Freeway, Expressway, Interstate... What do YOU call it?

[Fantasmic23]

It's the highway 'round here.

 

[golfgal]

It depends-if you are talking about I-94 then I call it the interstate, if you are talking about 494 then it is the freeway. If you are talking about 19 then it is the highway. If I am giving directions I just use the name/number of the road.

 

[LBAK]

Here on Long Island it's the expressway or the parkway.

 

[mom2boys]

Around here we call them by their number or what they are - 95; 70; 15; 40 (that's State route 40)

Then there are the beltways. THE Beltway is the DC Beltway but there is also the Baltimore Beltway.

 

[BELLE1109]

highway here

 

[Maridw]

I voted Freeway, but sometimes use Interstate. Live in Florida but grew up in California. For me it was take 91 to 5 etc. Never used the "The" in front of road names.

Still call say 10 instead of Interstate 10. We have highways around here, 77, 79, 231 etc. A friend from Tampa that we knew in CA stopped by to see me and he asked me if 231 would take him to 10. No Highway 231 to I-10 or Interstate 10.

When my mom came to visit for the first time years ago, she asked why we didn't take a freeway. I told her the nearest freeway was 50 miles away and that was I-10. We don't have freeways in town. Big culture shock after living right off a freeway and taking freeways every where.

 

[pearlieq]

I usually speak of the "tollway" since in the Western 'burbs of Chicago, you've pretty much got to get on one of them to get where you want to go.

 

[NotUrsula]

If I'm giving directions I will specify the road's actual signed name, but when I'm speaking of the topic in general, then any road that is part of the Federal Highway System and has an "I-##" name is an interstate, and every other kind of road that has two yellow lines down the middle of a good part of it (and a speed limit of 50 mph or higher) is a highway. (Normally a "highway" is 4 lanes nowadays, but sometimes I'll still encounter a 2-lane.)

My area does not have any toll roads, and the area where I grew up didn't have them, either. For that reason I refer to them as "toll roads" rather than tollways. I might use the term freeway, expressway, or thruway if I were travelling and needed to make myself understood, but those are all alien terms to me, they don't come naturally.

I do a fair amount of driving in greater Chicago, where the major highways have names as they pass through the city, and I've gotten into the habit of using the names because those are the designations that the traffic reporters use. So when Chicago is the topic, then you might hear me say "the Dan Ryan" or "the Eisenhower", but I don't do that anywhere else.

 

[SandrA9810]

Highway, or the name of it. Now if there's a nickname to the road, I'll use the nickname. Like in Miami, the 826 is the Palmetto Express way, the 836 is the Dolphin, and the tollroad is the Turnpike. Sometimes a road is so long, and the nickname only refers to a smaller section of it.

 

[NHdisneylover]

They are different things with very specific meanings when DH and I speak:

Interstates are the big, multi-lane roads that travel through multiple states. OP--in your area that would be I-75

Highways or Freeways(I say Highway) are the big, multi-lane roads which are all within one state. OP--96 in your area. In my experience the term freeway seems to be used in areas with lots of tollways--presumably it came about to differentiate between those you pay for and those you don't (thus FREEways).

Expressways are big, multi-lane roads built to go to a very specific area with VERY FEW exits. Usually to an airport or to get across a big city without being able to exit into the city itself.

Beltways(since other posters have mentioned them) are the big, multi-lane roads which go around the perimeter of a city or area.

Until this thread I honestly thought everyone defined them like that.

 

[WeLuvDiz]

Voted......Highway

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Highway, bypass or the route number, whether state or US- 222 (4 lane US highway) and the bypass (Rt 422, 4 lane US highway around Reading), or 61 (mostly 4 lane state route, but not really a highway).

Interstates are I-#, or just the number, unless it's the (PA) Turnpike. And then there's the Schuykill. It's an Expressway, it's I-76 thru Philadelphia, but everyone knows it's the Schuykill.

 

[John VN]

I always call them by their names when I am talking about them-95, Rt80, Rt 4, Rt17, The Turnpike(NJ Turnpike) the Parkway(Garden State Parkway)

But in general, we call them highways as in "I hate driving on the highway"

Must be a Jersey thing because this is how I call them also, even though for the past 23 years we have been down in SW Fl.

BTW, Had DSIL send down some B&W Heavy Crumb Cake a couple of months ago just to remind us of why we used to like Bergen County. Also the hot rolls from Lodi Bakery on Sunday morning.