# What do you call your freeway? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765 "2010-03-25T16:47:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/121 "2010-03-31T16:22:04Z")
We’ve only got two interstates - I-4 and I-95. There’s a toll expressway that runs east to west across Orlando, State Road 408, which we just call 408. There’s also one that runs northeast to southwest, SR 417; we just call that 417. ---
**Author:** ![IsThisNewsworthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ea666f/32.png) [@IsThisNewsworthy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IsThisNewsworthy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/122 "2012-09-29T15:41:37Z")
So glad I found this thread. I was just watching news feeds from LA regarding the so-called “Carmageddon 2” with the weekend shutdown of I-405. All I heard was THE 405, THE 101, THE 10… mind-numbing, really! Why were these people talking this way about Interstates & US Routes? It’s like the highway is a member of their family or something. I’m from the Baltimore/Washington area of the east coast, and we simply refer to these roadways as Interstate/Route 95, 695, 70, etc or just use the number by itself: “95”. I had to go on-line to find out if we are backward here or the other way around - not surprisingly, it’s just another “Southern Ca thing” and they are the backwards ones. Even the northern part of the state is normal and doesn’t use this drone moniker. GET REAL! ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/123 "2012-09-29T15:44:54Z")
> [@IsThisNewsworthy](#): > > GET REAL! So you feel that calling it “The 405” is retarded, but calling it “Route 405” isn’t? GET REAL! ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/124 "2012-09-29T16:52:39Z")
I always knew there would be zombies in the next Camageddon. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/125 "2012-09-29T17:18:17Z")
… for referring to California Interstate 5 as " The 5 ". I’m from NYC. Well. From Philly but live in NYC. I referred to it as The 5 because the LA’ers I know do. Apparently there’s a deeply hewn and glaringly BRIGHT LINE somewhere around, oh say Fresno. You get north towards S.F. and you have to drop all LA pretense, language queerisms, attitudes. You must refer to it as " 5 ". Not " The 5 ". Or risk a hellacious ass chewing. Putzes. 😃 Here in Enwye? It’s “The Grand Central”, as in Grand Central Parkway. (Never hear it as The GCP) , or " I took The LIE ( Long Island Expressway ), it took me 3 hours to get home. ". On the other hand, I’ve never heard a highway that is primarily named with a number to be referred to as " the 495 " ( Which is what the LIE is, in numerical designation terms ). It would be, " I took 495 home. " No clue why, but “the” doesn’t precede numerically referenced highways. And yeah, I know that technically the CA Interstate 5 is also designated and signed as The Golden State Freeway. I have never heard a Los Angeleno or a San Franciscat refer to (the) 5 as the GSF or Golden State Freeway. If CA 101 has a name, I’ve not heard it. Local variances abound of course. When in LA, you hear " The Santa Monica Freeway is backed up all the way to the Nevada state line “, moreoften than you would near " The 10 is backed up.” ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/126 "2012-09-29T17:22:29Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > The area between The Hooksett Tolls & the NH/MA border in Nashua is confusing with the route names. The same bit of highway (meaning you don’t exit with a great turn), changes from Rt 3, to the Everett Turnpike, to 293, to 93. You don’t have to do anything to start on the “new route,” but it can suddenly have a different name. Explaining it can be great fun! > > I didn’t do a very good job in my first post. It’s a tough thing to explain, and often depends on who you’re talking to when giving directions or describing a location. I still get baffled with the 111/111A/101/101A/ and associated bypasses a bit west of Merrimack. I’m always like “it’s one of those.” Okay, with all due respect for the beauty of NH and the genteel nature of so many residents, this is deeply fucked! 🙂 I’ve driven that border on the way to Lake Winnepesaukee quite a few times. My god what a mess. No WONDER there is a titanic liquor store right on the border. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/127 "2012-09-29T18:03:52Z")
I just call my freeway Larry afterall that’s his name. No here it’s I thirty five, Loop four ten etc. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/128 "2012-09-29T18:17:06Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > We’ve only got two interstates - I-4 and I-95. There’s a toll expressway that runs east to west across Orlando, State Road 408, which we just call 408. There’s also one that runs northeast to southwest, SR 417; we just call that 417. I can never remember their numbers so I just call 408 the East-West expressway and 417 the Greeneway. I STILL call 528 the Beeline despite that fact it’s been renamed to the Beachline, which sounds all kinds of wrong. But yeah we just call the other ones I-4 and I-95. (Now don’t get me started on I-4 eastbound and westbound through Orlando :)) ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/129 "2012-09-29T20:24:09Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > No clue why, but “the” doesn’t precede numerically referenced highways. And yeah, I know that technically the CA Interstate 5 is also designated and signed as The Golden State Freeway. I have never heard a Los Angeleno or a San Franciscat refer to (the) 5 as the GSF or Golden State Freeway. If CA 101 has a name, I’ve not heard it. Local variances abound of course. When in LA, you hear " The Santa Monica Freeway is backed up all the way to the Nevada state line “, moreoften than you would near " The 10 is backed up.” I’m sorry; I can’t resist. If the 10 is backed up to the _Nevada_ border, we’ve had a bigger earthquake than anyone thought the San Andreas Fault was capable of. 🙂 The 10 crosses out of the state into Arizona. The 15 (which, if it has a name at that point, I don’t know it) is what goes into Nevada. