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Traffic reports and "the Interstate"

I

ixnay

Almost as often as not, the traffic team on WDEL/WSTW Wilmington, DE refers to Interstate 95 as simply "the interstate". This despite the fact that the Wilmington area has two other interstates - 295 (linking 95 with the DE Memorial Bridge, then more or less hugging the NJ bank of the DE River north to a point past Trenton) and 495 (which splits from 95 at a point south of Wilmington and follows the west bank of the river before rejoining 95 at the PA line). Then there's the NJ Turnpike whose northern half is 95 but whose southern half is unnumbered.

Are there any other markets with a lone 1 or 2 digit interstate referred to in traffic reports as "the interstate" despite the presence of one or two offshoots (3di's [three-digit interstates] in roadgeekese)? Perhaps Roanoke, VA with Interstates 81 and 581? Or Augusta, GA with I's-20 and 520?

ixnay
 
In Lexington, Kentucky, Interstates 64 and 75 overlap through most of the city, and are commonly referred to as "the Interstate", even though the "Southern Split" is near a fast-growing part of the city and the "Northern Split" is only a few miles from Downtown Lexington.
 
It drives me crazy when I’m in Chicago that the traffic reports use the names of the highways, while my map has the route numbers. What’s the Dan Ryan or the Stevenson in terms of routes.

And in Boston when the refer to “The Expressway” they only mean the part of I-93 to the south. Must be real confusing to an out-of-towner.
 
kc1ih said:
It drives me crazy when I’m in Chicago that the traffic reports use the names of the highways, while my map has the route numbers. What’s the Dan Ryan or the Stevenson in terms of routes.
Click to expand...

The Ryan is I-90/94, and the Stevenson is I-55.

The reason for using names instead of numbers is that most of the interstates have multiple names, and Chicagoans are call their expressways & tollways by names rather than numbers. There are notable exceptions, mostly in Indiana but a few in Illinois as well.

I-55: Stevenson Expressway
I-57: Dan Ryan Extension, or just I-57
I-65: No name (Indiana)
I-80: Indiana Toll Road, Borman Expressway (Indiana), Kingery Expressway, Tri-State Tollway, I-80
I-88: Ronald Reagan (formerly East-West) Tollway
I-90: Indiana Toll Road, Chicago Skyway, Dan Ryan Expressway, Kennedy Expressway, Jane Addams (formerly Northwest) Tollway
I-94: I-94 (Indiana), Bishop Ford Freeway, Dan Ryan Expressway, Kennedy Expressway, Edens Expressway, Edens Spur, Tri-State Tollway (Lake County IL only)
I-190: O'Hare Expressway
I-290: Eisenhower Expressway, Eisenhower Extension (aka "the Ike")
I-294: Tri-State Tollway
I-355: Veterans Memorial (formerly North-South) Tollway
Ill. 53: No name - an extension of I-290.
Ill. 394: No name - an extension of the Bishop Ford Freeway.
Ind. 912: Cline Ave. (Indiana)
US 41: Lake Shore Drive (aka "the Outer Drive")

Also, the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway not only does not have a number, it doesn't go to either Elgin or O'Hare Airport!

So now you know why Chicagoans refer to their tollways and expressways by name. And don't ever say "the 290" or "the 53" like they do in LA and Phoenix. ;D
 
North of Atlanta, you travel east on the "Top-End Perimeter" to get to "Spaghetti Junction".

...and many more... :D
 
William_Yeager said:
In Lexington, Kentucky, Interstates 64 and 75 overlap through most of the city, and are commonly referred to as "the Interstate"
Click to expand...

Sorry, Mr. Yeager, Lexington doesn't qualify. It still has two 2-digit interstate routes.

ixnay
 
KeithE4 said:
kc1ih said:
It drives me crazy when I’m in Chicago that the traffic reports use the names of the highways, while my map has the route numbers. What’s the Dan Ryan or the Stevenson in terms of routes.
Click to expand...

The Ryan is I-90/94, and the Stevenson is I-55.

The reason for using names instead of numbers is that most of the interstates have multiple names, and Chicagoans are call their expressways & tollways by names rather than numbers. There are notable exceptions, mostly in Indiana but a few in Illinois as well.

