News:

Thank you for your patience during the Forum downtime while we upgraded the software. Welcome back and see this thread for some new features and other changes to the forum.

Main Menu

Road/Street Terminology Exclusive To A Single City/Metropolitan Area.

Started by thenetwork, May 11, 2018, 05:27:32 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

thenetwork

Do you live in/know of a city or Metropolitan area where a road or street term is exclusive to said area, but rarely (if ever) used elsewhere?

Two that popped into my mind from my former stomping grounds that are pretty much exclusive:

Service Drives (Metro Detroit) -- This is pretty much Detroit-exclusive jargon for the "frontage roads" which parallel the freeways.

Devilstrip (Akron, OH) -- This is Akron-ese for the "tree lawns" or the swath of grass between the sidewalk and roadway along city streets.  Akron even has common signage which reads NO PARKING ON DEVILSTRIP.

Others?


Brooks

In Memphis, the suffix "Cove" is used 99% of the time for a cul-de-sac.  I haven't heard of this occurring anywhere else.

hotdogPi

Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

kphoger

Quote from: Brooks on May 11, 2018, 06:47:59 PM
In Memphis, the suffix "Cove" is used 99% of the time for a cul-de-sac.  I haven't heard of this occurring anywhere else.

It's used in northwest Arkansas also.

Here's a neighborhood with consecutive cul-de-sacs labeled Cove, Circle, and Court.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

froggie

Is Trafficway used anywhere outside of the Kansas City area?

Brandon

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

kphoger

Quote from: froggie on May 11, 2018, 07:24:27 PM
Is Trafficway used anywhere outside of the Kansas City area?

There has already been a thread about unique generics.  I'd like this thread to be about how people actually refer to a feature or type of road.  Nobody in their right mind in KC has ever said, for example, "Is it better to take the avenue or the trafficway this time of day?"
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

froggie

Quote from: kphoger on May 11, 2018, 07:27:46 PM
Quote from: froggie on May 11, 2018, 07:24:27 PM
Is Trafficway used anywhere outside of the Kansas City area?

There has already been a thread about unique generics.  I'd like this thread to be about how people actually refer to a feature or type of road.

You'll have to take that up with the OP then.

Beltway

A 4-lane thoroughfare called "Boulevard" in Richmond, VA.
That is it, just the one word.

Boulevard (usually referred to as "the Boulevard" although the street name does not include a definite article) is a historic street in the near West End of Richmond, Virginia, providing access to Byrd Park.  It serves as the border between the Carytown/Museum District to the west and the Fan district to the east.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

Big John


Beltway

Bridge—Tunnel

Is it used in names anywhere else in the U.S. than the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area?

Chesapeake Bay Bridge—Tunnel
Hampton Roads Bridge—Tunnel
Monitor—Merrimac Memorial Bridge—Tunnel
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

US 89

Quote from: Beltway on May 12, 2018, 12:45:41 AM
Bridge–Tunnel

Is it used in names anywhere else in the U.S. than the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area?

Of course not, because those are the only three bridge-tunnels in the US.

Beltway

Quote from: US 89 on May 12, 2018, 01:48:54 AM
Quote from: Beltway on May 12, 2018, 12:45:41 AM
Bridge—Tunnel
Is it used in names anywhere else in the U.S. than the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area?
Of course not, because those are the only three bridge-tunnels in the US.

That wouldn't stop someone else from using the term on a facility where a bridge and tunnel were in close proximity, such as the San Francisco—Oakland Bay Bridge.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

Henry

What about Upper Wacker Drive and Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago? It's about the only street to have these two designations that I know of.
Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today!

jon daly

Quote from: Big John on May 12, 2018, 12:39:28 AM
^^ There is also a "Boulevard" in Atlanta.

... and West Hartford, CT. If you travel east on it, it turns into West Boulevard in Hartford, CT. What a country!

1995hoo

Quote from: Beltway on May 12, 2018, 07:11:58 AM
Quote from: US 89 on May 12, 2018, 01:48:54 AM
Quote from: Beltway on May 12, 2018, 12:45:41 AM
Bridge—Tunnel
Is it used in names anywhere else in the U.S. than the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area?
Of course not, because those are the only three bridge-tunnels in the US.

That wouldn't stop someone else from using the term on a facility where a bridge and tunnel were in close proximity, such as the San Francisco—Oakland Bay Bridge.

The bridge-tunnel in Montreal underscores your point, though of course its name uses the French equivalent (Pont-Tunnel Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine).




