The parallel road alongside a freeway

[Brandon]

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.

Ahem.  Houston is a much younger city and grew most of its freeway system later than Detroit, which has had these types of roads along its freeways since 1942 (opening of the Davison Freway).  If anything, "Service Drive" is the original term on a system that grew before Houston's, and is the first place such one-way roads appeared on a large scale.

[hotdogPi]

I don't know the local name for frontage roads in general in the Boston area, but the ones on I-93 south of downtown Boston are actually named Frontage Rd. This is not the case on MA 2 in Arlington, though.

[ET21]

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."

It's called the Chinatown feeder on radio reports

[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.

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.

Michigan isn't on the east coast though even though most of it is in the Eastern Time Zone it's kind of out there in the middle and has more in common with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois than it does New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and those states. Michigan has more in common with probably Wisconsin than it does any other state.

[SSR_317]

As a native Midwesterner, here's my two cents worth on this thread. First, calling the roads parallel to a freeway "service roads" or "service drives" seems wrong, IMHO. To me that invokes an image of them being restricted for maintenance use only, or leading to a "service plaza" (like on a tollway). The proper term for these highways is "frontage road". They can be of several types: 1-way, 2-way, ramp connected, or no freeway connection at all.

As for the second topic, NONE of the geographically central states are "east coast" or "west coast". If anything, most of us are "NO coast" (sorry, MI, I know you have a LOT of shoreline, being the Great Lakes State). I am sick of the people on BOTH of our coasts thinking there is nothing but "flyover country" in between, or trying to lump us in with states that do have an OCEAN coastline. And yes, times zones are an arbitrary and political creation (and apparently, beyond the comprehension of the current occupant of the White House).

The only TRUE Midwest states are OH, IN, MI, IL, WI, and part of MN. The others can claim to be Midwestern all they want, but they are NOT (especially Missouri). Everything WEST of the Mississippi River is excluded, those areas are part of the Great Plains, not the Midwest! Sorry Iowa (and the rest of Minnesota, you're the closest (culturally & geographically), but still, no cigar. Kansas, Nebraska & the Dakotas certainly do not qualify as Midwest under any circumstances.

I don't care what sources who differ may say, if a state wasn't part of the original Northwest Territories, in my book they are NOT part of the Midwest!

[vdeane]

Agreed.  Those large definitions of "Midwest" seem to be based on the idea that the Great Plains are not a separate region.

[rarnold]

I didn't know Kansas, Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Missouri were thrown out of the midwest? When did that happen, how was that decided, and did SSR_317 and vdeane make the decision?

[Rothman]

Missouri has Ozarks and is therefore relegated to the South.

[jakeroot]

I would not put Michigan on the East Coast if I was allowed to put it somewhere besides the Midwest or East Coast.

[mrose]

My dad calls them "feeder roads". His parents lived in Houston for awhile and he did briefly, so I suspect that is where he picked it up.

Later they moved to eastern Missouri along I-44; I recall them being signed almost everywhere as "outer roads" in that area, though they still called them feeder roads out of habit. My mother (from the northeast) calls them frontage roads, which is generally what I've always called them. I've lived most of my life in the midwest.

[20160805]

To settle the whole midwest thing, here is the US Census' take on US regions:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kristina_Lacommare/publication/252701502/figure/fig5/AS:341238713733148@1458369057862/Map-Relating-US-Manufacturing-Regions-to-Census-Divisions.png

[hotdogPi]

To settle the whole midwest thing, here is the US Census' take on US regions:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kristina_Lacommare/publication/252701502/figure/fig5/AS:341238713733148@1458369057862/Map-Relating-US-Manufacturing-Regions-to-Census-Divisions.png

That might be the best way to do it if states can't be split, but some arguments could be made for splitting states, such as:

• Not splitting the Cincinnati or Louisville metro areas
• Defining the western boundary as where it becomes arid, mentioned earlier in this thread (most, but not all, of SD and ND are included)
• Putting Pittsburgh and possibly Erie in the Midwest, but not the rest of Pennsylvania
• Splitting Missouri in half (as someone just mentioned that Ozarks = South)
• Splitting this thread because this thread is about frontage roads

EDIT: I've created a new thread in Off-Topic as a thread split.

[sparker]

To settle the whole midwest thing, here is the US Census' take on US regions:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kristina_Lacommare/publication/252701502/figure/fig5/AS:341238713733148@1458369057862/Map-Relating-US-Manufacturing-Regions-to-Census-Divisions.png

Map looks pretty complete; I'd question putting DE and MD in South Atlantic rather than Mid-Atlantic -- although I realize the PA/MD border is the age-old "Mason-Dixon" line.  Culturally, they're a mix, but Wilmington & Baltimore seem more like classic "Northeast" cities than southern, and, population-wise, they pretty much define at least the urban parts of those states (although the rural Delmarva can seem more like VA than PA or NJ!).  Still, populated areas count and skew those states northward.

