Regional terminology for frontage roads

[briantroutman]

I think the term I've generally seen in PennDOT publications and communications is frontage road. That said, the concept of Texas-style frontage roads is mostly alien to Pennsylvania (US 30 near Lancaster being a notable exception).

[hbelkins]

I've seen them posted in Missouri as "Outer Road."

[cpzilliacus]

There are many different ways to refer to frontage roads, and different terms seem to be predominant in different regions.

The District of Columbia even has a street called Frontage Road, S.W. which does front onto I-395 (Southwest Freeway, S.W.).

There are also frontage roads (northbound and southbound) along part of DC-295 (Kenilworth Avenue, N.E.) but they are just considered part of Kenilworth Avenue.

[billpa]

The Gateway Boulevards in El Paso are extremely important in that expansive city. They're like freeways unto themselves.

HTC6525LVW

[Hurricane Rex]

Oregon doesn't have many frontage roads and when we do, they have a street name.

[Super Mateo]

There is an operational difference where the distinction might be made...

On Laskin Rd, there are accesses to the service road at places that are not otherwise intersections with Laskin Rd ( for example:  https://goo.gl/maps/eH1i9oqqY6B2).  Frontage Roads actually signed as F-xxxx do not to my recollection have these kinds of connections - only actual intersections.  Even Arlington County has F-routes (signed even in some cases, that meet this definition).


I do vaguely now recall the use of service road when I lived in Va Beach in 1991.

I also seem to recall seeing somewhere that F-routes are meant to be for providing access to property that is no longer accessible due to the configuration of a primary route.

Those intersections down Laskin with the stoplights look like they'd be really confusing for the other traffic.  Laskin and the crossing road are stoplight controlled, but both frontage roads are stop sign controlled.  In this case, I'm looking at the Hilltop Plaza entrance.  Do they have any issues at these?

[cpzilliacus]

Frontage roads in Maryland are somewhat unusual. 

I can only think of a few places where they can be found - on the expressway part  of U.S. 50/U.S. 301 between MD-2 and the WPL (Chesapeake Bay) Bridge in Anne Arundel County being most-prominent.

Eastbound U.S. 50/northbound U.S. 301 here and westbound U.S. 50/southbound U.S. 301 here.

There's a little bit of a frontage road on the eastbound side of I-68/U.S. 40 that is signed MD-144 in Allegany County east of Cumberland here, which provides access to a relatively new Love's Truck Stop.

[Buck87]

There aren't many in Ohio either, and the ones I can think of off the top of my head are on major arterials or divided highways such as Dublin-Granville and Morse Rds in Columbus and US 23 in Circleville (plus you could technically count US 23's four carriageway test pavement area north of Delaware, as the outer carriageways serve as frontage roads when traffic is in its usual inner carriageway configuration)

In any case, I'm not quite sure what they are called here, but I could guess service or access road would more likely to be used than frontage road. 

[Mapmikey]

Those intersections down Laskin with the stoplights look like they'd be really confusing for the other traffic.  Laskin and the crossing road are stoplight controlled, but both frontage roads are stop sign controlled.  In this case, I'm looking at the Hilltop Plaza entrance.  Do they have any issues at these?

If the traffic on the cross streets stop at the line for them, then these frontage roads can make turns away from Laskin or continue straight if the light for Laskin is green.  But you do have to keep your head on a swivel with these service roads throughout.  I did not care for them when I lived there...

[jeffandnicole]

On NJ's Traffic Regulations, ones near me are referred to as Access Roads. But the reality is the state has so few of them so most people refer to them as whatever works for them or whatever term they are familiar with, or simply by their street name.