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/130 "2012-09-29T21:00:03Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Here it’s “two seventy” or “three fifteen” (the latter being an Ohio route number). When I first moved here, I referred to OH-315 as “three one five”, but was told by a native that sounded very odd. I wrote that when I was living in central Ohio. Now I’d call the nearest freeway “the Sydney-Newcastle Expressway”. It’s number is currently the F3 – I don’t know of anyone who actually calls it that – but next year it’s going to change to be part of the “M1 Pacific Motorway” (a name which might actually get into common usage). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/131 "2012-09-29T22:25:24Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Westy here, (Seattle) we call I-5, I-5, no “the.” > > A couple newspeople, who are obviously from other parts of the country add the “the”, but they can’t pronounce Yakima or Hoquiam either. Same in Portland, AFAIK. A short portion of I-84 (between I-5 and I-205) is sometimes referred to as The Banfield Expressway. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/132 "2012-09-29T23:09:25Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > I’m sorry; I can’t resist. If the 10 is backed up to the _Nevada_ border, we’ve had a bigger earthquake than anyone thought the San Andreas Fault was capable of. 🙂 > > The 10 crosses out of the state into Arizona. The 15 (which, if it has a name at that point, I don’t know it) is what goes into Nevada. –Squints at Google Maps-- Why, what the hell… they REROUTED it??? 😃 I humbly sit corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/133 "2012-09-29T23:21:10Z")
Mine is the 417. Ottawa. ---
**Author:** ![KermitTheFrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/134 "2012-09-29T23:28:18Z")
Massachusetts/Rhode Island area, here. It’s the highway, not the freeway. Running through Providence are 95 North and 95 South or I-95 referring to both. Coming from Providence into Massachusetts there’s 195. Most of us will say Route 6, rather than just 6, but in some sections locals are more apt to call it by it’s “street name,” GAR Highway or State Road. It occurs to me that we like our highways to have a minimum of two syllables, hence Route 6 or Route 3 rather than 6 or 3 for one digit numbers, but just 24 or 495 roll off the tongue okay without adding the word route. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/135 "2012-09-29T23:59:39Z")
In Vermont, we just speak of “the Interstate”. I-89 goes across the state from the northwest to the southeast; I-91 goes down the eastern side of the state. Aside from the area around their intersection at White River, there is never any ambiguity about which one we mean. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/136 "2012-09-30T00:05:58Z")
In Oregon, the only interstate we had nearby was I-5, pronounced that way. Other highways almost always were “state highway ###” or “US ###”, from what I remember, if not just the number. > [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > In Vermont, we just speak of “the Interstate”. I-89 goes across the state from the northwest to the southeast; I-91 goes down the eastern side of the state. Aside from the area around their intersection at White River, there is never any ambiguity about which one we mean. In Oregon, we would also sometimes refer to I-5 as “the interstate” since it’s the only one in the state where we lived. There are a couple more up north near Portland and eastwards of there, though. So it was probably only a Southern Oregon thing to call it that. Now that I live in Houston, we have a million different ways to say every freeway, as Clothahump pointed out. US 59 is alternatively called 59 North, 59 South, 59, Southwest Freeway… take your pick. I-610 is called the loop, 610 north, 610 west, 610 east, or 610 south, or just 610, or… the north loop, west loop, south loop, east loop (or even West Loop North, or West Loop South… yikes)… depending on where you are or how obvious it is which part you need to take. As pointed out, the freeways all have other names… but they change based on which side of downtown you are on. Lots of fun learning your freeway nomenclature in Houston!!! ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/137 "2012-09-30T02:02:18Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > … for referring to California Interstate 5 as " The 5 ". I’m from NYC. Well. From Philly but live in NYC. I referred to it as The 5 because the LA’ers I know do. Apparently there’s a deeply hewn and glaringly BRIGHT LINE somewhere around, oh say Fresno. You get north towards S.F. and you have to drop all LA pretense, language queerisms, attitudes. You must refer to it as " 5 ". Not " The 5 ". Or risk a hellacious ass chewing. I put the line just north of the Grapevine. Oh, and up here, you’re allowed to call it I-5 as well as just 5. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/138 "2012-09-30T02:07:46Z")
I just moved to LA and found the transition pretty easy in terms of road names. My previous experience with major CA freeways was from TV, where it was always called “the 405” etc. Saying just “405” sounds wrong, sort of like calling someone Tom when their name is actually Chris. When I go back to DC I’m not going to start calling it “the 270” because that’s not its name, either. Thinking about it as proper names instead of a formula to be followed makes it easier for me. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/139 "2012-09-30T02:34:05Z")
In my part of South Florida, we just use the numbers, occasionally with an I in front of it. So you could take I-95 somewhere…or 95 somewhere. Or 595. 395, or 195. Or 75. We also have The Turnpike, The Turnpike Extension, and The Sawgrass [Expressway]. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765/140 "2012-09-30T02:47:05Z")
In Kentucky, some of the major roads resist being numbered. I remember looking on a map that identified the road by name but did not number it, which seemed a bit odd. “Cumberland Parkway”, “Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway”, “Audubon Parkway” (should be “Audubon Autobahn” perhaps?), etc. Apparently, Kentuckians like to drive on parkways and park in driveways. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-freeway/533765.md?page=8)