The parallel road alongside a freeway

[Flint1979]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if your in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

[jakeroot]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

[hotdogPi]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

Why would that matter? Time zone is determined by longitude, and whether it's "upper" or not is determined by latitude.

[jakeroot]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

Why would that matter? Time zone is determined by longitude, and whether it's "upper" or not is determined by latitude.

?? -- it can't be in any area of the Midwest at all if it's in the eastern time zone.

[20160805]

^ Are you seriously implying that the majority of da UP is part of the "northeast"? 

Around here the parallel roads alongside major roads are generally two-way; "frontage road" and "service road" are used interchangeably and, in my experience, rather evenly.  It's not just exclusively freeways, either: College Ave/WI-125 between the US (I) 41 interchange and the big bridge between Perkins St and Linwood Ave has a frontage road on each side, though they are RIRO on intersecting streets so as to avoid some idiot zooming down the frontage roads at 50 mph trying to bypass traffic.

[US 89]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

Why would that matter? Time zone is determined by longitude, and whether it's "upper" or not is determined by latitude.

?? -- it can't be in any area of the Midwest at all if it's in the eastern time zone.

Time zones are lines on a map. They don't make any cultural or geographical distinctions. For example: most of the South lies in the Central time zone. Would you say Georgia can't be part of the South because it's in the Eastern time zone?

Ohio and most of Indiana are in the Eastern time zone, and parts of Kansas, Nebraska, and both Dakotas are even in the Mountain time zone, but that doesn't make those places any less Midwestern.

[Super Mateo]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

The Midwest is generally anywhere between the mountains on either side of the country.  The border of Michigan is only about one hour away from Chicago, and there are no major regional differences in geography or culture in between.  Michigan is part of the Midwest.

[skluth]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

The Midwest is generally anywhere between the mountains on either side of the country.  The border of Michigan is only about one hour away from Chicago, and there are no major regional differences in geography or culture in between.  Michigan is part of the Midwest.

I grew up and was a resident of Wisconsin until I was 31. I also majored in Geography. So by both anecdotal experience and my education, Michigan is part of the Upper Midwest.

The Midwest is usual considered the pre-expansion Big Ten states - MN, WI, MI, OH, IN, IL, and IA - along with MO, ND, SD, NE, and KS. OH is rarely lumped into the Northeast or northeast subregions. MO is sometimes part of the South. The four westernmost states are sometimes lumped into a separate category called the Great Plains states with OK (and occasionally TX). But I've never seen MI considered anything but Midwest.

[roadman65]

When I first heard of the Garden State Parkway in Brick Township, NJ adding a service road between NJ 70 and Ocean County 528, I thought they were adding normal off freeway frontage roads for local access.  It turns out that the NJTA considers what everyone else calls a collector distributor roadway a service road.

At one time NJDOT signed NJ 173 from Exit 13 as Frontage Road, but changed it later to Service Road. 

I really believe NJ does not care what a parallel road is called as most have street names to em, and are just another road like in Irvington, the Eastern Parkway (which fronts the GSP) is not looked at by locals as part of the Parkway, but as a city street in the municipality.

[Brandon]

Excuse me!?!  Upper Midwest is Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.  Lower Midwest is Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, northern Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas.  Look it up.

As with the Midwest in general, there are several different definitions, hence the smiley face.  Some definitions skip Michigan.  Others include Michigan but skip the Dakotas.  Then there's the Weather Service which includes both.

Of course, if you go back to my initial post, I didn't say that all of the Upper Midwest uses Frontage Road.  But you seemed to take it as such.

Froggie, there's never a definition that places Michigan outside the Midwest.  Ditto Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  Midwest = Old Northwest plus some Plains states west of the Mississippi.

[jakeroot]

Time zones are lines on a map. They don't make any cultural or geographical distinctions. For example: most of the South lies in the Central time zone. Would you say Georgia can't be part of the South because it's in the Eastern time zone?

