The Brave Astronaut is wrapping up a trip through the Empire State this week, having attended the Spring 2014 MARAC Meeting in Rochester, New York. There was a lot of driving on roads with both names and numbers.
Growing up, one referred to the Long Island Expressway as that - not 495 (its Interstate Number). The New York State Thruway (which we spent a fair amount of time on this week) was not I-87 or I-90 - it was just the Thruway. Living in Maryland it is always the Beltway, I-95 is I-95 (though it gets confusing sometimes because the Beltway is also I-95 at points and there's I-95 in both Maryland and Virginia.
Most of the other major arteries in the DC area Wisconsin Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, Georgia Avenue, etc., also have numerical designations for them in the state of Maryland. Route 50 in Maryland is also named the "John Hanson Highway" and MD Route 410 is known by other names than just "East-West Highway." Then there's always US Route 1, with it's many monikers.
Some time ago, the website, Greater Greater Washington, posted an article on this "phenomena." A little consistency would be nice. If I have to travel a road, I would like for it to stay with me for the time that I'm going to be on it. That would lead me to think about sticking with a number, because the names can change several times, sometimes within minutes.
Thoughts? How is it for you? What are you used to?
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