[bugo]

As a native Midwesterner, here's my two cents worth on this thread. First, calling the roads parallel to a freeway "service roads" or "service drives" seems wrong, IMHO. To me that invokes an image of them being restricted for maintenance use only, or leading to a "service plaza" (like on a tollway). The proper term for these highways is "frontage road". They can be of several types: 1-way, 2-way, ramp connected, or no freeway connection at all.

As for the second topic, NONE of the geographically central states are "east coast" or "west coast". If anything, most of us are "NO coast" (sorry, MI, I know you have a LOT of shoreline, being the Great Lakes State). I am sick of the people on BOTH of our coasts thinking there is nothing but "flyover country" in between, or trying to lump us in with states that do have an OCEAN coastline. And yes, times zones are an arbitrary and political creation (and apparently, beyond the comprehension of the current occupant of the White House).

The only TRUE Midwest states are OH, IN, MI, IL, WI, and part of MN. The others can claim to be Midwestern all they want, but they are NOT (especially Missouri). Everything WEST of the Mississippi River is excluded, those areas are part of the Great Plains, not the Midwest! Sorry Iowa (and the rest of Minnesota, you're the closest (culturally & geographically), but still, no cigar. Kansas, Nebraska & the Dakotas certainly do not qualify as Midwest under any circumstances.

I don't care what sources who differ may say, if a state wasn't part of the original Northwest Territories, in my book they are NOT part of the Midwest!

Huh? Kansas is as midwestern as it gets.

[bugo]

Missouri has Ozarks and is therefore relegated to the South.

The Ozarks are only in southern (and a bit in east central) Missouri. You might could argue that Springfield is in the south, but are you really saying that Kansas City is a southern city? Do you think the US 136 corridor is part of Dixie?

[bzakharin]

In NJ: Frontage Road: https://goo.gl/maps/gHkzb7mRHJ42 

Oh, I frequent that one. It's not really a frontage road though.

Otherwise, NJ has very few true parallel roads.  One along 295 near Exits 21-22 is termed an Access Road in their documents: https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/refdata/traffic_orders/speed/crownpoint_east.shtm

As has been mentioned there are others, but have their own street names. Most are not in any way relevant to the freeways they are frontaging, but the one around 280 is called Freeway Drive.

[Pink Jazz]

Here is a map with regional 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 out west (except in the Pacific Northwest), while "Service Road" is most common in the east.  "Access Road" is common in the San Antonio and Atlanta metropolitan areas.  That pocket of green around Houston is actually where such roads are usually called "Feeders".

[theline]

When we were in St. Louis nearly 40 years ago, I saw a green and white sign marking a road as "Frontage Road." Unfamiliar with the term, I told my wife that it must be a French name, FRON-tage. She thought I was kidding, since she could see that it provided access to businesses along the freeway. I passed it off as a joke, not wanting to admit my mistake. She has plenty of other reasons to think I'm foolish.

[Pink Jazz]

While here in the Phoenix area "Frontage Road" is most common, transplants from other areas may use other terminology, so the term isn't completely universal here (I have heard "Access Road" before, but have yet to hear "Service Road").  The term "Frontage Road" according to the map is strongest in Southern Arizona.

[mrsman]

To settle the whole midwest thing, here is the US Census' take on US regions:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kristina_Lacommare/publication/252701502/figure/fig5/AS:341238713733148@1458369057862/Map-Relating-US-Manufacturing-Regions-to-Census-Divisions.png

Map looks pretty complete; I'd question putting DE and MD in South Atlantic rather than Mid-Atlantic -- although I realize the PA/MD border is the age-old "Mason-Dixon" line.  Culturally, they're a mix, but Wilmington & Baltimore seem more like classic "Northeast" cities than southern, and, population-wise, they pretty much define at least the urban parts of those states (although the rural Delmarva can seem more like VA than PA or NJ!).  Still, populated areas count and skew those states northward.

IMO this map should've been the basis for dividing up the country into 9 regions for the sake of this forum.  Clean definable borders.  It's especially regretful that the Midwest is divided into two regions:  Great Lakes and Ohio Valley and that multiple states are divided between the two regions.

[SD Mapman]

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

Well the Black Hills is more like Wyoming than the rest of SD

Here is a map with regional 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

I'm used to "Service Road", as you can see by the small blue island surrounded by red. Yes we're a bit odd.