how do you refer to numbered highways

what if it depends on what the number is

what

ftr i'm from maryland and i've never in my life heard anyone here say "take the ##", it's always been "take ##"

in this case, take I-95

i thought "take the" was a weird californian thing but i'm starting to get the impression i'm in the minority

xp i sorta consider that the same thing as "take 95" but maybe that should've been another option

i'm also from maryland and also say "take 95" or "take i-95"

if it's a three digit number like 495 i say "take four ninety five", but the GPS navigator in my car says "take four hundred and ninety five" which is rare where i live so obv there's some local variations out there.

if i were discussing the lee highway i'd probably say route 29

if i were discussing that I-95 parallel road i'd probably say US route 1, which might be overkill

Would definitely use the definite article. From Canada (Ottawa but I think this is consistent anywhere I've been in Central and Western Canada). They say it this way in Western/upstate NY too iirc. I'm not sure about MA: I don't remember hearing anything different but I don't know if I talk about highways with anyone here.

I think I would assume someone was a non-native speaker if they said "take 401" when referring to Highway 401.

Or at least that they speak a foreign dialect. (My parents might do this, thinking about it.)

were i traveling between toronto and buffalo i would refer to The QEW

see also The B-W Parkway

I'll say something like "They raised the speed limit on Highway 65," but I'd also say, "Watch out on 65 for speed traps in Damascus."

And as mentioned, interstates get an I- prefix unless it's three digits.

were i traveling between toronto and buffalo i would refer to The QEW

Yeah, I use names when I can, but the definite article is always there.

i'd probably only say Highway X if i were quoting springsteen or dylan; otherwise Route

And see, I naturally rhyme "route" with "out" – unless I'm ordering a Route 66 from Sonic.

(root vs rout is a whole other thread)

take 85
take 75
take 285
take I-20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESr1nsAdjX8

take 40
take 95

see also The B-W Parkway

― mookieproof, Saturday, September 17, 2016 12:31 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but isn't the actual name of the B-W parkway The B-W Parkway? i guess it wouldn't be there on road signs but it's a different case, it'd be weird to say "take B-W Parkway". people talk about it like they're saying "the parkway" with "B-W" as a modifier specifying it, when you say "the 95" there isn't some invisible subject after "95"

i've never heard anyone in DC refer to MLK as "the MLK" (maybe not the same because it's not a highway? are there smaller roads that get the "the"?)

i think this is very important but also a matter of Being A Local

prepositions are even more telling -- does one go over or down or out to annapolis? my mom has lived in pittsburgh for 45 years and still can't get them right

I usually call (the) B-W Parkway "295" to avoid confusion with the similar-sounding G-W Parkway (which is equidistant if you live in Silver Spring).

I use over/down/out relatively interchangably, though I'd probably go out to Annapolis. I also have a tendency to use "up" and "down" to indicate north or south, so from DC i'd go up to Baltimore but down to Richmond.

i say "your mom"

where i grew up we'd say things like "there was another fatal accident on 120" or "i think that k-mart on 47 is finally out of business" or "let's take 31, i don't want to drive through town because of the speed traps."

california of course is all "the 101" and "the 110".

I always refer to the M in M62

Less likely to refer to A roads by number but if I did I would say A59 and never just 59

No article unless I'm the Old 97s (What's the rush? Let's take the 1).

As far as I'm aware Northern California is all take 280, take 101, etc. Never heard "the" before I went to LA.

"take the 95" is some fucked up shit, man

I use the number and direction - "Take 90 W to 71, then take 71 S to 480 E " etc.

are there smaller roads that get the "the"?

Working Monday night, on the corner flipping hard
Made at least three thousand, on the Boulevard

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(Atlanta)

This is pretty much the only instance where I've heard someone refer to it as "the Boulevard," though

take 40
take 95

― mookieproof, Saturday, September 17, 2016 12:48 AM (nine hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If that's U.S. 40, I'd have to go with Route 40. 50 is just 50 though.

I do refer to the 805 and the 15 etc when I'm talking about those California highways though.

Hmm
Get me the fuck off I 5
They're working on 99 again
Forgot to pay the 520 toll
There's a nice swimming hole right along route 2

Driving is pretty bad.

'Take the parkway' is fine tho

i also say take i-95

if i were discussing that I-95 parallel road i'd probably say US route 1, which might be overkill

around here ppl just say "US 1"

prepositions are even more telling -- does one go over or down or out to annapolis? my mom has lived in pittsburgh for 45 years and still can't get them right

this is a good question -- from philly we go "up to NY," "down to the shore." i feel like when i lived there (~20 years ago) i said "over to pittsburgh" when i was in philly.

i always say take 295 not take the bw parkway but the traffic guys usually say bw parkway. 95 not i-95. but there is an i-97 and a maryland 97. northern half of i-87 in ny = "the northway."

This is a well-known east coast west coast thing. In the east no one would say "the 95." The I is a more subtle issue. If I were giving directions I would say "get on 95 and..." but if I were telling somebody a news story I would say "There was a 10-car pileup on I-95 today." To some extent it varies highway by highway; i.e. 495 is almost universally "the beltway" -- you could imagine someone saying "get on 495" but no one would refer to I-495 under any circumstance.

west coast people use the definite article but then again they also put rice in their burritos so what can you do

we all put rice in our burritos now

Oh, this is interesting. Did Canada side with the US West Coast on this one, as with "cot" and "caught"? What do they say in the Midwest? We're with them on pop.

