Help me talk like a local.

[Onthe405]

At least we haven't begun giving them personhood status, like when they say The 5 or The 405 in Los Angeles. Then again, freeways are more tempermental in LA. We always include the I in the Interstate titling.

Actually, this isn't because of a perceived cultural phenomenon of granting freeways "personhood". It's simply a more practical, abbreviated way to refer to them since:


1. There are so many freeways, it's a simpler way to give directions-- or recite consistently long traffic reports--- in a shorter period of time. The word "the" is used largely as a separator/identifier since only numbers are referenced. A continuous recitation of a numeric string without it would be difficult to follow.


2. They geographically transverse large swaths, and are often times assigned many names along the entire course [[just as in Detroit: Lodge=Northwestern, Chrysler=Fisher, etc). The number covers the entire route.


3. They are a salad mix of state [[CA 2) vs federal [[US 101) vs interstate [[I 5) designations. These change on occasion, but the number [[when available) is intentionally kept the same for reference consistency--unlike the Lodge, which went from "I-696" to "US 10", then "Michigan 10".