Highway number vs. local name

[exit322]

Summit County:  Again, a mix, with street names more common closer to Akron, and highway numbers further out -- even going as far as the road being more commonly known as it's de-commissioned name.  I.e. Cleveland-Massillon Road is still known more as "Old (U.S.) 21", while there is an Old (US) 224,  Old Route 8 and even a section of Old 8 that is named "Olde Eight Road".

I lived in Norton for a spell and much of my family lives in the Akron area.  I've never heard either called "Old 21" or "Old 224."  It's either Greenwich or Waterloo in 224's case, or Cleve-Mass in 21's case.

I-76 & I-277 from Lodi to where 277 ends is generally identified with the 224, as US 224 multiplexes with both.

Where I live now (Massillon), OH-172 is Lincoln Way (it used to be US 30 before 30's bypass was built).  OH-241 on its small section of the street is Erie Street (old 21 for what it's worth).  State Route 21 is "Route 21," though in Stark County it does carry either the Erie Street moniker (south of 30) or Great Lakes Boulevard (north of 30).  No one calls it that.  Stark County has some pentagon signs with county route numbers, but I've not once heard anyone use them.

[empirestate]

Don't forget the expressways and parkways (their terms for freeways with some exceptions in the parkways  which for here are obvious as no route number is assigned).  Not only do they have names, they ave acronyms - actually abbreviations for freeway names (Brooklyn Queens Expressway = BQE, Cross Bronx Expressway = CBE, Franklyn D Roosevelt Drive = FDR, etc. (I don't believe all expressways are that way, any New Yorker chime in).

You'll see a lot of the abbreviations on, for example, directional signage or VMS's, but only a few are actually used in conversation. BQE, LIE and FDR are the biggest (not sure whether SIE is used on Staten Island). Other expressways are simpy the Cross Bronx, the Van Wyck (with its own long-standing pronunciation controversy), the Gowanus, and so forth. Parkways are the Grand Central, the Cross Island, the Saw Mill...

That said, I have heard several people use route numbers for these roads, usually transplanted residents who have learned the highways from Google Maps directions rather than from local custom.

[mapman1071]

In Phoenix I've noticed the only highway people refer to by name  is US-60- which is either called "The 60" or "The Superstition"

I was listening to 100.7 KSLX traffic reports the other day though, and they were calling I-10 the "I-10 Papago" and the "I-10 Maricopa," I guess to distinguish which part of town they were talking about. In normal practice though I don't know anyone who calls the highways by name except the 60.

From Detour Dan (KTAR 92.3FM/620am, The Peak 98.7FM)
By Name & Number
I-10 Papago
I-10 Maricopa
I-17 Black Canyon
I-17 Maricopa
US-60 Grand Avenue
US-60 Superstition Freeway
AZ347 Maricopa Rd
Loop 101 Agua Fria
Loop 101 Pima
Loop 101 Price
Loop 202 Red Mountain
Loop 202 Santan

By Number
AZ51
Loop 303

By Name Only
Arizona Ave, Country Club Dr, Beeline Hwy (AZ87)

Out Of Metro
By Number Only (I-10, I-17, US-60 ECT...)

[corco]

In Wichita, everybody refers to I-135 as 'The Canal Route' or 'I-35'.

I've noticed people do this in Tucson too- they'll say "Take I-10 south to get to Mexico"- a surprising number of people call I-19 "I-10."

[J N Winkler]

I've wondered that about I-35W as well, but how many years has that been now?  They've gotten over calling the highway to Fredonia K-96, and that was more recent.

The change to I-135 was sometime in the late 1970's--I think 1979.  I think what happens is that people don't think of "I-135," but rather "big north-south road that people call the Canal Route," and choose "I-35" as the designation because it sounds vaguely plausible.  On the other hand, Wichita to Fredonia isn't a trip most people do without consulting a map first, and K-96 has been gone on that route (and therefore most free and commercially available mapping) for about ten years now.  (The last time I passed through Fredonia, I was in high school and going to math tournaments at Pittsburg State University, and K-96 was still very much alive.  I haven't even checked out the improved US 400 east of Augusta, which is one reason I want to take that route to Woolaroc near Bartlesville.)

Some time ago I played around with various routes between Wichita and KC on Google Maps, and was surprised at how small a distance penalty the US 54-US 69 route imposed.  I want to try that sometime when I am driving only myself to KC.  The last two times I have been, I have had other people with me and thus have had to choose the shortest and most direct route.

[KEVIN_224]

Here in Connecticut, I-84 from the partial I-91 interchange in Hartford west towards the New York state line in Danbury is the Yankee Expressway. Although you do see a sign at both ends, nobody will call it that. Traffic reports NEVER refer to that. You may hear something like "84 East tied up from 46-Sisson to the Bulkeley with an accident." (Exit 46 is the left exit from I-84 East for Sisson Avenue, while the Bulkeley Bridge spans the Connecticut River between Hartford and East Hartford.)

[agentsteel53]

AZ347 Maricopa Rd

worst.  freeway.  ever.

[jwolfer]

In Wichita, everybody refers to I-135 as 'The Canal Route' or 'I-35'.

I've noticed people do this in Tucson too- they'll say "Take I-10 south to get to Mexico"- a surprising number of people call I-19 "I-10."

