Freeways and highways in California

So I was writing about the California accent and expressions and when you do that it's almost impossible not to talk about freeways. Like, people who make fun of Californians seem to always start with yeah, like, you take the 10 to the 5 and then up the 110.But that gets to be a big topic. So I decided to break it out, because it's kind of quirky.

Numbered highways are kind of weird in California. There are interstates, legacy U.S. numbered highways, and state highways. Oh, and expressways. 

  • Of these, only interstates are always freeways.
    • Although these are called interstates, only six of the ones in California actually go across the state line (out of 25). 
    • "Interstate" 280 never gets closer than 200 miles from Nevada, or 330 miles from Oregon. Yes, I know there is an explanation for that (apparently the 3-digit ones are local capillaries of the two-digit ones).
        • Although, just to be argumentative about that, 280 never intersects or touches 80. Just saying...
  • U.S. highways are remnants from a previous numbering system. Some are freeways, some are tourist attractions, some are city streets, and some are freeways that then all of a sudden have cross streets.
  • State highways come in all types. They can be major freeways or little bitty windy roads, or sometimes city streets, or even unpaved roads.
  • And expressways are apparently a unique beast in Santa Clara County. It's a heavily traveled local network of 400 miles of multi-laned roads built because the state apparently took too long building freeways, so the county said F-it, we'll just do it ourselves. Except then they voted down the bond measure to turn them into freeways.

Freeways

We have a lot of freeways (over 8,000 miles, apparently). All of them have numbers but there is not a whole lot of logic to those, as they came from several competing numbering schemes. Some of them have names, too, but we don't use those.
    The term freeway is used only generically or if it's obvious which one you are talking about, not to refer to any specific one.
    • "Don't take the freeway, it's a parking lot that time of day."
    • "My car gets pretty good mileage on the freeway."
    People elsewhere might generically refer to freeways as the interstate or the motorway or the circular or parkway or whatever else they came up with. But we don't.
The moment you refer to any specific freeway, you only refer to it by its number. Not some name even if that name is technically correct.
  • Nobody will call 280 the Junipero Serra Freeway, even if you know how to pronounce Junipero.
  • And nobody under 70 will refer to 101 as the Bayshore.
  • If someone were to say the Golden State instead of the 5, you'd understand and you'd probably think "How quaint!"
There is a lot of regional contention and variation as to whether freeways should come with the word the before their number.
  • It is well known that Southern Californians like to unnecessarily insert the word "the" in front of every freeway number.
      • One can argue that they can call them whatever they want because they pretty much invented them.
        Well, I suppose the Italians built their first Autostrada in 1924 and the nazis built the Autobahns, but let's not dwell on that.
      The Arroyo Seco Parkway was the first freeway in the US.
        It still exists but later became known as the Pasadena Freeway, and now it's the 110. It's actually a National Historic Landmark which has the curious side effect that they're not allowed to fix its original very short on-ramps with stop signs. Which makes it an adventure to get on.
      Examples of how they talk about their roads in SoCal:
      • the 5 (Santa Ana / Golden State Fwy)
      • the 10 (Santa Monica Fwy west of the 5, San Bernardino Fwy east of the 5)
      • the 405 (San Diego Fwy)
      • the 101 (Hollywood Fwy / Ventura Fwy)
      • the 110 (Pasadena Fwy north of downtown, Harbor Fwy south of downtown)
      • But not “the 1” but PCH (no "the"; and not its real name, Pacific Coast Highway). I suppose no the because it's not really a freeway.
      • Thankfully, people in LA don't use the for surface streets.
          • So it's Sepulveda and La Brea and Sunset and Vermont. But somehow Hollywood Boulevard gets its full name, like when your mom calls you out by your full first, middle, and last name when you are in big trouble.
      LA had one of the world's most extensive local and interurban train systems until the mid-1940s, a massive spiderweb of tracks covering 1,100 miles and boasting the largest trolley system in the world. Local lore has it that Goodyear, GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil conspired to buy the Los Angeles Railway (the Yellow Cars) and convert them to bus lines. All electric rail service ended in 1963.
  • Unlike people in SoCal, people in Northern California never use "the" in front of a freeway number. If you do, it's a dead giveaway that you are not from here or that you've been watching too much TV.
    • It’s 101, 237, 280, 680
        • (so yeah, it makes no difference whether it's a "state route" or a US highway or an Interstate).
    • While none get a the, some interstates get an I- in front of their number:
      • 280, 380, 580, 680, and 880 definitely don't get an I
      • For 80 it's optional, and I-5 definitely does.
      • And I seem to remember using Interstate 80 to go to Tahoe. But it's 80 in the Bay Area.
    • There are a few the's allowed in NorCal, mostly for bridges:
      • the Bay Bridge
      • the Dunbarton
      • the Golden Gate
      • And THE Warren Freeway (for only this one, you actually use its name, because it's pretty and kind of hidden and you'd only use it under special circumstances).
          • Or you can just say 13. (and people will go "13? Where's that?")
  • I-5 changes names about halfway to LA. Pea Soup Anderson’s is on I-5 but Harris Ranch is on the 5. Highway 1 becomes PCH around Ventura (between there and Santa Barbara it's the 101).
    • You are allowed to adapt to your location. So you're not a hypocrite or a traitor when you are visiting LA and you talk about the 101 because you are being respectful to the locals; it's not cultural appropriation.
    • Just as long as you never call it the 101 in the Bay Area.