I-55: Stevenson Expressway
I-57: Dan Ryan Extension, or just I-57
I-65: No name (Indiana)
I-80: Indiana Toll Road, Borman Expressway (Indiana), Kingery Expressway, Tri-State Tollway, I-80
I-88: Ronald Reagan (formerly East-West) Tollway
I-90: Indiana Toll Road, Chicago Skyway, Dan Ryan Expressway, Kennedy Expressway, Jane Addams (formerly Northwest) Tollway
I-94: I-94 (Indiana), Bishop Ford Freeway, Dan Ryan Expressway, Kennedy Expressway, Edens Expressway, Edens Spur, Tri-State Tollway (Lake County IL only)
I-190: O'Hare Expressway
I-290: Eisenhower Expressway, Eisenhower Extension (aka "the Ike")
I-294: Tri-State Tollway
I-355: Veterans Memorial (formerly North-South) Tollway
Ill. 53: No name - an extension of I-290.
Ill. 394: No name - an extension of the Bishop Ford Freeway.
Ind. 912: Cline Ave. (Indiana)
US 41: Lake Shore Drive (aka "the Outer Drive")

Also, the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway not only does not have a number, it doesn't go to either Elgin or O'Hare Airport!

So now you know why Chicagoans refer to their tollways and expressways by name. And don't ever say "the 290" or "the 53" like they do in LA and Phoenix. ;D
Click to expand...

Excellent list! One little detail that I wish to add is that you'll hear a lot of references to travel times to and from "Montrose". No, it's not the small city in western Colorado. Actually, it's the nearest exit to the point where I-94 (Edens Expy.) joins with I-90 (the Kennedy) in the NW part of the city of Chicago. East of Montrose Avenue, the two interstates are joined and the road is wider with a reversible set of 2 express lanes, so that's an important benchmark on your journey to O'Hare or northward toward the north suburbs, Lake County and/or Wisconsin. This links to a helpful guide that was prepared by Sarah Jindra, a traffic reporter with WBEZ. Note that reports generally give you the conditions by telling you how long it takes to get from A to B and that's detailed in the link.

Up in Milwaukee, they similarly have a lot of local terms (for example, the "Zoo Interchange" being where I-94 meets I-894 and US 45 west of the city - that's by the zoo, though that's not obvious to a traveler). The one that vexed me for the longest time was the "KK River bridge". Huh? Turns out that it's the (not particularly noteworthy) I-43 bridge over the relatively small Kinnickinnick River in the southern part of the city of Milwaukee.

One city where I HATE the traffic reports is Hartford, CT (actually CT in general). Among the worst anywhere. They simply use exit numbers as landmarks - and their exit numbers aren't even by milepost; they're sequential. So, I-84 will be jammed from "43 to 55 and from 57 to 59" (said quickly, of course). Huh? Where are those exits? Unless you're a native, or already stuck there, you don't know. Quick, gimme a map - a good one! Notable for being useless.

And it's not a regional thing because traffic reports for New York, Boston and Providence are not that way.

Southern California have some of the best traffic reports anywhere, which tends to prove that practice makes perfect. Right down to telling you which lane(s) - by number - has/have an issue. They talk fast, but cover tons of ground.
 
WMAK Nashville, 1971, and "airborne" traffic reporter Ace High:

"Drive careful this morning...a little fog on the interstate...'course there always is...
we'll be gettin' back with you in a minute, I here is 10-4."

Which interstate? Were 40, 65, and 24 completed back then?
 
The first portion of I-65 in TN was opened on 11/15/1958, but that was near the Alabama state line.

Most of I-40 in TN was completed in the late 1960's.

I can't find anything definitive on I-24, but apparently the Illinois portion wasn't around in the 1970's when my father worked in that part of the country.
 
trusty said:
North of Atlanta, you travel east on the "Top-End Perimeter" to get to "Spaghetti Junction".

...and many more... :D
Click to expand...

When I first moved to Atlanta, I didn't know where the Downtown Connector was. I assume this is where I-75/85 hook up?
 
It is not uncommon for traffic reporters to say what people usually call it, rather than the name on the map. Philadelphia traffic reporters usually cover their butts by saying both (as in "476, the Blue Route"). When Harold Robbins wrote The Betsy, a novel about the auto industry, he was ridiculed in Detroit (a city he apparently never visited to research his novel) when he wrote about the "Detroit Industrial Expressway" (a name nobody ever used except Rand McNally) instead of "the Ford Freeway" or "94).

Most traffic reports are done by people looking at computer screens (text, maps and traffic cams). A few traffic reports come from guys in aircraft but for the most part aircraft have been replaced by traffic sensors and cameras. The aforementioned station in Delaware which uses two guys driving around and doing reports for multiple stations is a true anachronism - plus likely a safety hazard (like regular folks talking on a cell phone while driving only more so). It's pure luck if they are in the right place at the right time to report a jam in time to actually do listeners any good.
 
"Are there any other markets with a lone 1 or 2 digit interstate referred to in traffic reports as "the interstate" despite the presence of one or two offshoots?"