I would say that Michigan is in the upper part of the country, in the same way that Georgia is in the lower part of the country. No argument there. The concern here is longitudinal placement, not latitudinal. My original thought was that, while Michigan is the upper part of the country, it's not in "the [mid]dle".

Not sure about everyone else, but to me, there's four main geographic/cultural areas of the US: the West Coast, the South, the Midwest, and the East Coast. Sure, you could slice that up quite a bit more, but I think that's your four primary areas.

^ Are you seriously implying that the majority of da UP is part of the "northeast"? 

I don't think it should be, but it's in the eastern time zone for some reason. Not being intamitely familiar with the area, I would assume that areas in the eastern time zone are on the east coast.

Geographical nomenclatures generally are defined as areas in between "this" and "that". For a lot of west coasters, the Midwest would be everything east of the Rockies, up to an invisible line coming south out of Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is obviously a gigantic body of water, with enough width to be more-or-less the edge of the Midwest, and where you start to get into the East Coast. Sure, there's still Lake Erie, but it's more of an east-west lake, and it mostly cuts off Canada. Conveniently, Lake Michigan also lines up with the Eastern Time Zone. I genuinely believe that many west coasters forget about the Appalachians, since they're puny compared to the Sierras, the Cascades, or the Rockies. As a result, we have a harder time defining the eastern edge of the Midwest. Lake Michigan is a more obvious line than the Appalachians.

Keep in mind that Chicago is 10 hours east on I-80 from the central longitudinal line of the contiguous US: 98°35′W (just east of Kearney, NE). While, in many ways, Chicago is the heart of the Midwest, it is by no means in the middle of it.

With that in mind, I would consider the Upper Peninsula to be part of the Midwest, since it's "west" of Lake Michigan (or at least on the near-side of the water to the obvious "Midwest").

[hotdogPi]

Froggie, there's never a definition that places Michigan outside the Midwest.  Ditto Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  Midwest = Old Northwest plus some Plains states west of the Mississippi.

This contradicts something you said before, where it depends on where in Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana you are; in your post, you say that almost all, but not quite all, of those three states are in the Midwest.

Do you say "buyed" instead of "bought"? I do.

I'm also a "bring/brang/brung" guy.

Is this only a Midwest thing?

Midwest thing?  Dude, you're from Kentucky, which is The South, not in any way, shape, or form, the Midwest.

He's from the suburbs of Cincinnati. Do things really change that much just by crossing the Ohio River?

Despite the fact that much of northern Kentucky (the three northernmost counties) and southwestern Ohio is populated by displaced eastern and southeastern Kentuckians and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that region is much more midwestern than southern/southeastern.

Speaking from a Chicago/Detroit perspective, Cincy is more southern than midwestern.  It's roots are Appalachian, not Midlands or from New England.  Therefore, it's more southern than midwestern.  Same goes for far downstate Illinois and Indiana.

[froggie]

Excuse me!?!  Upper Midwest is Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.  Lower Midwest is Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, northern Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas.  Look it up.

As with the Midwest in general, there are several different definitions, hence the smiley face.  Some definitions skip Michigan.  Others include Michigan but skip the Dakotas.  Then there's the Weather Service which includes both.

Of course, if you go back to my initial post, I didn't say that all of the Upper Midwest uses Frontage Road.  But you seemed to take it as such.

Froggie, there's never a definition that places Michigan outside the Midwest.  Ditto Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  Midwest = Old Northwest plus some Plains states west of the Mississippi.

Apologies...I meant Upper Midwest with the above.  Sorry I didn't make that more clear.

[ET21]

I like how this went from Frontage roads to whether Michigan is Midwestern enough (which it is part of the Midwest and/or Great Lakes region) 

[Flint1979]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

Michigan has counties in the Central Time Zone as well.

