Freeways are a way of life in a lot of places. I lived in southern California from 1978 until 2004. In southern California, we were used to driving everywhere by freeway. The tangle of freeways can take you north or south; east or west; and in a lot of cases diagonally. As an example, when I used to go to Target, I would leave my house and get on the 2 Freeway and take it to the 134 and that to the 210 and then reverse it on the way home. To go to Los Angeles International Airport to pick someone up, I would get on the 2 and take it to the 134 and the 134 to the 5 and then the 5 to the11 and the 11 to the 105 and the 105 to the 405.
Up here in northern California I find it interesting that people think it is too far to drive from Santa Rosa to Sebastopol, a distance of less than ten miles. In Los Angeles the closest it was not unusual to drive 20 miles to Target or 30 miles to meet a friend for lunch or coffee. A lot of families had their kids enrolled in music or dance lessons that required them to drive 40 miles from home several times a week. It was no big deal. That is just the way of life there. Here, if it isn’t next door or down the street, people don’t go or they think more than twice before they do it.
One thing I have noticed between northern and southern California is the “respect” given to the freeway system. In the northern California area, people refer to the freeway by number or name with nothing before it. In southern California people refer to freeways by the number or name, but they also include “the” before it. A drive to Orange County would take you on THE 5. In northern California a drive to Sacramento would take on you on 5 (no “the” in front of it). Same freeway. Same state. Just a different attitude. To me, it seems that in southern California freeways take on the aspect of a person, a character, an entity. In northern California, it’s just a freeway.
What a difference!
Wasted Days And Wasted Nights 
well in southern california,, they have freeways,, here in northern california we have two lane paths…i have lived in six states,, and i have never lived anywhere with such an antiquated freeway system… personally, i avoid the “101 trail” at all cost…..
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Very interesting… language certainly reflects attitude.
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I grew up in SoCal, though I left 30 years ago (ack! I’m old!). Back then (oh god, did I really say that) we usually referred to the freeways by their god-given names – Take the Golden State Freeway (aka 5) to the Pasadena Freeway (whose number I have forgotten), etc. etc. I found it oddly impersonal when I moved up to Northern California and found the freeways virtually nameless.
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LadyBuddhist, they still do that in southern California, that is use the name of the freeway instead of the number (especially after they changed numbers a while back, the 7 becoming the 710, but always being the Long Beach Freeway). The difference between the north and south is that in the north we don’t say THE 101 or THE 680. We say “Take 101 north” or “I was on 680. Southern California people, when they are up here would say “I was on THE 680.
Interesting note is that I was born and raised in San Jose (northern California for those that don’t know) and I grew up with the names of the freeways. We took Bayshore or Nimitz or Junipero Serra. I moved out of northern California in 1978. When I came back a few years ago, no one used the names any more, only numbers.
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I found all that talk of freeways kind of intimidating. That’s one way I think these rural areas have it all over the big cities. I dread navigating my way through city traffic, or spending much of my life in a car.
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