Calling freeways or highways "the interstate" as a noun

[Roadgeekteen]

I was listening to a podcast where the hosts are from NWA, and they were saying "Driving on the interstate" for what we in Massachusetts would call "the highway". Like use interstate as a noun, like "the first time I drove on the interstate it was scary". Here we would say, "the first time I drove on the highway it was scary". Is this a common way to use the term in rural America where the only freeway is the interstate?

[kphoger]

I was listening to a podcast where the hosts are from NWA, and they were saying "Driving on the interstate" for what we in Massachusetts would call "the highway". Like use interstate as a noun, like "the first time I drove on the interstate it was scary". Here we would say, "the first time I drove on the highway it was scary". Is this a common way to use the term in rural America where the only freeway is the interstate?

Yes.

"Highway" just refers to any state route, whether it's a normal two-lane between towns or a six-lane Interstate.

[Roadgeekteen]

I was listening to a podcast where the hosts are from NWA, and they were saying "Driving on the interstate" for what we in Massachusetts would call "the highway". Like use interstate as a noun, like "the first time I drove on the interstate it was scary". Here we would say, "the first time I drove on the highway it was scary". Is this a common way to use the term in rural America where the only freeway is the interstate?

Yes.

"Highway" just refers to any state route, whether it's a normal two-lane between towns or a six-lane Interstate.

My topic was probably quite confusing. But let's say someone's first freeway driving was KS-96. Would they say this was the first time on the "interstate"?

[kphoger]

My topic was probably quite confusing. But let's say someone's first freeway driving was KS-96. Would they say this was the first time on the "interstate"?

No.  If they do, then that just means they're mistaken about the difference.  That's not common parlance.

[kphoger]

I was listening to a podcast where the hosts are from NWA, and they were saying "Driving on the interstate" for what we in Massachusetts would call "the highway".

Were they not talking about I-40, I-44, or I-49?

[Max Rockatansky]

People give me shit off forum for referring to long distance road corridors that aren't limited access as "highways."  I really never understood the basis for that, but to each their own I guess. 

[kphoger]

People give me shit off forum for referring to long distance road corridors that aren't limited access as "highways."  I really never understood the basis for that, but to each their own I guess.

They probably spend too much time on SkyscraperCity forums.  People over there also seem to get worked up over it, but I think that's mainly due to European influence.

[Max Rockatansky]

People give me shit off forum for referring to long distance road corridors that aren't limited access as "highways."  I really never understood the basis for that, but to each their own I guess.

They probably spend too much time on SkyscraperCity forums.  People over there also seem to get worked up over it, but I think that's mainly due to European influence.

It is actually kind of all over the place in terms of who gets uppity about it.  For example; when I posted something about Coalinga Road in the Diablo Range I called it a "highway."  IMO that seems like a pretty reasonable thing to call a 25 mile road that crosses over a mountain range.  Some people didn't agree because said corridor is mostly about 1.5 lanes wide.  Their arguments were that the narrow width coupled with the lack of highway shields just makes it a "road."

[kphoger]

Oh, OK.  The phenomenon I was talking about was people insisting that something must have full access control in order to be called a 'highway'.

[Max Rockatansky]

Sometimes that is the argument that these people make.  They'll even say that sometimes in reference to conventional two lane (or one lane) state routes.

[1995hoo]

Regarding the "highway" issue, to some extent that's a regionalism. I know people out west will use terms like "Highway 64" or whatever, regardless of what sort of road it is. Nobody here does that. There's also the use of "highway" in various statutes where it's meant to refer to roads in general rather than to a particular class of road. Where I live, if you use the word "highway" most people will assume you mean either an Interstate or a similar type of road—that is, what some people would technically call either a "controlled-access highway" or a "freeway" (the latter term is not used around here unless it's part of the road's name). For example, I recall a time when someone I know objected to the use of the word "highway" in reference to US-29 between Charlottesville and I-66 because the road has at-grade intersections and traffic lights. People here definitely do not use "highway" to refer to a rural two-lane road with passing over the center line (which is what I understand kphoger's early reply to be referencing).

I don't generally hear "Interstate" used by itself, but in general whenever I have heard that it meant, well, an actual Interstate. I've never heard it used as synonymous with "highway." That is to say, every "Interstate" is a "highway," but not every "highway" is an Interstate despite being of "Interstate class."

