LA Freeways

[mrsticka]

For the record, I've never been to LA or California in general. But I'm curious as to why they say "The" instead of "I" (for "interstate"). They say THE 105, THE 110, THE 405, THE 210, THE 710, etc. They've been doing that since the 50's when the freeways were first built. But why do they do that? Does anyone know?

[Linkin5]

Here is an article that explains this very thing.

https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the- ... ay-numbers

[Omababe]

In Omaha, I hear both "go north on 480" and "go north on the 480" at times.

[Wrightfan]

Local vernacular/tradition. In the Chicago metro, it's the Edens, the Kennedy, the Eisenhower, the Bishop Ford, the Dan Ryan, etc. . . . .

[Busguy2010]

Huh, I never really though about all that.

In every day life, I call I-480 and I-680 just "480" and "680". But I feel inclined to call I-80 "I-80" because I guess "80" doesn't sound descriptive enough.

I, for whatever reason have always called Highway 75 "75" and not "Kennedy Freeway", but at the same time have always called the North Freeway section of Highway 75 "The North Freeway". Who knows really?

One thing I'm almost certain of is next to nobody calls the east-west section of 480 "Gerald R Ford Freeway". But I've heard the traffic people on the news calling it that for a while, so maybe it is a thing now...

[mrsticka]

Well, thanks for that. Having never been to LA, I guess I wouldn't have known that. As for I-80, I-680 and I-480, they all have something in common besides being Omaha freeways; They start out north-south, then turn east-west. When I-80 enters Douglas County, it turns north, then at I-680, turns back east. I-680 starts as north-south, then at Blair High becomes east-west. I-480 starts as north-south, then at US 75 (the North Freeway), it turns east-west.

[edsas]

Here's my take on it. I lived in Los Angeles from 1999 to 2010. Coming from Lincoln (where I'd lived from 1994 to 1999), I found the LA freeway system to be an absolute jumble. 1999 was before cars had standard GPS systems and before the wide use of cell phones. No smartphones. So, to get around LA you either got out your big old Thomas Guide, used Mapquest or got verbal directions from a friend. Once you learned your way around LA, you pretty much stopped using the Thomas Guide and went mostly with verbal directions. Now, to get from one part of the city to another (depending on how far you were going), you'd often make two or three freeway switches. For example, you might take the 5 to the 10 to the 405 on your way somewhere. In some cases, if you're going on a really long trip (within the metro), like from Pasadena to some place in Orange County, you might literally make as many as six different freeway switches. If you knew the city well enough and could keep it all in your head, somebody giving your verbal instructions might go something like, "Take the 134, to the 2, to the 5, to the 710 to the 405. Then get off on Jamboree." The "the's" act as a sort of audible comma. Looking at it written down, you'd understand it well enough. But hearing it, you need the "the's" for spacing the info in your mind.

That's how I thought of it, anyway.

Now people can just use their GPS since pretty much every car has one. But ten years ago, this was how you'd get directions.

[Omahacritic]

GPS won’t change it. The article pretty much nailed it. It’s a So-Cal thing.

Of course also, the word “Freeway” is just omitted. So one my say “the 55 Freeway .. but more simple to leave off the Freeway.

And now, where they exist, people just refer to “the Toll road“.

[Omababe]

And now, where they exist, people just refer to “the Toll road“.

"The Pike."

[lisanstan]

The Pike is right! I grew up in LA in the Long Beach area. By the late 70's The Pike was a real $h*thole. I have no idea why we called the freeways "the" "number". All I know, is from from K-5th Grade, I lived right next to "the 605".