Talk:highway

where does the term highway come from?

See etymology at highway. —Stephen 18:17, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Translations

Two meanings are given for "highway." The translations, however, are not sorted by sense. They should be sorted. --24.62.234.209 19:39, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

National differences?

I always felt that highway had different connotations in North America. Here (UK) it's potentially dated ("highway robbery" in the days of horse-drawn carriages), and the high-speed roads are motorways, but then it does occur in legalistic contexts like the "Highway Code" that new drivers must learn. Is it different in the US etc.? Equinox ◑ 02:12, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

@Equinox: Highway is a common, everyday word in the United States. What you refer to as motorways would be simply called highways where I live.

Granted, in my neck of the woods, we don't use "freeway" for any of our roads (as far as I know, anyway. I have never heard anyone call any of our roads "freeways"). So perhaps in parts of the United States that do use the term "freeway", "highway" may not be used as much. I don't know. Ask @Chuck Entz, I think that he lives in California, where "freeways" are a big thing. Tharthan (talk) 01:24, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, the M25 is a motorway. Saying "the M25 is a highway" sounds really funny. I'll take it to the Tea Room I suppose. Equinox ◑ 14:03, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

In LA, a highway is a major road outside the city. A freeway is a major road in the city that has only on-ramps and off-ramps- no intersections. The only thing free about it is that that it's not a toll road. Also, we have the sense of roads that are part of the state or federal highway systems and are designated with a number. Then there are oddities like Imperial Highway, which is just a city street, and certain city streets that also happen to be numbered state highways (though we don't refer to them by number). Route 66 is more of a historical oddity, since it predates the federal interstate highway system.

I live near the intersection of the Ventura Freeway (Highway 101) and the San Diego Freeway (Highway 405). The numbered highways and the freeways overlap, but aren't the same thing: the Ventura Freeway starts out as Highway 134 and Highway 101 starts out as the Hollywood Freeway until the Hollywood Freeway intersects with it, at which point the Ventura Freeway becomes Highway 101 and the Hollywood Freeway continues north as Highway 70. Of course, we usually just say "the 101" or "the 405". If I were giving directions from downtown, I would say "take the 101 to the 405 and get off at Victory, then take Victory...". It's very complicated, but it's so second-nature that we don't really think about it. It's very easy to tell if someone is from out of town by how they give directions- we sort of have our own language for that. Chuck Entz (talk) 15:41, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

My favourite kind of usage note is the one that lets me stalk you. Equinox ◑ 15:45, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

The usage in Canada is very similar to what Chuck Entz describes, except for the use of "freeway", which is not a word in my everyday vocabulary. It might be more common in more metropolitan areas like Toronto, but in Western Canada, even where we have the equivalent of freeways, they're just called highways. We also don't have toll roads here in the Prairies, so that's probably part of the reason "freeway" isn't used here. Andrew Sheedy (talk) 20:11, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Let me add that I don't even own or operate a vehicle (I never learned to drive; in the UK you can do pretty well with just the bus and rail service, because it's a small country). Given the above, I think that a usage note might be in order. Equinox ◑ 20:15, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Especially given that regional differences are rife for this concept even on an infranational level. Usage notes are definitely in order. Tharthan (talk) 16:25, 31 January 2021 (UTC)