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".
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