[Flint1979]

To be honest Michigan isn't much different than Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana or Illinois in terms of scenery it's all the same basically. How are you going to exclude one state from being the Midwest when that state has no other region to clam? Is it the Northeast? I don't think so. Are you going to call a city like Marquette, Michigan part of the Northeast for real? Michigan is part of the Midwest and is in the upper part of the country and the time zone has nothing to do with what region it is.

[Flint1979]

Time zones are lines on a map. They don't make any cultural or geographical distinctions. For example: most of the South lies in the Central time zone. Would you say Georgia can't be part of the South because it's in the Eastern time zone?

I would say that Michigan is in the upper part of the country, in the same way that Georgia is in the lower part of the country. No argument there. The concern here is longitudinal placement, not latitudinal. My original thought was that, while Michigan is the upper part of the country, it's not in "the [mid]dle".

Not sure about everyone else, but to me, there's four main geographic/cultural areas of the US: the West Coast, the South, the Midwest, and the East Coast. Sure, you could slice that up quite a bit more, but I think that's your four primary areas.

^ Are you seriously implying that the majority of da UP is part of the "northeast"? 

I don't think it should be, but it's in the eastern time zone for some reason. Not being intamitely familiar with the area, I would assume that areas in the eastern time zone are on the east coast.

Geographical nomenclatures generally are defined as areas in between "this" and "that". For a lot of west coasters, the Midwest would be everything east of the Rockies, up to an invisible line coming south out of Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is obviously a gigantic body of water, with enough width to be more-or-less the edge of the Midwest, and where you start to get into the East Coast. Sure, there's still Lake Erie, but it's more of an east-west lake, and it mostly cuts off Canada. Conveniently, Lake Michigan also lines up with the Eastern Time Zone. I genuinely believe that many west coasters forget about the Appalachians, since they're puny compared to the Sierras, the Cascades, or the Rockies. As a result, we have a harder time defining the eastern edge of the Midwest. Lake Michigan is a more obvious line than the Appalachians.

Keep in mind that Chicago is 10 hours east on I-80 from the central longitudinal line of the contiguous US: 98°35′W (just east of Kearney, NE). While, in many ways, Chicago is the heart of the Midwest, it is by no means in the middle of it.

With that in mind, I would consider the Upper Peninsula to be part of the Midwest, since it's "west" of Lake Michigan (or at least on the near-side of the water to the obvious "Midwest").

Time Zone doesn't have anything to do with region. And the U.P. of Michigan isn't entirely in the Eastern Time Zone either, all the counties that border Wisconsin are in the Central Time Zone. And since you broke it down into just the West Coast, the South, the East Coast and Midwest then where else is Michigan going to fall? It's not east enough to be on the east coast, it's nowhere near the south or west coast so midwest would have to be it. So if you're going to stop the Midwest at the middle of Lake Michigan you're excluding Indiana as part of the Midwest then too and Indiana is indeed part of the Midwest.

Lake Michigan is NOT the line since Michigan, Indiana and Ohio are indeed part of the Midwest regardless of what anyone says.

[Laura]

I like how this went from Frontage roads to whether Michigan is Midwestern enough (which it is part of the Midwest and/or Great Lakes region) 

Lol yep. Pass me the popcorn.

Also, as for the debate about what said roads are called, it's different enough across the country that it's a question on this quiz... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html

and that question was enough for me to be miscategorized the first time I took it. I call it a frontage road, but apparently that's not the name other Marylanders use. That and my use of "y'all"  (which is split 50/50 with you guys here) was enough for it to place me in Jackson, MS!! The questions change, so when I took it again and got a less road heavy docket, they correctly placed me in Baltimore/Newark, NJ/Richmond.

[Kulerage]

North Carolina mostly just uses normal road names for such roads, however Service Road has been occasionally used. In general, roads of this type are pretty rare to see here.

[SCtoKC]

I've always called them frontage roads.  There are different terms used in the KC area for them - I mostly hear outer road or service road in the Missouri half, and frontage road in the Kansas half.  My girlfriend is from St. Louis and calls them service roads.  To me, "feeder" is a term for a collector ramp.