[Beltway]

Frontage roads in Maryland are somewhat unusual. 
I can only think of a few places where they can be found - on the expressway part  of U.S. 50/U.S. 301 between MD-2 and the WPL (Chesapeake Bay) Bridge in Anne Arundel County being most-prominent.
Eastbound U.S. 50/northbound U.S. 301 here and westbound U.S. 50/southbound U.S. 301 here.
There's a little bit of a frontage road on the eastbound side of I-68/U.S. 40 that is signed MD-144 in Allegany County east of Cumberland here, which provides access to a relatively new Love's Truck Stop.

Some segments on US-50/US-301 between the Bay Bridge and the US-301 split.

[kphoger]

I've seen them posted in Missouri as "Outer Road."

Yes.  In fact, I think this is the only way I've seen them posted in Missouri.  I've also heard people in Missouri refer to them as such.

[Super Mateo]

Those intersections down Laskin with the stoplights look like they'd be really confusing for the other traffic.  Laskin and the crossing road are stoplight controlled, but both frontage roads are stop sign controlled.  In this case, I'm looking at the Hilltop Plaza entrance.  Do they have any issues at these?

If the traffic on the cross streets stop at the line for them, then these frontage roads can make turns away from Laskin or continue straight if the light for Laskin is green.  But you do have to keep your head on a swivel with these service roads throughout.  I did not care for them when I lived there...

I can see why.  They're practically 8-way intersections with half stoplights and half stop signs.

[GaryV]

In Michigan they are called service drives.

Unless they have the name of a road that the freeway replaced.  Examples in the Detroit area:
Stephenson Highway (I-75)
11 Mile and 10 Mile Rd (various sections of I-696)
Schoolcraft Rd (I-96)

[Flint1979]

In Michigan they are called service drives.

Unless they have the name of a road that the freeway replaced.  Examples in the Detroit area:
Stephenson Highway (I-75)
11 Mile and 10 Mile Rd (various sections of I-696)
Schoolcraft Rd (I-96)

Those are continuations of local streets. A good example of what you are saying would be the Lodge and James Couzins the freeway keeps the Lodge name while the service drive switches to James couzins. This is because the freeway at that point used to also switch to James Couzins. Most people familiar with the roads around Metro Detroit are going to know those roads by the names they have and most freeways are called by their name rather than their number too.

SAMSUNG-SM-J727A

[Otto Yamamoto]

In Michigan they are called service drives.

Unless they have the name of a road that the freeway replaced.  Examples in the Detroit area:
Stephenson Highway (I-75)
11 Mile and 10 Mile Rd (various sections of I-696)
Schoolcraft Rd (I-96)

Those are continuations of local streets. A good example of what you are saying would be the Lodge and James Couzins the freeway keeps the Lodge name while the service drive switches to James couzins. This is because the freeway at that point used to also switch to James Couzins. Most people familiar with the roads around Metro Detroit are going to know those roads by the names they have and most freeways are called by their name rather than their number too.

SAMSUNG-SM-J727A

NYC does likewise along the Long Island Expressway: the freeway is posted as the LIE, whilst the feeders are the Queens-Midtown or Horace Harding Expressways


P00I

[Flint1979]

In Michigan they are called service drives.

Unless they have the name of a road that the freeway replaced.  Examples in the Detroit area:
Stephenson Highway (I-75)
11 Mile and 10 Mile Rd (various sections of I-696)
Schoolcraft Rd (I-96)

Those are continuations of local streets. A good example of what you are saying would be the Lodge and James Couzins the freeway keeps the Lodge name while the service drive switches to James couzins. This is because the freeway at that point used to also switch to James Couzins. Most people familiar with the roads around Metro Detroit are going to know those roads by the names they have and most freeways are called by their name rather than their number too.