[Road Hog]

I used the word "freeway" once in Arkansas and someone asked me if I was from California.

[Rothman]

I used the word "freeway" once in Arkansas and someone asked me if I was from California.

Understandable given the history:

[GaryV]

Lenawee County, MI, names some of their roads "Highway", even like this one: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hGJGv61QECSu6piNA

[Declan127]

As a kid growing up in New york, any limited access highway was an expressway, unless it was a turnpike, thruway, or parkway

Of course I'd never actually call anything "the expressway" unless we were getting onto it quickly, since down here it's always "the Van Wyck, the Cross Bronx, da LIE", and then in some cases its based on definition (the Van Wyck, for example, is either "the Whitestone", "Jamaica Hospital" [for referring to the area the worst backups are in], or "the airport" south of the Belt. 278 in Jersey is "the Goethals") and for 95 its just "95" when it's not the Cross Bronx or the Turnpike.

[froggie]

I overheard "The Interstate" fairly regularly when I was stationed in Mississippi.  Usually referred to the local Interstate highway.  Not so much on the Gulf Coast but definitely heard it in Meridian (the I-20/59 concurrency) and Picayune (I-59).

[Scott5114]

"Highway" just refers to any state route, whether it's a normal two-lane between towns or a six-lane Interstate.

Hell, I've heard people call paved county roads highways. My dad called this "the highway" once (and it devolved into confusion because I thought he meant I-35).

But yeah, the main two-lane road through Goldsby (which used to be my avatar) was always "Highway 74", and then I moved to Norman and had to deal with four-lane-divided "Highway 9" to get to work.

My topic was probably quite confusing. But let's say someone's first freeway driving was KS-96. Would they say this was the first time on the "interstate"?

No.  If they do, then that just means they're mistaken about the difference.  That's not common parlance.

If someone in Oklahoma called, say, one of the turnpikes or the Lake Hefner Parkway or something "the interstate" it wouldn't register as weird to me. Irritating, but not weird.

Now, what would be weird to me—and probably to you too—would be if I ever heard someone actually say "kay ess 96" out loud instead of K-96...

[The_Ginger]

When referring to local travel, we call I-77 "the Interstate". Generally, people seem to know the difference between an Interstate and a non-Interstate.

For anything else, they just call it by it's number, including Interstates: "we'll take (I-) 77 down to (I-) 64 and then hop onto (US) 119 and then hit (WV) 10. The classier ones will use "Route" before the road name: "Oh, yes. Route (WV) 44."

One interesting quirk is the 4-lane freeway—US 33 and WV 2—connecting Ravenswood to the interstate (see what I did there?). People call it "the four lanes". No other expressway is called "the four lanes". Just that one.

[Beltway]

In many states the Interstate highways were the only freeways, at least up to about 2000 or so, therefore "the Interstate" made sense.

I use the highway engineering term "freeway" for divided highways with at least 4 lanes and with full control of access.

I also like the term "superhighway" as that avoids the toll argument.

[vdeane]

I think it's interesting that many use "highway" to mean "freeway".  When I took driver's ed, the "highway driving" portion was about driving on rural high-speed two-lane roads like this.

[Rothman]

There's only one freeway.

[Scott5114]

There's only one freeway.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JFTGyrn2YKhJSedP8

[kphoger]

Lenawee County, MI, names some of their roads "Highway", even like this one: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hGJGv61QECSu6piNA

*shrug*  Meets the legal definition. 

257.20 "Highway or street" defined.

"Highway or street" means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.

[Declan127]

Lenawee County, MI, names some of their roads "Highway", even like this one: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hGJGv61QECSu6piNA

*shrug*  Meets the legal definition. 

257.20 "Highway or street" defined.

"Highway or street" means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.

So does that make bike lanes highways?

[kphoger]

So does that make bike lanes highways?

Nope:

"Vehicle" means every device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, except devices exclusively moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks and except, only for the purpose of titling and registration under this act, a mobile home as defined in section 2 of the mobile home commission act, Act No. 96 of the Public Acts of 1987, being section 125.2302 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.

Well, if you just mean the portion of the roadway that's striped as a bike lane, then that is part of the highway...