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[roadman65]

Well depending on what state or region you are from terms can vary. Not in dictionary talk though, but in common verbiage.

Example in New York a freeway is coined an expressway, but in Jefferson City, MO the Expressway is an arterial with limited access. Hence the Long Island Expressway in the former and Whitton Expressway in the latter. Both are expressways in name but in nature they are different types a roadways. 

Then Route verses Highway. Some states like NJ and NY called numbered routes as routes while Florida will call the same as highways. Route 46 in NJ or Route 17 in NY while it’s Highway 46 and Highway 17 in the Sunshine State. Yet US 1 in both NJ/ NY is called Route 1 in those states, but unlike other US Highways in Florida which are called “Highway X” it is called US 1 here. No Floridian ever says Highway One for this particular route.

[1]

Turn signals:

[JayhawkCO]

Kitty-corner vs. Catty-corner

[SkyPesos]

For US highways, it seems like that "Route 66" is the only one frequently called with the "route" prefix, and the others either use "US" or "highway" in front of it, or even no prefix.

[tigerwings]

No route or Highway in Michigan, State routes are M-wherever.

[Max Rockatansky]

SoCal slang generally is “The insert route number” regardless the classification of highway.

[Big John]

Another Wisconsin-Illinois rivalry as WI uses "highway" and IL uses "route".

[US20IL64]

Yeah, in No. IL, some use 'Route' for State highways, "Rt. 53/83". But mostly folks just say #'s:
90, 55, 94, 294, 41, 20, 30, 34, 120 ... 

Closer to city/inner burbs, street names used. Nobody calls Lake Shore Dr. "the 41",

Also, said a few times, 'freeway' here means So. CA vacation routes,   

[roadman65]

Many states the word freeway is used internally but not in common talk.

Funny how from Missouri to IL, which border each other, the same descriptor is used for two different types of roadways. The Whitton Expressway in Jefferson City and the Stevenson Expressway in Chicagoland for example. One a limited access arterial and the other fully controlled access yet both are expressways.

[Roadgeekteen]

US Highways and state highways are "route". Freeways are "highways" and sometimes "expressways".

[1995hoo]

Out west, the word "highway" is sometimes combined with a route number as a proper noun—for example, "take Highway 29 south for two hours." I have a brother-in-law in Phoenix whose wife uses that style and it threw me off briefly when she was riding with us here and she said something about "Highway 7" when we were on I-395—it took me a second to realize what she meant because Virginia Route 7 in that area is an arterial (with that portion of said route ordinarily referred to as King Street), and in this part of the country "highway" is a generic term used more to refer to Interstates or similar (example from when I was in law school: "751 was blocked by an accident, so I had to take the highway," with "the highway" meaning US-15/501).

[bwana39]

In Texas ROUTE is never used. We laugh about it pronounced ROOT.

Interstates are almost always called "Interstate X", just "X", or by the local freeway name inside the cities. (Such as LBJ Freeway for IH-635 and the part of I-20 that used to be 635.).

US Highways and State Highways generally are called "Highway X" or Just "X". Of course there are local freeway names (EX US-175 is Hawn Freeway in Dallas. SH-183 is the Airport Freeway in Irving). Except when they are freeways, they are more often referred to by their street names within towns and cities.

Farm to Market Roads are generally called "Farm to Market X", "Farm Road X", or "FM-X" In a couple of cases there are local freeway names attached. (emmett f lowry expressway on FM-1764 in Texas City). In my corner of NE Texas it is generally said FarmMarket -X, leaving out the "to". Sometimes the JUST "X" is used for FM roads.  Generally the street name prevails within a city of town.

Highway is generally anything maintained by the state less than a freeway ; even some rural FM roads. Highways are usually rural.
Freeway is anything controlled access. It may or may not include the tollways.
Street is generally every paved street in a city that is not freeway or tollway.
Turnpike is the universal name for free standing tollways (as opposed to tolled lanes of existing freeways.)

Frontage roads: IN north Texas they are called frontage roads or service roads.  In Houston, they are called feeder roads.

[Ketchup99]

In Pennsylvania, it's never "Highway XX," and indeed, "highway" is only really ever used to talk about "big roads" - any freeway, or a divided road with a high speed limit. Typically, we refer to "Route XX" or just "XX" (for instance, "Harrisburg's down 322, while Huntingdon is down Route 26". For interstates, when we give it any prefix (which is rare), it's usually "I-XX" and not "Interstate XX." I'm much more likely to call something "99" than "I-99" or "Interstate 99," and in the same vein, likelier to say "22" than "Route 22" or "US 22".

[NWI_Irish96]

In Indiana, state highways are commonly referred to as State Road XX, or SR XX. Very few roads are known by their name over their number. The Lloyd Expwy in Evansville and the Indiana Toll Road are the most common ones.

In northern Lake County, you tend to hear Calumet Ave, Indianapolis Blvd, Broadway, and Cline Ave referred to by name more than route number, but by the time you get south of Ridge Rd you're more likely to hear route numbers.

[Bruce]

In the Seattle area, it varies but "Highway XX" is more common than "Route [rout] XX". They are also abbreviated to SR on signs and in some news reports.

U.S. Routes are commonly called "Highway XX" and "US XX", presumably to reduce confusion with the state routes.

[Scott5114]

This actually led to a massive fight on Wikipedia in the mid-2000s, where people were renaming hundreds of pages to match what they thought the state highway names should be. It got contentious enough it ended up going all the way to Wiki Supreme Court.

