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.
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!
So you feel that calling it “The 405” is retarded, but calling it “Route 405” isn’t?
GET REAL!
I always knew there would be zombies in the next Camageddon.
… 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.”
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. 
I just call my freeway Larry afterall that’s his name.
No here it’s I thirty five, Loop four ten etc.
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 :))
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.
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).
Same in Portland, AFAIK. A short portion of I-84 (between I-5 and I-205) is sometimes referred to as The Banfield Expressway.
–Squints at Google Maps-- Why, what the hell… they REROUTED it???
I humbly sit corrected.
Mine is the 417. Ottawa.
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.
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, 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.
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!!!
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.
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.
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
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.