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Is your freeway "the 5", "I-10" or "80"?

Funny this thread should come up.
I've spoken to countless people from Northern Cal and all the way east of California and found that So. Cal. people are the only ones who tend to put "the" in front of highways. Once I started realizing this by way of a buddy of mine (who is not from California), I was more aware of myself and tried to stop using "the" in front of highway names. I've even begun correcting people. My "location" is a total joke that I stuck on a few days back as a joke really.

Honestly, I'd like to say that putting THE in front of highway numbers somehow caters to the overall pertentious nature of so. cal. people finding themselves more important than the rest of the world. Perhaps this is my perception of the very area I was born and raised in, but it is my perception to have. ;) Either that or we're just attached to the word "the" and we find it to be so important that is must go before just about everything. "the oc" "the 5". :p
 
Let me offer my perspective on this whole "the" issue.

Another thing we from SoCal do is we have a tendency to abbreviate things - LA, OC (no one who lives there calls it "the OC" :rolleyes: ), the IE (Inland Empire - San Bernardino, Riverside, surrounding cities), PCH (Pacific Coast Highway, note the lack of "the"), heck, SoCal is even one.

In the 50s and 60s when a lot of the freeways were being built, a lot of people called the freeways by name - the Santa Ana Freeway, the Pasadena Freeway, the Pomona Freeway, all obviously needing "the" since they're nouns and you wouldn't say "take freeway", you'd say "take the freeway". But the names have slowly fallen into disuse probably because the number shield takes up a lot less space on the signs, and the names and numbers to everybody here are synonymous, so "Santa Ana" and "5", and "Pomona" and "60" are easily interchangeable. Plus, the numbers are easier to say. So the abbreviations boil down like this:

"the Santa Ana Freeway" > "the Santa Ana"
"the 5 Freeway" > "the 5"

Apparently, you East Coasters still use "the" with your freeway expressway/parkway names - The Lodge, The Pike, The Hutch, you just haven't gotten lazy and used the numbers yet. :p
 
mkrishnan said:
In Florida, oddly, I-10, I called I-10, but I-95 and I-295 I just called the 95 and 295.
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I usually hear 95 used with an I so maybe it's the number of digits.

Up till last year I was in Singapore where I worked for 8 years and the major roadways go by abbreviations rather than full names or nicknames.

Example: People use PIE (pee eye E) instead of Pan-Island Expressway.
 
Forgot to mention in Rochester there's two routes that loop around the city - Called, you guessed it, The Outer Loop and The Inner Loop.. Both branch off I-390 to become I-490 and I-590 - well, actually, 590 only goes up one side I guess and other routes combine to make the loop - but I can't remember which one is inner or outer... I can find my way onto them and know where they go I just don't know which is which... weird.
 
As a truck driver I use the I/US/(state name) plus the number. There are WAY too many highways I travel to call them all "The" of by just the number.

It drive me nuts when a local gives me directions using nicknames that can't be found on a map or road sign.
 
In New Mexico I always say "I-25" and "I-40." Here in the Chicago area though people seem to refer to freeways by name, like "The Indiana Toll Road" instead of I-80/90, or the Dan Ryan Expressway, etc.
 
I have driven US Interstate 10 from end to end, and only in Southern California do it hear it called "the 10." Everywhere else, it is I-10. I work with folks from SoCal, and they call it "the 10" even though we are nowhere near "Kal-ee-forn-yah."
 
I always put "the" in front of the numbers

"the 101", "the 17", "the 202", "the 10"

I live in Phoenix, AZ, so it may be a SoCal phenomenon that migrated over here.
 
The 101, the 51 and the 202... yeah, I use the. But if it's an interstate I say the I-4 or whatever.
 
In means of local roads here, it varies by what road:

The Expressway (I-93 south of the city through the Braintree Split)
Route 3
24 (Route 24)
123
139
3A
93 (All of I-93 except for the part referred to as the expressway)
 
it5five said:
I always put "the" in front of the numbers

"the 101", "the 17", "the 202", "the 10"

I live in Phoenix, AZ, so it may be a SoCal phenomenon that migrated over here.
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Don't forget the 51. Sometimes the 101 gets called the Loop 101 too.
 
The motorways near me are called the M90, M9 and M8. I've never heard anyone refer to any of them simply as "the 90" or "the 9".
 
LumbermanSVO said:
As a truck driver I use the I/US/(state name) plus the number. There are WAY too many highways I travel to call them all "The" of by just the number.

It drive me nuts when a local gives me directions using nicknames that can't be found on a map or road sign.
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Funny thing is that in Massachusetts I-90 is often clearly indicated by a pilgrim hat and "MassPike". :D
 
I've noticed traveling in California the "the" phenomenon you refer to. This was mainly in the bay area and the central coast. Particularly "the 101" and "the 5" (I guess since these are the primary north-south routes). I've never encountered that anywhere else though.

Here in Virginia, we seem to use just the number. "Take 81 North" or "Traffic on 95 is awful today." I've never heard formal highway names used, except for 495, which, of course, is often called "the beltway."
 
Sorry, had to come back and bump this...

Last month, I went to a truck driving school, and here I am sitting in Amarillo, TX with my lead driver (since I'm still a student) waiting for a load to take somewhere.

In just about 2 weeks out on the road, I've been to a good amount of states: started out in California and went to Texas, went north to Iowa, east to Ohio, south to Georgia and the Carolinas, and slightly north and then west to Amarillo, TX.

Talking to people from a bunch of different states, I haven't yet heard anybody say "I-#" or "US-#", everyone just says the number. Even my trainer who does it when he's giving me directions, i.e. we were driving down the I-75 in Georgia and we passed I-16. A couple miles later, I saw an exit for GA-16. So I used that as an example and I asked him if he could say "I-#" or "US-#" if he's giving me directions and he said something like "no, because you're already supposed to know which one it is." =/

My first day, we stopped at a truck stop off of I-10 on US 95 in Arizona and there were signs pointing US 95 one way, and Arizona 95 another way. So if someone says "take 95", how are you to know which 95 to take unless it's somehow clarified? It's confusing enough having different highways with the same number (CA stopped that almost 50 years ago), but even more confusing when no distinguishment is made.

Another thing, we were talking to this guy at a truck stop and he said he was "driving 80 in the rain" and I said "that's crazy, you can't be going 80 mph in the rain!" and he said "no, 80! I-80!" :eek:
 
zephead said:
Sorry, had to come back and bump this...

Last month, I went to a truck driving school, and here I am sitting in Amarillo, TX with my lead driver (since I'm still a student) waiting for a load to take somewhere.
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Fellow large car driver here. If you don't mind me asking, who are you driving for? I gave up on training students after only 5, WAY too stressful.

As far as highways go, I always write down the proper name. US-95, AZ-95, and so on. no point in getting mixed up just because I'm lazy :)
 
Depends on the road for some reason, Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 are almost always referred to as "I-5" and "I-205" respectively, yet for some reason Interstate 405 is always referred to by simply "405". US Routes and state highways are typically named out with "highway" in front of their number, such as "Highway 26", although simply "26", or "the sunset highway" would also be acceptable.
 
I'm in SoCal too so we just say the number, but with a "the" in front of it.

The 5, The 210, The 118, The 710, The 91, The 2, The you get the picture...

And then there are specific names that are used interchangably with the numbers... The Hollywood Freeway, The harbor Freeway, etc.
 
LumbermanSVO said:
Fellow large car driver here. If you don't mind me asking, who are you driving for? I gave up on training students after only 5, WAY too stressful.

As far as highways go, I always write down the proper name. US-95, AZ-95, and so on. no point in getting mixed up just because I'm lazy :)
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I'm driving for CRST. They paid for CR England to train us though, which was a little weird, but it worked out pretty well. Had to sign my soul away for 8 months for the "free" training but at least it was nothing out-of-pocket, because I had hardly anything in them, lol.

Another thing I'm gonna have to get used to is exit numbers. Being from CA, I've never used them in my life, but I've gotta say, the whole mile/exit system makes a lot of sense when you really look at it. So does the metric system, but I don't see the US going metric anytime soon. :p

Mr. Giver '94 said:
I'm in SoCal too so we just say the number, but with a "the" in front of it.

The 5, The 210, The 118, The 710, The 90, The 2, The you get the picture...

And then there are specific names that are used interchangably with the numbers... The Hollywood Freeway, The harbor Freeway, etc.
Click to expand...

The names are easier to use at the Hollywood Split: name-wise, it's a regular interchange; the Hollywood Fwy (N/S) and Ventura Fwy (E/W) meet. Number-wise, it's...
----170----
101----134
----101----

:eek:
 
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