[skluth]

I think it far more interesting that some people pronounce route like root while others pronounce it like rout.

[Big John]

^^ I always heard Route 66 as "root" and all other routes as "rout".

[US 89]

Out west, the word "highway" is sometimes combined with a route number as a proper noun—for example, "take Highway 29 south for two hours." I have a brother-in-law in Phoenix whose wife uses that style and it threw me off briefly when she was riding with us here and she said something about "Highway 7" when we were on I-395—it took me a second to realize what she meant because Virginia Route 7 in that area is an arterial (with that portion of said route ordinarily referred to as King Street), and in this part of the country "highway" is a generic term used more to refer to Interstates or similar (example from when I was in law school: "751 was blocked by an accident, so I had to take the highway," with "the highway" meaning US-15/501).

See, that kind of thing fascinates me. I'm originally from Utah where that usage is very much standard, even though the state-maintained roads there are in fact legally "state routes". In fact, it's so standard it is usually what shows up on street signs. Where I grew up north of Salt Lake, the main pre-interstate highway is usually signed as Highway 89, and in conversation you'll either hear that or just "US 89". Likewise, the famous scenic highway in southern Utah is "Highway 12", "SR 12", or maybe "State Route 12" or "State Road 12". I have never heard "Route 89" or "Route 12".

It wouldn't even occur to me that this usage might confuse people from "route" parts of the country.

[Dirt Roads]

I think it far more interesting that some people pronounce route like root while others pronounce it like rout.

Even better, where I'm from in West Virginia, we say it both ways.  Its a "root" when you are describing how to travel, and its a "rout" when tacked on to a number.  "You want to take this back 'root' to go over to Huntington, and once you hit 'rout' 10 you'll head on up to the Interstate".

[Rothman]

Out west, the word "highway" is sometimes combined with a route number as a proper noun—for example, "take Highway 29 south for two hours." I have a brother-in-law in Phoenix whose wife uses that style and it threw me off briefly when she was riding with us here and she said something about "Highway 7" when we were on I-395—it took me a second to realize what she meant because Virginia Route 7 in that area is an arterial (with that portion of said route ordinarily referred to as King Street), and in this part of the country "highway" is a generic term used more to refer to Interstates or similar (example from when I was in law school: "751 was blocked by an accident, so I had to take the highway," with "the highway" meaning US-15/501).

See, that kind of thing fascinates me. I'm originally from Utah where that usage is very much standard, even though the state-maintained roads there are in fact legally "state routes". In fact, it's so standard it is usually what shows up on street signs. Where I grew up north of Salt Lake, the main pre-interstate highway is usually signed as Highway 89, and in conversation you'll either hear that or just "US 89". Likewise, the famous scenic highway in southern Utah is "Highway 12", "SR 12", or maybe "State Route 12" or "State Road 12". I have never heard "Route 89" or "Route 12".

It wouldn't even occur to me that this usage might confuse people from "route" parts of the country.

Heh.  Just the other day my father referred to "89/91" as the main road through American Fork.

[7/8]

Out west, the word "highway" is sometimes combined with a route number as a proper noun—for example, "take Highway 29 south for two hours." I have a brother-in-law in Phoenix whose wife uses that style and it threw me off briefly when she was riding with us here and she said something about "Highway 7" when we were on I-395—it took me a second to realize what she meant because Virginia Route 7 in that area is an arterial (with that portion of said route ordinarily referred to as King Street), and in this part of the country "highway" is a generic term used more to refer to Interstates or similar (example from when I was in law school: "751 was blocked by an accident, so I had to take the highway," with "the highway" meaning US-15/501).

See, that kind of thing fascinates me. I'm originally from Utah where that usage is very much standard, even though the state-maintained roads there are in fact legally "state routes". In fact, it's so standard it is usually what shows up on street signs. Where I grew up north of Salt Lake, the main pre-interstate highway is usually signed as Highway 89, and in conversation you'll either hear that or just "US 89". Likewise, the famous scenic highway in southern Utah is "Highway 12", "SR 12", or maybe "State Route 12" or "State Road 12". I have never heard "Route 89" or "Route 12".

It wouldn't even occur to me that this usage might confuse people from "route" parts of the country.

Yeah, this basically applies to Ontario too. People say "highway" not "route" (which would be pronounced "root"). Here's an example of a sign for Highway 27.


The exception are the 400-series highways, which are "The __" (ex: the four-oh-one).

[7/8]

I think it far more interesting that some people pronounce route like root while others pronounce it like rout.

I found this map showing it's distribution in the US. I had no idea "rout" is so common!

Image source article: https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/geolinguistics/new-maps-american-english-dialects-novel.html

[wanderer2575]

In Michigan, one does not pay tolls at the Mackinac Bridge and Canada border crossings.  One pays fares.

[1]

I think it far more interesting that some people pronounce route like root while others pronounce it like rout.

I found this map showing it's distribution in the US. I had no idea "rout" is so common!

Image source article: https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/geolinguistics/new-maps-american-english-dialects-novel.html

Red/yellow/green/blue is not the way to do it. With four options that must add up to 100%, you have three degrees of freedom. One way to do it is with the computer's RGB system for three options and no color for the fourth option that still gets totaled into percentages; this uses a lot more of the color space and tells you how much of each option, not just the leading option.