Not so much on traffic reports around here as in common conversation. "The Interstate" usually refers to I-5, and I-205 is often stated simply as "two-oh-five". Same with I-84 if you're in Oregon ("eighty-four").

Bridges are another matter. You often hear the I-5 drawbridge being referred to on the radio as "the Interstate Bridge" and the 205 Bridge as just that (although people south of the Columbia also refer to it as the "Glenn Jackson Bridge", apparently in reference to somebody who must have had some sort of influence in Portland years ago.)
 
Have to chime in with a former pet peeve from my traffic reporting days in Des Moines.

There is a major joint section of I-35 and I-80 that skirts the DM metro along its north and west sides. DOT maps show it as I-35/I-80. The signs on the roadway have 35 on the left and 80 on the right.

However, when the segment was first built in the late 50's, the custom of referring to the road as 80/35 developed, probably because I-80 was the busier of the two Interstates per prevailing local logic. Never mind the "fingernails-on-blackboard", reverse-sounding effect 80-35 has on common logic.

WHO personalities generally referred to it as 80/35. But I just couldn't bring myself to use that moniker in my reports on WHO. (I was with a service similar to Metro Traffic) I figured I would use 35/80 until someone at WHO requested I use 80/35 instead.

It's similar to the Coll-oh-RAD-oh/Coll-oh-RAW-doh linguistic war quietly occuring here in Colorado. Unlike Neh-VAD-uh, there's been no move to consensus. BTW, ColoRADo should rhyme with NeVADa.
 
Two interesting ones in the Raleigh-Durham market with US Highways...

1. US 15 runs concurrent with US 501 from Interstate 85 in Durham south through much of the western side of the market and is correctly referred to as "15-501". However, there is no such animal as 15-501 north of Interstate 85, though the 30-mile stretch of US 501 north of Durham to Roxboro is inaccurately called "15-501" by locals, on some maps, and occasionally in the media (US 15 leaves Durham via I-85 North and exits the interstate just inside Granville County).

2. US 64 roughly bisects the market, going through the cities of Raleigh and Cary. Local media, namely CBS affiliate WRAL and, sometimes, all-news station WPTF have incorrectly referred to US 64 as "I-64", though that highway runs through that other state capital about 140 miles up the road. Guess they figure if both capitals can have radio stations named WRVA, we can both have an I-64 as well ;D
 
US 64 roughly bisects the market, going through the cities of Raleigh and Cary. Local media, namely CBS affiliate WRAL and, sometimes, all-news station WPTF have incorrectly referred to US 64 as "I-64"
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US-64 and US-1 combine on the southwest side of Raleigh, circle around Raleigh as part of the I-440 "Beltline", and then both exit to the north and east.

It is still common to see part of that stretch referred to as "US 1-64", and I would guess that some of the new-to-the market folks interpret that as "Eye-Sixty-Four" before being corrected.
 
A quick glance at some maps (without the shields) could certainly cause some to mistake the "1" for an "I". I've always thought that the 1-64 route sharing, when announced in traffic reports as "U.S. 1-64", sounds as if they're referring to a U.S. 164. (We do have a U.S. 264 in Raleigh.) In radio, though, where brevity is key, "1-64" does flow much better than "US 1-US 64"
 
ixnay said:
Perhaps Roanoke, VA with Interstates 81 and 581? Or Augusta, GA with I's-20 and 520?
Click to expand...

Roanoke is not really big enough for regular TV or radio traffic reports, but weather or truck crash related problems on I-81 get reported often.

It's never "the interstate" as far as I remember, it's much simpler to just say "81".

I-581's only traffic headaches are at a couple of the offramps, downtown and down in the 419/Electric Road area, and they are minor. (Before 419, 581's designation goes away, and it's U.S. 220.)

Oh, and of course, any spill over from 81 to the onramps/offramps from 581.
 
Traffic reports can be puzzling to outsiders. There's all those Chicago examples; in Pittsburgh there's Parkway East, Parkway West, Parkway North.
Philly has "the Schuykill" etc

Boston reports: "the gas tanks" (off I-93); "the jug handle lights" (Rt 1 Peabody); "the TV tower" (Ch 38 Brighton?). I-95 and 128 are concurrent for many miles but only "128" may be heard etc
 
Here in Seattle the only thing that annoys me about our traffic reports is that one particular reporter on weekends on the news station will say blocking lane 1, while everyone else will say blocking the right center lane. Houston is another one that kind of annoys me, having been there once. I would recognize the beltway as 610, but I couldn't figure out what they were talking about when they referenced the North Freeway. It turns out that is a section of 45 north of town. One thing that annoys me about Los Angeles although I heard this locally a week or so ago, reporters that put the sponsor
 
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