Regarding "Cove,"  I know of one cul-de-sac in Annandale, Virginia, that uses that (Quiet Cove, off Annandale Road near Medford Drive).
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

Beltway

Quote from: 1995hoo on May 12, 2018, 07:59:48 AM
Quote from: Beltway on May 12, 2018, 07:11:58 AM
Quote from: US 89 on May 12, 2018, 01:48:54 AM
Quote from: Beltway on May 12, 2018, 12:45:41 AM
Bridge—Tunnel
Is it used in names anywhere else in the U.S. than the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area?
Of course not, because those are the only three bridge-tunnels in the US.
That wouldn't stop someone else from using the term on a facility where a bridge and tunnel were in close proximity, such as the San Francisco—Oakland Bay Bridge.
The bridge-tunnel in Montreal underscores your point, though of course its name uses the French equivalent (Pont-Tunnel Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine).

The English name is Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel.  It crosses the Saint Lawrence River, the bridge to a natural island, and then 1/4 mile later a tunnel from the natural island to the other side of the river.
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/39981936.jpg

The I-264 Downtown Tunnel and Berkley Bridge complex has some similarity to this with the tunnel and bridge in close proximity and anchored to natural land masses.  It was even called the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bridge-Tunnel when originally built in 1952.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Downtown-Tunnel%20postcard-1952.jpg
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

Jmiles32

Aspiring Transportation Planner at Virginia Tech. Go Hokies!

hbelkins

Not a city, but a state ... New York's insistence on calling it "guiderail" when the rest of the world calls it "guardrail."


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Beltway

Quote from: hbelkins on May 12, 2018, 03:07:32 PM
Not a city, but a state ... New York's insistence on calling it "guiderail" when the rest of the world calls it "guardrail."

That term may date back to the days of cable guardrail, like before the 1960s. 

I was talking to a PennDOT engineer in 1972 and he referred to guard rail as "guard fence".  That is probably a more technically accurate term for cable guardrail, and PA still had lots of it back then.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

m2tbone

The Kansas City area (or perhaps most of Western Missouri) says the names of highways backwards.  In most places, you would say Hwy 50 or Hwy 71, etc.  However, over in Kansas City, they say 50 Hwy and 71 Hwy. 
In regards to a street just called Boulevard (as mentioned above), my hometown of Mexico, MO, also has a main arterial called Boulevard.


iPad Pro

US 89

In the St. Louis metropolitan area, the advance signage for interstates is something like "Route I-70" . I've never seen that used anywhere else. IMO, it's redundant, and it should either be I-70 or Route 70 (preferably I-70).

m2tbone

Quote from: US 89 on May 12, 2018, 06:41:33 PM
In the St. Louis metropolitan area, the advance signage for interstates is something like "Route I-70" . I've never seen that used anywhere else. IMO, it's redundant, and it should either be I-70 or Route 70 (preferably I-70).

As someone who lives right next to I-70 in the St. Louis area, I am not sure what you are talking about.  Can you please show me an example of this or tell me where you saw this?


iPad Pro

US 89

Quote from: m2tbone on May 12, 2018, 06:47:30 PM
Quote from: US 89 on May 12, 2018, 06:41:33 PM
In the St. Louis metropolitan area, the advance signage for interstates is something like "Route I-70" . I've never seen that used anywhere else. IMO, it's redundant, and it should either be I-70 or Route 70 (preferably I-70).

As someone who lives right next to I-70 in the St. Louis area, I am not sure what you are talking about.  Can you please show me an example of this or tell me where you saw this?

I-170 south, approaching I-70
I-270 west, approaching I-170
I-270 south, approaching I-44
I-55 south, approaching I-255/270

m2tbone

Quote from: US 89 on May 12, 2018, 06:58:28 PM
Quote from: m2tbone on May 12, 2018, 06:47:30 PM
Quote from: US 89 on May 12, 2018, 06:41:33 PM
In the St. Louis metropolitan area, the advance signage for interstates is something like "Route I-70" . I've never seen that used anywhere else. IMO, it's redundant, and it should either be I-70 or Route 70 (preferably I-70).

As someone who lives right next to I-70 in the St. Louis area, I am not sure what you are talking about.  Can you please show me an example of this or tell me where you saw this?

I-170 south, approaching I-70
I-270 west, approaching I-170
I-270 south, approaching I-44
I-55 south, approaching I-255/270

Thank you for the examples.  I've never noticed that before. 


iPad Pro



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.