Today's brushfire on I-15 that burned cars

[Occidental Tourist]

Here's an emblematic problem with California's move away from use of signing official freeway names, California's implementation of memorial naming of stretches of highways, and Google Maps admins programming every name under the sun to attach to a stretch of road.  For today's brush fire, this is how the incident appears on Google Maps:

"Traffic incident on CHP Officer Larry L. Wetterling and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Lieutenant Alfred E. Stewart Memorial Hwy/Historic Rte 66 E/I-15 N."

And despite all that information, you know what's missing from there?  The legislatively-designated name for the freeway, i.e., the Mojave Freeway.

[andy3175]

A pretty good summary of what happened on I-15 today is linked below (the North Fire). The video and pictures show exactly how bad it was, as the fire leapt from car to car (and to several trucks as well):

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cars-catch-fire-after-california-brush-fire-jumps-freeway-n394241

A wind-whipped wildfire swept over a California freeway Friday, torching nearly two dozen vehicles and sending motorists running for safety. No major injuries were reported.

The fire broke out near Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County at around 2:30 p.m., and was quickly spread by hot winds that gusted up to 40 mph, fire officials said.

Cars and trucks were set ablaze as the flames jumped over the interstate, which is the main highway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Twenty vehicles were destroyed and another 10 were damaged.

[ixnay]

Here's an emblematic problem with California's move away from use of signing official freeway names, California's implementation of memorial naming of stretches of highways, and Google Maps admins programming every name under the sun to attach to a stretch of road.  For today's brush fire, this is how the incident appears on Google Maps:

"Traffic incident on CHP Officer Larry L. Wetterling and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Lieutenant Alfred E. Stewart Memorial Hwy/Historic Rte 66 E/I-15 N."

And despite all that information, you know what's missing from there?  The legislatively-designated name for the freeway, i.e., the Mojave Freeway.

Not exclusively a west coast thing.  Right now Google Maps is identifying the scene of a mishap between exits 17 and 16 of a certain toll road as "Accident on Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway/I-87 S/New York State Thruway".

ixnay

[pctech]

There are some named "expressways" in louisiana, but i don't think it's ever been routine to post the names on on signs. We have the MLK expressway here in Baton Rouge (part of I-110) but that's a fairly new designation.

[hm insulators]

That is absolutely scary with all those burned-out cars and you see that fire heading your way and there's not a damn thing you can do; you are stuck, my friend! My friend Steve almost went through a similar experience on the 210 near his home in Sylmar when flames jumped the freeway right in front of his car.