SAMSUNG-SM-J727A

NYC does likewise along the Long Island Expressway: the freeway is posted as the LIE, whilst the feeders are the Queens-Midtown or Horace Harding Expressways


P00I

In Detroit I-75 is the Chrysler Freeway north of downtown and the Fisher Freeway south of downtown. I-75 switches freeways with the Chrysler continuing as I-375. I-94 is the Ford Freeway, with the service drives being named Edsel Ford. I-96 is the Jeffries Freeway with the service drive being Schoolcraft Road in western Detroit and Jeffries everywhere else to downtown. M-10 is the Lodge Freeway, after the Wyoming curve the service drive switches to James couzins, then northwestern after 8 mile. M-8 is the Davison, M-39 is the Southfield, I-696 is the Ruether and none of it has the Further name on the services drives it's mostly 10 and 11 mile roads, I-275 is the only Detroit freeway without a name.

SAMSUNG-SM-J727A

[mrose]

I've seen them posted in Missouri as "Outer Road."

Same. Used to spend a lot of time near St. Louis and down the I-44 corridor towards Rolla, and you'd see those signs a lot.

[mrose]

As for "feeder road", I can vouch for some plausibility with the Houston thing. My father lived there briefly and his folks did for a much longer period of time, and as long as I knew them they always said "feeder road". My dad still does, although he sometimes uses frontage road too.

[sparker]

When I was a little kid riding with my parents up and down US 99 from L.A. to Sacramento, I thought there was an actual street named "Frontage Road" that ran down the side of the freeway -- there were quite a few ramps with that nomenclature; most of them were slow-speed (15 mph) exits and very short entrances (sort of between a RIRO and folded-diamond!).  I discerned the truth a few years later (about age 8) when encountering another such exit on a relatively new stretch of US 101 freeway up in the Salinas Valley -- one of those "......ohhhhhhh" moments! 

[Pink Jazz]

Here is a map that I found with different terminology:
http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBI6Na2.img?h=1536&w=2560&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f

Frontage road is most common in western states except in the Pacific Northwest.  Service road is common in some Southern states, South Dakota, Michigan, Ohio, and the NYC area.  Access road is common in the San Antonio and Atlanta areas.

[roadfro]

Nevada is a 'frontage road' state.  (If a frontage road doesn't have a street name, it is often signed as "Frontage Road".) NDOT logs indicate these as "FR"s where they are state maintained (although NDOT has a lot of other inventory under the FR type that are not frontage roads).


One other note: NDOT officially refers to collector/distributor roads in its logs and other materials, but has called these an 'access road' in some contexts (example: "access road" speed limit, I-15 SB C/D road approaching Russell exit).

[jeffandnicole]

After I thought about it, NJ does have a 'Frontage Road' of sorts - it's a street name! You'll never really see it from I-295 due to trees and brush, and there's nothing along it other than access between a few places near Rt. 70 and a housing development.

https://goo.gl/maps/rx232mF5ipk

[bzakharin]

After I thought about it, NJ does have a 'Frontage Road' of sorts - it's a street name! You'll never really see it from I-295 due to trees and brush, and there's nothing along it other than access between a few places near Rt. 70 and a housing development.

https://goo.gl/maps/rx232mF5ipk

You beat me to that one. It was never a frontage road despite its name, by the way. It *is* however a way to escape traffic lights (and traffic on NJ 70) when going from I-295 to points northwest. Of course, that's not strictly legal:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9100093,-74.9885059,3a,15y,325.5h,84.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syHEtiEcxZusfcBzUt-Ideg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[GaryV]

In Michigan they are called service drives.

Unless they have the name of a road that the freeway replaced.  Examples in the Detroit area:
Stephenson Highway (I-75)
11 Mile and 10 Mile Rd (various sections of I-696)
Schoolcraft Rd (I-96)

Those are continuations of local streets. A good example of what you are saying would be the Lodge and James Couzins the freeway keeps the Lodge name while the service drive switches to James couzins. This is because the freeway at that point used to also switch to James Couzins. Most people familiar with the roads around Metro Detroit are going to know those roads by the names they have and most freeways are called by their name rather than their number too.

SAMSUNG-SM-J727A

Exactly as I said - they kept the name of the road that the freeway replaced.  They aren't continuations of local streets, they were the local streets until the freeways came in.