3 Months in Pittsburgh - Thoughts

[francisco1844]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

Yep, 45mph is fast to natives.

Hm.. Then I guess all the people around me in my commute are not natives. I usually drive around 60mph to not be the slowest vehicle on the road and I may as well be standing still as I see cars zipping by.

What I find funniest is how people seem to overcompensate on hills and seem to drive even faster than on flat/downhill.

Coming from NYC, I think drives here seem much nicer.. but it seems 65mph to 70mph is what a good half of the drives around me (if not more) do.

[greenerpastures79]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Like West Coast they use "The" before every interstate hwy route...."The 5", "The 105", "The 405"...I never understood this....

i lived in the LA area for a few years. I noticed that same thing as soon as i got there. The only things i could think of were 1) that, because there are just soooo many freeways out there, it might have been naturally convenient to begin saying "the" before the freeway designation to quickly distinguish one from the many others; as if to pick one from a large selection, it'd be smoother to say "the"-whatever freeway you're talking about. Or 2) the influence of the large spanish-speaking population there that would likely say, in spanish, "tienes que tomar el 5...", or "toma el 10 y despues cambia al for-o-faee" ("take the 5..." or "take the 10 and then switch to the 405"). Just a thought.

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

East Coast says just the route "95, "76", "295", "79", "80", "70".....

Yes, in the NE I notice those references but mostly north of NYC (from westchester county and further north, upstate), or in NJ, and parts of far eastern LI, but virtually never by city NYers.

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Yes Philadelphia uses the term "Expressway"....and NYC actually goes by the names of the Highways themselves instead of Routes or a General term like "Freeway/Expressway/Parkway...."The Grand Central", "The West Side Hwy", " The FDR", "The Prospect Parkway" "The L.I.E" The Bruckner/Deegan/Hutchinson".....

Yes, city NYers (from the 5 boroughs) usually say the actual name of the highway rather than its digital nomenclature. That's possibly because NYers mostly see highway entrances and interchanges displaying the highway's name instead of the route number, so we call them as we see them and then get to know those names rather than the route numbers (which, btw, is the opposite in most of the western US, where one mostly sees highway entrances and interchanges displaying the highway's digital route number instead of the highway name--except on maps or on the actual highway guide signs). Also city NYers usually call any general highway a "highway", but if its name has "expressway" or "parkway" in it, then we'll say "take the parkway/expressway to..." in reference to that specific highway.