 is always Highway 1.
The 85 or the 87.
The 101 has always been the 101.
280 is 280, the 280, or Highway 280 same with 680.
The 17 or highway 17. after 1989 from highway 280 north it is the 880 just 880.
From Valley FAi south HIghway 17 is still The 17 or Highway 17.
The 205 has always been the 205 to me.
The 5 or The I5.
Been driving since about 1963.
Pull over and get some sleep before you hurt somebody. Don’t post and drive either.
But I was having fun.
Of course you don’t use I, your cities were founded by dirty hippie communists. There was no ‘I’, only ‘we’, and calling something the WE-805 makes no sense now, does it?
Just had to add fuel to the fire buddy, didn’t you, eh?
Ha! we confuse you further by only doing that half the time.
I drove in the same areas as you starting 1965, and recall only hearing “101” or “17” with no “the.” I’ve heard “I-5” called “5” but never (by a Northerner) “the 5.” You are a Northerner, Snippe but perhaps you’ve fraternized with ex-Southerners. 
“17” is (was?) also called “The Nimitz,” but I recall that “Highway 17” (or, later, “Old Highway 17”) south of Valley Fair referred to what is now called “South Bascom” or “Los Gatos Blvd.” 
(PS: I’d been living in “Silicon Valley” for 19 years before ever hearing it called “Silicon Valley.” :smack: )
Wouldn’t it be easier to get on 90 from 390? Of course, I don’t know anybody who calls it 90 or I-90 or the 90. It’s always “the thruway.” Regionalisms within regionalisms…
Exactly, for njtt to claim using the number is “absurd” seems absurd.
In WA we say I5, 405, 520, 522, 167, Highway 18 (for some reason 18 frequently gets Highway when others don’t), 99/Aurora/Highway 99, etc.
:rolleyes: On those rare occasions on which someone uses the number instead of the name, it’s the bare number.
RaftPeople, I just read a great post of njtt’s in another thread so I’m reluctant to dump too hard on this one. Only dialect specialists get how much variation there is across America. You have to be really careful in talking about what people do inside your own region since even that is matter of percentages rather than absolutes. With rare exceptions.
The funniest exception I can think of is when I went to a diner and ordered a dish of hot dogs, macaroni salad and fries with a hot sauce. That’s known as a “garbage plate” because of the originating restaurant, Nick Tahoe’s. But it’s trademarked, so every other diner has a variation using a different name, a trash plate or heartburn special or whatever. Since I was in a competitor, I carefully ordered the name that was on the menu. And the waitress asked, “you mean a garbage plate?”
The diner was right off the 390 exit. That is an example of when “the” would be used with the number, although it’s technically not the same usage as saying “take the 390.”
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase]
use of “the Thruway” instead of 90 is almost universal
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
I don’t know anybody who calls it 90 or I-90 or the 90. It’s always “the thruway.” Regionalisms within regionalisms…
[/QUOTE]
And? Why did you feel the need to quote me here? You’re arguing against something I didn’t say.
Here in exurban Atlanta (and all over the metro region), we use the ‘I’ prefix with interstates and (usually) highway ## for state highways. There are some regional variations, especially if a well-known street became a highway e.g. Memorial Drive (which was the route from Decatur to the Confederate war memorial carved into the side of Stone Mountain). State highway 78 is usually called just ‘78’, but when you get into Athens, it becomes ‘The Atlanta Highway’ followed by 'West Broad Street" and then “Oconee Street”, “Oak Street” and then eventually “Lexington Road”.
We do this to mess with the newbies.
But the ‘the’ prefix is not used here at all with numbered roads.
17 use to run from Santa Cruz to the Bay Bridge. The Nimitz is that part of the freeway through Oakland and maybe a little futher.
With the interstate highway systems part of 17 was remaned 880 from Oakland to Valley Fair in the 1970’s. Thus making it part of the highway 80 system and federal funds could be used to up grade it.
Never heard 17 called “South Bascom” or “Los Gatos Blvd” that would confuse it with the existing South Bascom or Los Gatos Blvd. Though many people on both sides of the hill do call it “The Santa Cruz Highway”.
Highway 17 was at one time on Bascom, to Stevens Creek. It also seemed to have been planned to run over to and along present day 680. Eventually it coincided with the Nimitz Freeway as it was built, (which officially runs only from 101 to Oakland, but nowadays if it’s used at all it’s pretty much synonymous with 880).
More than you want to know about this (but see the fourth paragraph specifically).
Note that sometimes the road signs do not correspond with the legislative names and routes. Just because a named and numbered highway is said to exist does not mean it is there on the ground. [Fun fact: Highway 84 runs from Livermore to Brentwood. But it doesn’t run from Brentwood to Rio Vista. Neither of those roads exist.]
Snnipe, you’re the first native (or near-native if not) I’ve known to use the article. I wonder if it started to become fashionable at one point, then died out in the North but not the South.