State highways

In its infinite wisdom, CalTrans, the state highway agency, calls state highways State Route—e.g. "State Route 17". I don't know if they do this to stay out of the "the" debate, to sidestep having to pick sides. But nobody else calls them that.

State highway numbers show on green signs in the shape of a rounded triangle, pointed up. Apparently that triangle shape is meant to be a miner's spade (something I just learned after living here for more than 40 years).

Which roads get to be state highways seems to be a total toss-up. Some of these state highways are actually called highway, for example “highway 1” and “highway 99”. This only applies to very specific ones, and in specific portions. CalTrans will try to mess with you by showing like S.R. 1 on the street signs but you can handle that.

A road being a state highway doesn't mean it's a freeway. In fact, it's pretty much a toss-up whether it is.
  • CalTrans will call El Camino Real, a drag with a light on every block, State Route 82, just like State Route 85 (a.k.a. 85, a real freeway). This confuses everyone. It's El Camino, not 82 or SR-82. If you call it that, nobody will know what you are talking about.
  • Highway 1 is a windy, scenic road, most of which runs right along the most iconic parts of the coast.
    • South of Ventura, Highway 1 is called PCH, which techically still is a highway, but the "ighway" is silent.
    • You may have seen Highway 1 in movies or car commercials where beautiful people go zooming along in a convertible, top down, wind in their hair.
        • The reality is that the average speed is that of an RV driven by an 80-year old trying to take in the scenery while not going off a 300-foot cliff into the ocean.
    • Parts of Highway 1 have a nasty habit of sliding into the ocean during winter storms.
        • This is a real bitch for the people who live there as it's pretty much the only road to a 100-mile stretch of coast. And for tourists, I suppose.
  • Highway 99 is the longest highway in the state, running 425 miles through the pancake-flat part of the state known as the Central Valley, passing through Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, and Yuba City.
    • Yuba City has the curious distinction of being named as the worst place to live in the United States by Rand McNally's 1985 Places Rated Almanac. They were not very happy about that. The place seems fine to me but I've only passed through it (although I did get some of the best potato bread ever there).
    • A lot of Highway 99 is freeway, and the average speed is that of someone trying to not be there any longer than absolutely necessary.
    • Highway 99 used to be U.S. 99 but it got decommisioned as a federal highway and re-designated as a state highway.
    • And you can read all about it in Highway 99: The History of California's Main Street by Stephen Provost.
  • 17 can also go by highway 17. That seems consistent with its on-again, off-again status as a freeway.
      • Interesting tidbit: old people will sometimes accidentally refer to 880 as 17 because that's what it used to be back when Jimmy Carter was president.
  • And 92 is optionally highway 92 between 280 and Half Moon Bay. But the bridge part is just called the San Mateo. And the freeway part over the hill between 280 and 101 that you take only to escape when traffic is especially atrocious on one or the other is just called 92.
  • But 84 is just Woodside Road or the Dunbarton or Niles Canyon. If you call it 84 you are either lost or confused.

U.S. highways

U.S. Highways seem to be remnants from a time long gone, Airstream trailers and Route 66, and many of them have been decommissioned or replaced by interstates. But there are still some pretty important ones left in California, like highway 50, 101, and 395. The U.S. Highway signs are shaped like a white shield that is apparently also a spade but it's pointed down, and the letters are black. CalTrans refers to 101 as "U.S. Route 101" but normal people don't.

There are also a few bits and pieces that were originally intended to be turned into freeways but it turned out it was too much trouble. Like trying to get to the Golden Gate through the city. They tried it, stalled halfway, and called it a day after the Loma Prieta Earthquake. But the city streets like Van Ness and Lombard that they thought you should take to fight your way from one end of the city to the bridge are technically numbered 101.

    Except you'd have to be pretty stupid to take Van Ness all the way through the city.
The Golden Gate (the bridge, not the water) is technically 101 but if anyone other than Google Maps calls it that, they are messing with you. And it's sort of a freeway, except it doesn't have a real center divider, just this movable barrier that used to be these flimsy cones (but that got kind of messy on a regular basis, as you can imagine).

The most famous U.S. Highway is Route 66, which originally ran from Chicago to Santa Monica. Except it's not a federal highway anymore; it officially got decommissioned in 1985. California designated bits and pieces of the remnants State Historic Highway Route 66, including fake U.S. Highway signs, so I guess that is another type of numbered highway.
And no, despite the convenience of living close to four freeways, I'm not actually that obsessed with them. But it's an integral part of how people talk. And that winds up my second post in a row about how we speak in California. If you got this far, I admire your patience. If you are interested in more:

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