Oh so that's what Drivin' On 9 means. It's obvious and yet it had never occurred to me.

(I'm British. As far as I've ever heard we drive on the A34, the M4, etc, always with the definite article. Occasionally without the letter prefix - "there's been an accident on the 420, took me ages to get to town" - but I've only heard that where it's the one main road in/out of somewhere and it has at least a 3-digit number. Don't worry, I won't vote in the poll, I'll leave your results uncontaminated by my Britishness)

i always refer to all roads as car zones

california of course is all "the 101" and "the 110".

― nomar, Friday, September 16, 2016 11:15 PM (yesterday)

that's a Southern California thing. North of, dunno what the border is, the northernmost suburb of L.A., it's, 280, 101, 680, 17, though people like my parents will refer to "the old 101" but not "the 101" ... Never heard the definite article before a number until I moved to the City where there SoCal refugees.

though when I visited LA last year, I referred to those roads with the articles, respecting the language of the locals, as it were.

poll is missing a "parkway" vs "freeway" vs "expressway" component

feel like canadian people always say "the". like you take the 99 to the border where it turns into the i-5.

There's got to be something to a road having at least two syllables. Sure, on the East Coast, it's nothing to hop on Ninety-Five and see some relatives in Virginia, but what are you going to do in L.A.? Hop on Ten? Head up Five? And then, when the other interstates were created, the definite article followed suit.

There's been a 101 out there far longer than I-5 or I-10 though. I wonder if it had a definite article before the interstates.

(In Louisiana, it's I-10. No definite article, but it does have two syllables at least.)

i've never lived in a place that has a freeway

feel like canadian people always say "the". like you take the 99 to the border where it turns into the i-5.

OTM

they probably like saying "the" so much because it rhymes with "eh".

all eating their pastas in their mazdas

"take 20" in Indiana. Take "the 101" in California.

For a second, I tried to see if I could make "the" and "eh" rhyme in a Southern accent.

Depends on what side of the Rockies I'm on

^^^this guy gets around

sacramento ca refers its multitude of highways by number only, ie option 1.

sometimes i-80 or i-5

"THE" is more of an LA thing. Sacramento shuns LA

yes, west coast is still mostly without the definite article. only like santa barbara and south uses it. this is also consistent with when I lived in seattle.

Chicago traffic reports at so fun to listen to... The Dan Ryan is doing this, Eisenhower is doing that, Kennedy backed up through midtown, whatever.

Our midtown interstate was formally named the Wilbur Mills, but everyone still calls it 630.

People who use "the":
https://abigpicturewindow.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/bill-hader-fred-armisen-kristen-wiig-snl-the-californians1.png

There's got to be something to a road having at least two syllables. Sure, on the East Coast, it's nothing to hop on Ninety-Five and see some relatives in Virginia, but what are you going to do in L.A.? Hop on Ten? Head up Five? And then, when the other interstates were created, the definite article followed suit.

this is a good point, but we have a very prominent Route 1, which is universally referred to as "Route 1"

anyway i made this poll because canada, i had always thought it was just a california thing but recently there was a long and arduous string of posts on tumblr where canadians were complaining about "the 401" and everyone was calling it that

is it a regional thing within canada too? or just definite articles everywhere?

I wasn't sure about BC but jim in vancouver seems to confirm that one. I don't really know what they say in Atlantic Canada.

Are you telling me that you take "90" from MA to NY and then take "12" within NY state?

Well, 90 inside Massachusetts is MassPike

Oh, yeah, I was never sure what that meant but I usually take it as an indication that I was on the right path. I think I wondered if "Mass Pike" was some sort of geological formation (but obviously not enough to Google it).

Oh, OK, it means "turnpike" (which I also Googled to find out that it means "toll road").

i hardly talk about highways in vancouver. i want to say vancouver (proper) has access to maybe one or two highways?

when i say "highway #," i omit the definite article. as in, "take highway 99 if you're heading down to the states" or "might be faster if you take highway 1 to the pne coming from there!"

but i hardly say "highway #" and usually just call them by their names, eg, "the sea to sky highway is a beautiful drive up to whistler"

or "the trans canada highway is basically the only way to calgary from here"

the tiny part that technically makes up highway 99 on granville st is never called a highway

i'm going to guess that people out in the suburbs have a different perspective as they use the highways more?

as a non-native los angeles resident i say "i take the 10 to work and it's a parking lot every morning"

or "avoid the 405 at all costs"

i add north/east/south/west accordingly sometimes

the north/east/south/west is for los angeles highways

Yeah, no one says "the Highway 16" or "the Highway 401" but everyone would say "the 16" or "the 401" instead of "16" or "401". You could say "Highway 16" but I don't think anyone says "Highway 401" except possibly newscasters or people writing scholarly articles about critical freeway theory.

I think part of calling it 'the Dan Ryan' or 'the Eisenhower' is that those roads have multiple interstates and highways that merge on the expressway and then exit at different mile markers.

I kind of wonder how much of it is still labeled as 'the Dixie Highway'. I know sections in Cincinnati and Louisville are still labeled as such on signs, but the roads up in Indiana are no longer referred by the name.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Dixie_Highway_Map.png/320px-Dixie_Highway_Map.png

The Parkway East
The Parkway West
The Turnpike
The Lincoln Highway

voted 'Something else?'

I'm from southern california and I say the and I call basically everything a freeway

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the mae west bend

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow