What is the lingo in your area for calling route numbers?

[TravelingBethelite]

I don't know about St. Louis or Kansas City, but in Mid-Missouri, roads are simply referred to by their route number, XX. Lettered routes are known as Route *letter*.

[hotdogPi]

One thing I haven't figured out yet: Single-digit numbers in this area are called "Route X", while two digits or more is just the number. However, I don't know if it's one digit or one syllable that makes the difference. I don't live close enough to 7, 10, or 12. Does anyone know which it is?

[Ben114]

One thing I haven't figured out yet: Single-digit numbers in this area are called "Route X", while two digits or more is just the number. However, I don't know if it's one digit or one syllable that makes the difference. I don't live close enough to 7, 10, or 12. Does anyone know which it is?

I've noticed one and two digit numbers get "route" and three digits don't.

[deathtopumpkins]

One thing I haven't figured out yet: Single-digit numbers in this area are called "Route X", while two digits or more is just the number. However, I don't know if it's one digit or one syllable that makes the difference. I don't live close enough to 7, 10, or 12. Does anyone know which it is?

I've noticed one and two digit numbers get "route" and three digits don't.

Eh, I'd say it's a mix with 2-digit numbers. When I lived in Somerville, for example, 16 and 28 usually did not get the "route" prefix. 93 however often did, which always irked me. I cringed every time I heard "route 93". I want to say route 60 usually did, and 1A did not. Of course all this is based on my anecdotal observations. There are always outliers, especially with the large population of college students and other transplants in the Boston area.

What fascinates me though is when names are used vs. numbers. It seemed the local consensus was generally to only use numbers when referring to multiple named segments of the route (e.g. going from Cambridge to Medford you'd say "take 28" instead of "take O'Brien to McGrath to the Fellsway"), and only on certain portions of the route (e.g. going from Medford to Revere you'd say "take 16" instead of "take Mystic Valley Pkwy to Revere Beach Pkwy", but if going from Everett to Watertown, you'd list all of the parkways instead of just saying "take 16"). And even this was generally limited only to routes that followed major roads. Nobody ever uses the number for 38, or 60 west of Malden, or 2A on Mass Ave.

It's a bit less confusing now that I've moved to NH, where outside of urban centers everything is just a number.

[Aaron Camp]

For Vermilion County, Illinois, we tend to follow these rules for referring to roads:
- Interstate 74 is usually referred to as either "74", "I-74" or "the Interstate".
- U.S. routes are referred to as "U.S. xxx" or simply by its route number without a prefix, except where multiplexed with IL-1.
- IL-1 within Vermilion County is always referred to as "Route 1", even where IL-1 is multiplexed with US-150 or US-136. IL-9 is treated similarly, being always referred to as "Route 9".
- IL-49 and IL-119 follow similar reference conventions to U.S. routes, with the "Route (x)xx" or the route number by itself without a prefix being used to refer to the highway in question.
- For county highways (these are very sparingly marked with blue pentagon route markers), usually a local name will be used to refer to those; for example, Vermilion County Highway 1 is referred to as "Henning Road", and Vermilion County Highway 8 is referred to as "Catlin-Homer Road".
- For county roads (note that there is a distinction between a county highway and a county road in a lot of counties in downstate Illinois, including Vermilion County), the usual form of reference is either "((x)x)xx North" for east-west roads and "((x)x)xx East" for north-south roads unless a local road name is in common vernacular (examples being Grape Creek Road southeast of Danville and Kickapoo Park Road west of Danville).

[ca_enright]

Colorado (Denver Metro):

Interstate XX (or I-XX)
US-XX or Highway XX
State highway, Colorado or just XX for state highways.  Some state highways are urban arterials and no one calls them by the highway number when they're named arterials (US40 vs. Colfax).  The exception is US-6, which is called 6th Avenue by many, and the 6th Ave Freeway continues onto 6th Ave in the Denver Metro Grid system.

Most county highways have another name and are called that, unless it's only CR-XX, then it's called that. 

[SR 228]

Florida officially refers to Interstates as such (Interstate 95, or I 95), and same for US routes. Our state highways are specifically called "State Road" so State Road A1A, or SR A1A (no dash).
The people however, in my area, simply refer to the route by just its number only, however if someone needs to be more specific, they'll use the full designation Florida goes off of. An example would be: "take SR 200 to I 95, then get off at US 1 ALT, and look for the SR 228 sign to go over the Hart Bridge." (crossed out designations being what we don't normally say). This sort of thing is why I wouldn't blame FDOT for numbering SR A1A as such, rather than SR 1, to prevent confusion with US 1, due to how people would just call it "1" or "Route 1".

[silveradoman298]

In Michigan we refer to the interstates as I-xx, most of the time we refer to US and State routes as "US-xx" & "M-xx"  with exceptions in the Detroit area where we instead use the local name of the road.

In the Detroit area:

I-75 downtown is the Fisher Fwy - called simply "75"
I-75 uptown in the Chrysler Fwy - called "75"
I-94 downtown is the Edsel Ford Fwy and Detroit Industrial Fwy - called "94"
I-96 downtown is the Jeffries Fwy - called "96"
I-696 is the Walter Reuther Fwy - called "696"
I-275 - called "275"
I-375 downtown is called "375"

Here's where it gets interesting in the Detroit area as we generally don't call out the road number or whether it is a Road/Avenue/Highway etc.:

US 24 is named Telegraph Road but is called "Telegraph"
US 12 is named Michigan Avenue but is called "Michigan"
Michigan state route 1 - called "Woodward"
Michigan state route 3 - called "Gratiot"
Michigan state route 5 - called "Grand River" & "Haggerty Connector" north of I-696
Michigan state route 8 - called "Davison Fwy"
Michigan state route 10 - called "Lodge Fwy" and "North Western" north of I-696
Michigan state route 24 - called "Lapeer Road" & "Dixie Highway"
Michigan state route 39 - called "Southfield Fwy"
Michigan state route 53 - called "Van Dyke" in Detroit area / M-53 north of Macomb County.
Michigan state route 59 - called "M-59" or "Hall Road"
Michigan state route 85 - called "Fort Street"
Michigan state route 97 - called "Groesbeck"
Michigan state route 108 - called "8 Mile"
Michigan state route 150 - called "Rochester Road"
Michigan state route 153 - called "Ford Road"

[Perfxion]

Houston:

For most it's just the number: 45, 59, 249, 288, 90, 1960, 2920, etc

I-10 normally gets its full name, but mostly in reference of distance within the city. IE: NRG and Toyota Center are south of I-10.

Some go by street name: nobody says FM 525, it's Aldine Bender. Not FM 1093, it's Westheimer.