# What is extremely common in TV or movies but almost never happens in real life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311 "2021-02-06T04:16:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 135
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2682 "2023-08-01T13:07:47Z")
Hmm. It looks like the Taconic failed the freeway definition until it allowed commercial traffic ([Highway, Freeway, Parkway - Know the Difference - ANSI Blog](https://blog.ansi.org/highway-freeway-parkway-know-difference/#gref)). Apparently, a parkway was originally a designation for a scenic rad that didn’t allow commercial traffic. However, it turns out that there is no official definition of “parkway” as there is for highway, freeway, and expressway, so maybe this is a technicality? By the MUTCD definitions at the link, the Arroyo Seco was neither a highway nor an expressway, given that it was designed with only limited access entry/exit. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2683 "2023-08-01T13:48:14Z")
There aren’t any official definitions , really. Not for all purposes. According to the [manual](https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/2009r1r2/mutcd2009r1r2edition.pdf) cited in your link > When used in this Manual, the text headings of Standard, Guidance, Option, and Support shall be > defined as follows: which doesn’t mean those definitions apply outside that manual. Their definition for "highway is > “Highway—a general term for denoting a public way for purposes of vehicular travel, including the entire area within the right-of-way.” By that definition, any street, including the single lane, one-way street with a 25 mph speed limit where I live is a highway and I don’t think “highway” is used that way in ordinary speech anywhere. Even on the West Coast according to your cite ( and the survey it mentions) “highway” seems refer to a major roadway that you can drive relatively fast on. My Waze and ( my prior GPS devices) have a setting to “avoid highways” which obviously doesn’t mean " avoid any public way meant for vehicles". The only roads I have heard of in the NYC area that “freeway” is ever used for are some local streets where freeway is part of the name - they are ordinary, local streets with the same speed limits as local streets but just have “Freeway” in the name rather than road , boulevard etc. Like [Rockaway](https://forgotten-ny.com/2018/05/rockaway-freeway-queens/) [Freeway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockaway_Freeway) , which apparently got its name because it’s mostly “free” of cross traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2684 "2023-08-01T13:53:09Z")
I thought that “freeways” meant they had no tolls. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2685 "2023-08-01T14:02:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought that “freeways” meant they had no tolls When I was a kid, I thought the same thing, but toll roads were almost nonexistent in California in the 60’s. I finally realized the “free” in freeway meant the traffic moved freely, with no hindrances from cross-traffic, pedestrians, etc. That lead me to wonder when the term “freeway” was coined. The term highway is incredibly old (highwaymen!), but as far as I can tell, it was created in the 20th centurey. In fact, my speculation was that it might have been a Western term before being adopted by the rest of the nation. I was wrong: [Edward M. Bassett The Man Who Gave us "Freeway" - General Highway History - Highway History - Federal Highway Administration](https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/freeway.cfm#:~:text=Taking%20the%20parkway%20concept%20a,but%20open%20to%20commercial%20traffic). Just like that salsa, it’s from _New York City_. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2686 "2023-08-01T18:10:40Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think it’s a California thing to call the school districts “union districts” Not entirely. > **[Union school district](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_school_district)** > > In some U.S. states, a union school district or union high school district is a school district that has been established by the consolidation of "two or more school districts situated in the same county". A Joint union school district is similar, but the component districts are "situated wholly or in part in different counties". A union school district is distinguished from a unified school district (USD) in that a union school district generally does not include or operate both primary In ... It seems to be most common in California, Arizona, and Vermont. At one time my high school (in New Mexico) was in a union district. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2687 "2023-08-01T18:38:43Z")
My district here in SoCal is a “Joint Union” District. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2688 "2023-08-01T19:56:33Z")
In our area it’s the X Unified School District. There are four operating in our city. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2689 "2023-08-01T20:17:53Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > On the west coast, it’s common to refer to an interstate highway with “the” in front of it. e.g. “Traffic on The 10”. On the east coast, that’s NEVER done. It’s “95”, or “I-95” or occasionally “Interstate 95”. Quite jarring, if you live hearabouts; Brendan Fraser did so in a movie, as did someone in an episode of The X-Files. Actually this is only in Southern California. Not true anywhere else that I know of. Of course, Southern CA might as well be the whole state, in terms of tropes. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2690 "2023-08-01T21:22:13Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Needing a permit to own a Desert Eagle in Arizona or an AK-47 in North Carolina I’ve both seen. I hear “it was an unregistered handgun” but no states require handguns to be registered. Heck, I see news releases from the LA County Sheriffs about “found with an unregistered handgun”, and they should know better. Or safeties on revolvers. Or chambering a gun to add a threat level. > [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > This is purely a southern California thing. Not in use in Oregon, Washington or even Northern California. Having lived on both ends of the state, I can tell you “the 5” e.g. happens up North also. They just like to pretend it doesnt. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And I regularly hear people on TV shows referring to the “freeway” but again, that’s a California-ism. Pretty much the whole West Coast. Sometimes in the Midwest on the big ones. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2691 "2023-08-02T00:15:16Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > > [@Moriarty](#): > > > > In west coast states, the prosecution is referred to as “The People”; in other states, it’s “The State”. But if you watch law shows, you may only hear the former. > > It’s “The People” in New York, too - which probably has a lot to do with how often you hear it, what with all those different “Law and Order” series. > > > [@Moriarty](#): > > > > Also, not every state has a District Attorney (in Florida, they are called the State Attorney), but that’s the term that everybody learns from TV. > > Same as above , New York also has District Attorneys. I don’t know if there is an easy list to refer to. I’m pretty sure Maryland, Illinois and Missouri also use the term “State’s Attorney.” To me it’s very confusing because they are the top prosecutor at the county level and are not at state level. To me District Attorney is more logical. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2023, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2692 "2023-08-03T01:48:09Z")
When you speak of a road, it just goes somewhere, like the Frobisher Road, that goes up to the Frobisher estate, after passing the Myerlings snd Breston places and old Ned Tinwck’s farm (he lives alone there, with no apparent heirs, and no one knows what will happen when he buys it), but the road just kind of peters out on the edge of Mauston wood. If you navigate the wood for about a league, you can make your way to the Creighton road, which is a similar kind of dead end at the Briars (yeah, you do not want to go in there).        “Road” it would seem probably has a rooting in “route”, but that is just a guess.        A way usually has some connections, either as junctions or at the next town or both, but mostly it is used by people going somewhere else, rather than nearby (home or whatever). You get to the town, and it has streets, which serve the town, and if you travel the streets, they will eventually lead you to the edge of town, where you can get to a road or way that leads out of town. This is the primary manner in which a street differs from a road or way.        In the heart of the town are its businesses, which tend to cluster around “High Street”, whence comes “highway”, which connets the high street in this town to the high street in the next town up the highway. The “high” part merely elevates the status of the street.        “Avenue” clearly devolves from Latin, “from the place”, meaning it was the street that went to/from something important.        “Boulevard” is a corruption of a term suggesting a laden oxen (“bull’s fardels”), and now I seem to have wandered off the road, into the weeds. But, hat other stuff is plausible enough that it might have some validity. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2693 "2023-08-03T03:58:05Z")
I enjoyed learning about the origin of “Boulevard.” In exchange, I will mention that I have lived in at least two towns/cities where the main road through town was named “Boulevard” or “The Boulevard.” No other name or designation…just “Boulevard” on the street signs. For some reason, I always found this amusing; ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2694 "2023-08-03T12:06:22Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > “Boulevard” is a corruption of a term suggesting a laden oxen (“bull’s fardels”), and now I seem to have wandered off the road, into the weeds. But, hat other stuff is plausible enough that it might have some validity. I never knew this, and it’s interesting. In my experience, “Boulevard” is a much less common term for a street than the others, and seems generally used for wider-than-normal roads. Which would be reasonable, if they were meant for wide commercial, bull-borne loads. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2695 "2023-08-03T12:24:51Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > “Boulevard” is a corruption of a term suggesting a laden oxen (“bull’s fardels”) No, it isn’t. It’s doublet with _bulwark_ - a work (fortification) made with boles (of trees) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2696 "2023-08-03T12:32:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I never knew this, and it’s interesting. I _think_ he’s kidding. Certainly, the dictionary doesn’t support that etymology. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2697 "2023-08-03T12:39:40Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I _think_ he’s kidding. Given at least two of the purported etymologies are pants, that would seem to be the case. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2698 "2023-08-03T12:43:57Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > > > This is purely a southern California thing. Not in use in Oregon, Washington or even Northern California. > > Having lived on both ends of the state, I can tell you “the 5” e.g. happens up North also. They just like to pretend it doesnt. Having lived in the Bay Area for nearly sixty years, I would say it is rare enough to be notable. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2699 "2023-08-03T13:05:12Z")
Women dressing at home like they’re at a cocktail party. Soap operas are big on this. A woman can have an office job where she dresses up, but comes home and talks to her spouse or visitors and is still dressed up. A real woman would be in sweats about 10 seconds after walking through her front door. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2700 "2023-08-03T14:28:04Z")
But first the bra comes off pulled out from under her shirt while on the way to put on said sweats. Or is that just me? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2023, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2701 "2023-08-03T14:51:30Z")
Mrs. 74westy? Is that you? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=134) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=136)