[Marc]

Some additional Texas insight here:

The term "feeder" is used mostly by Houstonians. The rest of the state uses "frontage road" or "frontage" for short. All official TxDOT signage reads "Frontage Road"–even those in the Houston area.

[Brandon]

I've always called them frontage roads.  There are different terms used in the KC area for them - I mostly hear outer road or service road in the Missouri half, and frontage road in the Kansas half.  My girlfriend is from St. Louis and calls them service roads.  To me, "feeder" is a term for a collector ramp.

"Feeder", in Chicago, is a very specific term, referring to only one ramp, the Ohio/Ontario Feeder Ramp between River North ans the Kennedy Expressway.  Usually, it's just called "The Feeder Ramp" on the radio.

[jakeroot]

Michigan is indeed in the Midwest and it's in the northern part of the Midwest, what else you going to call it? I remember several years ago someone tried telling me that Michigan isn't a part of the Midwest but rather the Northeast. My comment was yeah maybe if [you're] in California but Michigan is not a part of the Northeast.

You would be punctilious in assuming that. As a native west-coaster, I wouldn't readily consider Michigan part of the upper midwest. Why? It's part of the Eastern Time Zone.

Michigan has counties in the Central Time Zone as well.

Sure, but the other 79 are in Eastern.

Time Zone doesn't have anything to do with region. And the U.P. of Michigan isn't entirely in the Eastern Time Zone either, all the counties that border Wisconsin are in the Central Time Zone. And since you broke it down into just the West Coast, the South, the East Coast and Midwest then where else is Michigan going to fall? It's not east enough to be on the east coast, it's nowhere near the south or west coast so midwest would have to be it. So if you're going to stop the Midwest at the middle of Lake Michigan you're excluding Indiana as part of the Midwest then too and Indiana is indeed part of the Midwest.

Lake Michigan is NOT the line since Michigan, Indiana and Ohio are indeed part of the Midwest regardless of what anyone says.

Fine, I'm not from the area. My responses here originally transpired because you suggested that people from California might think of Michigan as being on the east coast, and I've been trying to explain to you why that is indeed the case.

I would not shy away from considering Ohio or Indiana as being part of the east coast, when having to place them in either the east coast or Midwest.

FWIW, I would have no problem with someone calling Wyoming or Montana "West Coast", since culturally and geographically, the areas are very similar. The main difference being, they're in the Mountain Time Zone. MI, OH, and IN are all in the eastern time zone, so it's harder to make the "not east coast" argument with that in mind. There are no areas in Pacific Time that I wouldn't consider west coast, and quite a few areas in the Mountain Zone that I would consider west coast as well.

Some users here seem to think of the midwest as being this gigantic land mass. I never have. To be, it's always been the plains east of the Rockies up to Lake Michigan.

[Tom958]

Some additional Texas insight here:

The term "feeder" is used mostly by Houstonians. The rest of the state uses "frontage road" or "frontage" for short. All official TxDOT signage reads "Frontage Road"–even those in the Houston area.

FWIW, I think that high-type one-way frontage roads with U-turn ramps and conflict-free access to the mainline are so different from simple two-way frontage roads that they should be referred to by a separate term, feeder roads being an obvious choice since that's what they're called in the place where they first appeared on a large scale.

[abefroman329]

I've always called them frontage roads.  There are different terms used in the KC area for them - I mostly hear outer road or service road in the Missouri half, and frontage road in the Kansas half.  My girlfriend is from St. Louis and calls them service roads.  To me, "feeder" is a term for a collector ramp.

"Feeder", in Chicago, is a very specific term, referring to only one ramp, the Ohio/Ontario Feeder Ramp between River North ans the Kennedy Expressway.  Usually, it's just called "The Feeder Ramp" on the radio.

I don't know why the expressway that runs north of the Dan Ryan/Stevenson interchange to Cermak isn't also a "feeder."