Discussion » Questions » Transportation » What do people on the east coast call the kind of highway that people in the central USA call an expressway?
Livvie

What do people on the east coast call the kind of highway that people in the central USA call an expressway?

This question was inspired by a discussion on another post about turnpikes and thruways.  

On the east coast people call freeways expressways, but in the central USA freeways and expressways are two different things.  In the middle of the country, a freeway is a highway that has at least four lanes, has a grassy area or wall in the center and has only exit and entrance ramps and bridges.

An expressway is a highway that has at least four lanes, has a grassy area or wall in the center, but it has regular intersections at some junctions, traffic lights spaced far apart and bridges with exit and entrance ramps at some other junctions.  So, what do people on the east coast call that kind of highway?

Posted - September 4, 2021
Tags : None

Responses


  • 44604
    I think they call them parking lots.
      September 4, 2021 4:13 PM MDT
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  • 17593
    Expressways are simply limited access highways, meaning you must enter and exit at specific marked locations.  Federal expressways are Interstate Highways.  There are privately built expressways as well as state built.  They are often toll roads and the tolls are supposed to end at a certain date when the road has paid for itself and rewarded the investor.  A little research on this subject will tell you that this is not policed and the investors continue for years (sometimes) to collect tolls.  As  a southerner who does not do toll roads because it angers me, I find it outrageous.  There are few toll roads in the south.  When I drive in other areas of the country I get directions on how to avoid them when possible. This post was edited by Thriftymaid at September 6, 2021 5:56 PM MDT
      September 4, 2021 7:08 PM MDT
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  • 5451
    We don’t have tollways where I live but we have ExpressToll (for highways in Colorado) and EZPass (used by most states) in our van for when we go on a road trip.  That pretty much covers everywhere we go.
      September 5, 2021 9:00 AM MDT
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  • 34253
    As someone from the midwest (central part of the country), I call a highway a highway. An Interstate and interstate.   It is whatever it is. 
    The only expressway, I personally know of is one inside a city....part of it has 4 lanes other parts have 2 lanes. None of it has a grassy section or wall in the middle.  It is just an easy way to go from one end of the city to the other. 
      September 4, 2021 7:49 PM MDT
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  • 5451
    South Dakota makes it pretty easy.  We only have four freeways which are all interstates, I-29, I-90, I-190 and I-229.  Interstates are almost always freeways unless you’re in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which has an interstate that’s just a regular city street with traffic signals which seems kind of weird.
      September 5, 2021 9:06 AM MDT
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  • 10052
    I tend to call what you're calling 'freeway' an 'interstate', or sometimes just 'highway'. I know what you're talking about with "expressway", but I tend to call expressways a bypass, maybe. I don't know. I'm confused now. 

    I've gotten on what were expressways that I thought were freeways and thought 'wth is this!". 

    I am not on the east coast, though. Middle part of the country. 

      September 4, 2021 8:02 PM MDT
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  • 5451
    The closest city to me has a bypass that I didn’t know about until a couple of years ago and I’ve lived here all of my life.  It doesn’t have any signs that say it’s a bypass and it’s just a regular two lane road, but when there was construction on the main road road through the city, it was signed as the detour.  I didn’t know it was there until then, but it’s a lot faster.
      September 5, 2021 9:12 AM MDT
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  • 44604
    Nobody from the east answered your question.
      September 5, 2021 12:33 PM MDT
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  • I think Livvie may never find the answer to that question.
      September 5, 2021 9:30 PM MDT
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  • I call the type of highway that you call a freeway an autopista.  The type of highway that you call an expressway is an autovía.  This will be the start an argument.  The highway that goes through my hometown was made into a new expressway.  The entire comments section of the article on my hometown's news website about the new highway was filled with arguments about the correct word for that type of highway.
      September 5, 2021 9:49 PM MDT
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  • 53505

     

      ¿Y qué tal la palabra “carratera”?

    ~

      September 6, 2021 5:24 PM MDT
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  • Ruta es la palabra que uso para describir todas las rutas, autovías y autopistas, pero sí, puedes usar la palabra «carretera».
      September 23, 2021 8:39 PM MDT
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  • 53505

     

      ¡Gracias, muchísimas gracias!
    ~

      September 23, 2021 8:47 PM MDT
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  • 13277
    We have expressways and parkways, which often run parallel to each other (like the Long Island Expressway and Northern State Parkway) and generally are toll-free. The main difference is that trucks and commercial traffic are prohibited on parkways. This begs the dumb question of why do people drive on parkways and park in driveways? We also have toll highways such as the Massachusetts Turnpike, the New Jersey Turnpike, and the New York State Thruway. Some of these, such as the NY Thruway and Mass Pike, are connected at state lines.
      September 5, 2021 10:16 PM MDT
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  • 5451
    I give you best answer because you’re the only east coast person who answered this.

    My husband lived in New York for about ten years before he moved to South Dakota.  He told me he thinks people from the east coast would probably just call it being picky, lol.

    Anyway, he told me that there’s a road in Queens named Rockaway Freeway, but it’s actually what people in the Midwest would call an expressway instead of a freeway.  He said he thought that was the only case he’s seen “freeway” used on the east coast.


    This post was edited by Livvie at September 6, 2021 1:32 PM MDT
      September 6, 2021 12:59 PM MDT
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  • 13277
    He's actually incorrect. No such animal as Rockaway Freeway. Rockaway is a section of Queens that was once a village. Rockaway Avenue and Rockaway Parkway are streets in Brooklyn. Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens (County) are adjacent boroughs and counties, two of the five that comprise New York City. This post was edited by Stu Spelling Bee at September 6, 2021 2:46 PM MDT
      September 6, 2021 1:21 PM MDT
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  • 5451
    I just asked my husband if he’s absolutely sure that there’s a Rockaway Freeway and he still insists that it’s a road in the Rockaways that’s not the same road as the Rockaway Boulevard that’s also in Queens or Rockaway Avenue and Rockaway Parkway that are in Brooklyn.

    I would really hope he’s not getting this wrong since he was a truck driver who made deliveries there when he lived there. This post was edited by Livvie at September 6, 2021 5:25 PM MDT
      September 6, 2021 3:15 PM MDT
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  • 13277
    Now I stand corrected. I found Rockaway Freeway on Google maps. It looks like a street under an elevated road.
      September 6, 2021 3:35 PM MDT
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  • 44604
    To remove all confusion, I simply say I-75, I-475 and I-280. And then there is the Ohio turnpike, which is I-80/90.
      September 6, 2021 8:40 AM MDT
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  • 5451
    Talking about turnpikes for some reason makes me hungry for Arthur Treacher’s, Roy Rogers and Sbarro.  That’s what I think about when I hear the word “turnpike”.
      September 6, 2021 1:11 PM MDT
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  • 44604
    I only ate a Roy Roger's once. I got food poisoning.
      September 6, 2021 3:58 PM MDT
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  • 10052
     
      September 6, 2021 1:34 PM MDT
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  • 53505

     

      I do not know. I’m still on a campaign to round up all the East Coasters who pronounce “Chavez” with the sh sound found in “sherry”, “Sherry”, “shoes”, “shove”, “shatter” and “Shaw” instead of the correct and proper ch sound found in “cherry”, “cheerful“, “chummy”, “choice”, and “Chavez”.  I’d like to have them hauled off to RE-Education Camps run by the Grammar Police so that they may undergo extensive  er, um, “lessons” to correct their deficiencies before being released back into everyday society. Grrrrrrr. 


    ~

      September 6, 2021 1:44 PM MDT
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  • 10052
    Chame on them! 
      September 6, 2021 1:58 PM MDT
    4