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[jaydub]

I'm just going to say that no one from Florida would call a highway "The 58."  This is an affectation that I didn't encounter until California.

And the Southern Californians at that.  Up here we used to refer to freeways as "880", or "5".  Sticking "The" in front spreads out from traffic reporters on TV and radio who cut their chops in the LA market.  I don't like the way it sounds, and consciously try to keep the older reference alive.

[littlefallsmets]

Where I grew up, the I-90 to Albany and then the I-87 south to NYC is "The Thruway" and the I-87 north of Albany is "The Northway" going north or south...

But I-81 from Canada to PA is "Eighty-One".

Whereas in LA, I've seen people almost come to blows over whether its "Cal State Northridge" or "Cee-Sun".

And my girlfriend's college was "SUNY-Poorchoice".

[Dangermoose]

So in Oregon if a freeway is an interstate we call it "I-whatever," otherwise a freeway or highway is just "217" or "97," no damned "the."  Except that a couple freeways do have names like "the Banfield" which are used only occasionally.

One of these that has never caught on is that through Portland, I-5 is called "the Balldock."  I would like it if this was used more, but I suppose it's like naming a kid "Dick" in this day and age -- What does it mean to be a man in modern America?

[jaydub]

You guys reference your Cal State schools funny too, you ninny.

Most of the Cal State schools around here are all into "re-branding" or something.  Cal State Hayward became CSU East Bay.  CSU Sonoma is all Sting-like, preferring to be called "Sonoma". 

[jay-ell]

In Toledo, we had "75" and "The Expressway" (175).  State route 20, AKA the Anthony Wayne Trail, was just "The Trail." 

Here in Raleigh, we have "40" and "The Beltline" (440).  State routes are usually called by their numbers -- 55, 54, 1, and 64 feature prominently -- but some portions of these (the parts that run through town and have stoplights) are called by name (Chapel Hill Road is the center portion of 54, for instance).  They're also building 540, which is supposed to eventually be like the 95/195/295/395 etc. thing in DC (you guys have, what, 6 loops?).  Most people so far just call it "The Outer Beltline."  (The inner being 440).  Right now, though, it's more like "The Outer Semicircle." 

[milhouse]

Here in the 'midwest' it's mostly just numbers. 64, 65, etc. Except for the ones that go by who they're named after. The "Gene Synder" or "Lee Hamilton Highway". But then you have "State Road 64", which of course isn't the same as Interstate "64".

[theinevitable]

I always reveal to people that I am not a native North Carolinian by referring to UNC as UNC instead of "Chapel Hill."

Or maybe just as someone who doesn't care about college basketball?
But again: revealing myself as non-native to North Carolina.

[Doc]

We have few enough highways here that they all just have names. They probably have numbers too but no one knows them. One of the ones near me is called Bruce. True story.

[wombat]

One of the ones near me is called Bruce. True story.

Seriously?

You do know that Monty Python bit where they're all called Bruce, right?

[Doc]

Seriously?

Seriously.

And yes I do, in fact I was singing the philosophers song to my housemate last night because he was bitching about his philosophy course. I said he should organise a bunch of people to break it out during a lecture.

[Choop]

Another reason I like Atlanta: the highway system. 75 goes NW-SE, 85 goes NE-SW, 20 goes E-W. The Perimeter loops wide around the metro area, and 75 and 85 join forces downtown to become The Connector. Oh, and 400 shoots north of the connector. Other names exist, but nobody uses them.

'Course, as it sprawls further there's more spurs and bypasses that fuck up the symmetry, but fuck 'em, i'm ITP*, they're miles and miles away.

Fun fact: when an interstate has 3 numbers it's an extension to the original Eisenhower system plan; when the first number is even, it's a bypass (connects at both ends) and when it's an odd number it's a spur (connected at one end only). Just something I learned working at the hellhole known as the Georgia Dept. of Transportation.

*ITP: Inside The Perimeter, as opposed to OTP, or Outside The Perimeter. It designates geography, culture, and lifestyle. And it comes on those douchie geography oval stickers that were so big in '01.