I remember growing up on the Jersey Shore people would call "I-195"   "I-95"

In Pt Pleasant and Brick it is called Route 88 only now.  In the past (and some old timers still) will call the road west of the canal Lakewood Rd although Ocean Road is used east of the canal probably because of the Ocean Road School.

[nds76]

I use highway numbers, not the name given to a particular road.

[nyratk1]

New York State Route 112 is also named Port Jefferson-Patchogue Highway, but everybody, including the Town of Brookhaven Highway Department calls it "Route 112." Only a few street-name signs refer to it as "Port Jefferson-Patchogue Highway." The ones north of NY 347 call it "Patchogue Road," and the ones south of the Village of Patchogue Line call it "Medford Avenue." Between "Old" Medford Avenue and the Patchogue Village line, I've seen both "Medford Avenue" and "Route 112" used. Too bad I can't seem to convince the Wikipedia administrators of this, and I know some of them are here now.

Just for clarification, everybody still calls it 112. Even some of the signs that were saying Patchogue Rd. in PJ or Medford Ave. in Patchogue have just been changed to signs with Route 112 on them (former by NYSDOT's project - which replaced every sign north of Old Town Rd., latter by Town of Brookhaven and Patchogue Village which replaced some signs).

There's only a handful of routes on LI that get referred to by number - I think I've heard 25A, 27A, 106/107, 110, 111 (both NY 111 and County Road 111), 112 and 347 (although some interchangeably with local designations too).

[roadman65]

What is interesting is the Township of Bridgewater, NJ, will not refer to NJ 28 as its designated name, that is Easton Turnpike.  Some relatives of mine live on NJ 28 just east of its western terminus with US 22 and they use Route 28 as their mailing address.
Also, west of where NJ 28 becomes Somerset County Route 614, it is still called Route 28 and at the intersection of CR 614 and Meadow Road the blade street signs say "RT 28."   

I think it may also be a misconception for locals to even call CR 614 in nearby Branchburg, NJ where the street signs do refer to it by Easton Turnpike as still Route 28 at that point.

[bing101]

California seems to be all over the map about this...

Bay Area: older freeways tend to be referred to by name (Bayshore, MacArthur, Eastshore, Nimitz) even years after signage for those names has been deprecated, numbers used too

Not sure how often the Junipero Serra name is used for 280 between the Southern Freeway/Junipero Serra split and SJ, but that's another one I've known about for some time

I think myosh_tino mentioned that the Stevens Creek name is used sometimes for 85, the most recent completed new freeway in the region

880 between 80 and 980 was referred as the Cypress Freeway for some time after the earthquake, but not so much since the 1997 reconstruction

Some surface-road state highways are referred to by number (i.e. 37, 1), others never are (82/El Camino Real, 123/San Pablo Avenue).

Some names never caught on with public (i.e. Grove-Shafter for 24/980, Sinclair for 680)

Sacramento: "Capital City" name used for only half of Business 80 (the hidden Route 51 portion), US 50 usually used for the east-west portion (along with the "WX Freeway" for the segment concurrent with Route 99)

Norcal I know Sacramento is very anal on route designations due to the history of Business 80 and I-80 in the area.


For Junipero Serra Freeway, Bay Area residents simply call it Highway 280 when I was there.

[bwana39]

I have spoken at length about the Route(ROOT)-X issue.

Street names NOT numbers except for MAYBE the interstates. That said, RLT, Stemmons, Central Expressway are always the go to's in Dallas. On the other hand I-30 west is "the old turnpike" I-45 is never the  Julius Schepps Fwy. LBJ is LBJ not 635. I-20 is I-20 EXCEPT for the part that was originally I-635 and it is still LBJ.

[Flint1979]

Nothing like bumping a 9 year old thread.

[oscar]

For Junipero Serra Freeway, Bay Area residents simply call it Highway 280 when I was there.

FTFY.

I thought we were supposed to stop using [size] tags, especially when they make text unreadable (as they did in your post above, which reduced everything after "For" to two pixels high).

[renegade]

For Junipero Serra Freeway, Bay Area residents simply call it Highway 280 when I was there.

FTFY.

I thought we were supposed to stop using [size] tags, especially when they make text unreadable (as they did in your post above, which reduced everything after "For" to two pixels high).

On a nine-year-old necropost, no less.

[andrepoiy]

Here in the Greater Toronto Area, we use street names unless it's a numbered freeway, in which case the number is more prevalent.

For example, in Toronto, Yonge Street has no number. When you go north into York Region, Yonge Street gains the Regional Road 1 designation, but nobody knows what that is.

However, Highway 401 is known as the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway. Nobody knows what that is though.

[ran4sh]

I don't necessarily agree with bumping these threads that no one has posted to in years, but my opinion regarding route designations and street names, is that a route designation should generally not be the street name for addresses (there should be an actual street name that is used for the address of properties along the road). Because the expenses and complications of changing addresses then becomes a reason to avoid rerouting the route to a better road if one is built (or rerouting for other reasons such as traffic management).

As for how people refer to such roads here, in the Atlanta area we generally use street names, except that freeways are referred to by number, and occasionally you'll find an exception where a route number is more known than the street name (one such example is US 78 past the Stone Mountain freeway which is often called 78 and not its street name.

[Roadgeekteen]

In my hometown, it depends. Great Plain Avenue is used, not 135, and MA 30 in Newton is always Commonwealth Avenue. MA 16, 9, etc are all referred to with numbers, however.