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Poll

What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?

Frontage Road
- 61 (74.4%)
Service Road
- 14 (17.1%)
Access Road
- 0 (0%)
Feeder
- 1 (1.2%)
Other (specify)
- 6 (7.3%)

Total Members Voted: 82


Author Topic: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?  (Read 4945 times)

Pink Jazz

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What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« on: April 29, 2022, 03:50:54 PM »

I would like to know, what do you call the smaller road parallel to the main road?

I call it a Frontage Road.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2022, 04:01:25 PM »

Frontage road.

Even in Texas, where they supposedly call them feeder roads, the highway signs say 'Frontage Road'.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2022, 04:04:08 PM »

I call them frontage roads, though "service road" is also used around here.

In Missouri, they're signed as "outer roads".
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2022, 04:07:47 PM »

Possibly an earlier alignment until determined otherwise.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2022, 04:13:00 PM »

In Missouri, they're signed as "outer roads".
I refer to them as outer roads for this reason. On the New York Times's accent test, the following options are given:
-frontage road
-service road
-access road
-feeder road
-gateway
"Outer Road" is not listed, so I select "other" as my answer. The map for this answer is almost entirely blue, except for Missouri:
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kphoger

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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2022, 04:18:47 PM »

"Outer Road" is not listed, so I select "other" as my answer.

The way to do that is to vote in the poll.
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CoreySamson

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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2022, 04:30:07 PM »

Frontage road.

Even in Texas, where they supposedly call them feeder roads, the highway signs say 'Frontage Road'.
Feeder road is a Houston-specific term, and it's the one I use. Dallas and San Antonio (as well as most of the rest of Texas) don't officially use the term. From the same NYT quiz ozarkman417 quoted:


I would consider a feeder to be a one-way road adjacent to the freeway. I reserve frontage road to mean two-way roads adjacent to the freeway.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2022, 04:33:28 PM by CoreySamson »
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2022, 05:20:36 PM »

Frontage Road is the most common in Arizona and is the term officially used by ADOT, although transplants from other regions may use other terms. I have heard Access Road here before, but never Service Road or Feeder.


Feeder road is a Houston-specific term, and it's the one I use. Dallas and San Antonio (as well as most of the rest of Texas) don't officially use the term. From the same NYT quiz ozarkman417 quoted:


From what I understand, most of Texas calls them Frontage Roads, with Feeder being used in the Houston area, Service Road in the DFW area, and Access Road in the San Antonio area.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2022, 05:31:15 PM by Pink Jazz »
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #8 on: April 29, 2022, 06:04:46 PM »

I call them voie de service:bigass:
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #9 on: April 29, 2022, 06:09:25 PM »

I call them voie de service:bigass:

so... service road.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #10 on: April 29, 2022, 07:11:53 PM »

Service Drive if it has ramps to/from the freeway.  Frontage Road if it does not.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #11 on: April 29, 2022, 07:29:38 PM »

Baby road (do do do do do do)
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #12 on: April 29, 2022, 10:59:21 PM »

In the Detroit area, they're "service drives"
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #13 on: April 29, 2022, 11:26:20 PM »

They're rare around here, but the one on NY 104 is "service road".
« Last Edit: April 29, 2022, 11:30:53 PM by webny99 »
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #14 on: April 29, 2022, 11:29:55 PM »

I'd say a mixture between Service Road and Frontage Road.

I've always associated the "feeder road" description with the horrifying texas style of frontage road. Those are a mess.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2022, 11:51:47 PM »


Small road parallels main road
Doo-dah, doo-dah.
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Pink Jazz

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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #16 on: April 30, 2022, 12:08:02 AM »

In Puerto Rico, they are called "Calle Marginal".
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #17 on: April 30, 2022, 11:32:46 AM »

Not in Spain, where they are called vía de servicio. Thus, "service road".
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #18 on: April 30, 2022, 12:42:13 PM »

I call them "Frontage Road", since that's what they are generally referred to as in Illinois and Wisconsin.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #19 on: April 30, 2022, 08:08:38 PM »

In a somewhat better universe, "feeder road" would be the standard term for the highest and best type of frontage road: one way, with carefully designed on- and offramp junctions and Texas U-turns. That'd be asking a lot of the non-roadgeek public, though.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #20 on: April 30, 2022, 08:18:46 PM »

From what I understand, most of Texas calls them Frontage Roads, with Feeder being used in the Houston area, Service Road in the DFW area, and Access Road in the San Antonio area.

"Most of Texas" lives in one of the three areas for which you made exceptions.
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #21 on: May 01, 2022, 12:37:02 AM »



To me they're frontage roads, as that's how they are signed where I grew up (Utah).

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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #22 on: May 01, 2022, 01:21:34 AM »



To me they're frontage roads, as that's how they are signed where I grew up (Utah).

i have only ever really lived in the red areas and yeah - to me they have always been 'frontage roads'.

i see 'outer road' all the time on missouri's maps although i am unsure if that's colloquially correct for the region.

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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #23 on: May 01, 2022, 05:02:48 AM »

Service Drive
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Re: What do you call the small road parallel to the main road?
« Reply #24 on: May 01, 2022, 06:48:33 AM »

Red/yellow/green/blue is not the way to color that type of map, since it gives no information about second preferences. With four choices and one restriction (must add up to 100%), there are three degrees of freedom, which means the entire color space can be used. For example, one option is red, one is green, one is blue, and one contributes no color. This will allow exactly what percentages of all four options were chosen just by looking at the color.
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