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Houston's directional freeways


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I have to admit, I kind of like Houston's freeway naming scheme of basing it after where it goes but I have to wonder why it's not applied consistently.

To date, we have (moving counterclockwise):

North Freeway - I-45N

Northwest Freeway - US-290

Katy Freeway - I-10W (I read that early on this was "West Freeway" but I don't know if when it opened it was known as that or changed before)

Southwest Freeway - US-59S

South Freeway - TX-288

Gulf Freeway - I-45S (Why isn't this Southeast Freeway?)

East Freeway - I-10E

Eastex Freeway - US-59N (Why isn't this Northeast Freeway?)

So we have 8 freeways with good names but three oddballs. West Freeway was renamed for a reason I can't remember but it was supposed to be named that, Gulf Freeway, no idea but at least the "Gulf" makes sense, and "Eastex"? Where did that even come from?

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So we have 8 freeways with good names but three oddballs. West Freeway was renamed for a reason I can't remember but it was supposed to be named that, Gulf Freeway, no idea but at least the "Gulf" makes sense, and "Eastex"? Where did that even come from?

 

You forgot the La Porte Freeway (aka Pasadena Freeway)

 

I believe the Gulf Freeway name was picked from a contest.

 

Eastex freeway goes to EAST TEXas.  *Also named from a contest

 

Also, I think, officially the East Freeway was renamed the Baytown East Freeway after a campaign by the City of Baytown in 90s.

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You forgot the La Porte Freeway (aka Pasadena Freeway)

 

I believe the Gulf Freeway name was picked from a contest.

 

Eastex freeway goes to EAST TEXas.  *Also named from a contest

 

Also, I think, officially the East Freeway was renamed the Baytown East Freeway after a campaign by the City of Baytown in 90s.

 

I don't think I-10 East has ever been officially renamed "Baytown-East Freeway."

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You forgot the La Porte Freeway (aka Pasadena Freeway)

 

I believe the Gulf Freeway name was picked from a contest.

 

Eastex freeway goes to EAST TEXas.  *Also named from a contest

 

Also, I think, officially the East Freeway was renamed the Baytown East Freeway after a campaign by the City of Baytown in 90s.

Well, La Porte Freeway TX-225 I left out because even it goes off of 610 but doesn't go anywhere after that. US-59 goes to Laredo at the Mexican border and Texarkana at the other end. Northwest Freeway goes to Austin and beyond, I-45 goes to Dallas and terminates at Galveston, I-10 stretches from coast to coast, and 288 goes to Freeport (admittedly not as long as others) but 225 goes from the Loop to La Porte.

And yes, I realize that the highways have different names in other cities too...(Santa Monica Freeway is also I-10, but not here!)

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Katy Freeway - I-10W (I read that early on this was "West Freeway" but I don't know if when it opened it was known as that or changed before)

 

It's been called the Katy Freeway for as long as I can remember, which goes back to when it stretched all the way from Post Oak to Bunker Hill.  It was built over Katy Road, which was a four lane undivided road, similar to Hempstead Highway; Old Katy was on the other side of the MKT railroad tracks.  

 

There were some West Fwy street signs put up at some frontage road intersections (in the 70s IIRC), but they didn't last very long. 

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It's been called the Katy Freeway for as long as I can remember, which goes back to when it stretched all the way from Post Oak to Bunker Hill. It was built over Katy Road, which was a four lane undivided road, similar to Hempstead Highway; Old Katy was on the other side of the MKT railroad tracks.

There were some West Fwy street signs put up at some frontage road intersections (in the 70s IIRC), but they didn't last very long.

I have a Key Map from 1993-94 that labels the inner loop stretch of I-10 West from I-45 to I-610, as the "West Freeway". But outside of the loop it's labeled "Katy Freeway". Maybe since the inner loop stretch of I-10 West is so short, the "West Freeway" moniker never took off?

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I believe it will be named Aggie Expressway once after upcoming expansions.

Yeah, but 249 doesn't even factor in to the directional freeways at all. As a freeway, it's only that past the Outer Belt, so it was just a blip on the radar as far as highways were concerned when the others were named. I don't think it became a freeway at all until the early 1980s.

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Officially, Spur 527 is also the Southwest Freeway, since it was where US 59 formerly transitioned from the Southwest Freeway and onto city streets until the early 70s.

That's interesting. So the US-59 portion south of Midtown should actually be the Eastex Freeway and not Southwest Freeway?

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Southwest Fwy is also titled Lloyd Bensten highway. I'm not sure how long this has been the case but I recently noticed brown signs indicating this designation. Personally I'm not a fan of naming highways after people because the name is arbitrary to the direction. In a huge fan of naming based of direction or major city/town in the path (I.e. Katy). Naming after senators and the like seems very chicagoish

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Yeah, but 249 doesn't even factor in to the directional freeways at all. As a freeway, it's only that past the Outer Belt, so it was just a blip on the radar as far as highways were concerned when the others were named. I don't think it became a freeway at all until the early 1980s.

For that matter, it didn't even become 249 at all until the 1980s. It used to be highway 149 when I was growing up, also known as West Mount Houston Rd. None of the freeway portion existed, nor did what's now the Sam Houston Tollway.

Freeways like 45 south were named way back when they were first constructed, in the Gulf freeway's case, as Highway 35. The age of what's now Texas 249 Tomball Parkway is a contributing factor to the lack of a directional name for it, as is the fact that it originates outside of the present day Beltway system. That and what would it be? The North-Northwest Freeway, lol.

225 is a little different, as it originates off of the Loop, and it is around 3 decades older than 249. It has always been named the La Porte Freeway as far as I go back. It might have had a chance at being named the Southeast Freeway, had it ever been completed.

It used to be that the directional names for the various freeways stopped outside of Houston, even the original Gulf. It has always stopped at the causeway, where it then becomes Highway 87 as Broadway. There is no North Freeway in The Woodlands or Spring, it's IH-45 North.

The Katy Freeway naming had as much to do with the train line that ran next to it, as it did the town in went to.

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Southwest Fwy is also titled Lloyd Bensten highway. I'm not sure how long this has been the case but I recently noticed brown signs indicating this designation. Personally I'm not a fan of naming highways after people because the name is arbitrary to the direction. In a huge fan of naming based of direction or major city/town in the path (I.e. Katy). Naming after senators and the like seems very chicagoish

Well, that and a "true rename" it's just not all that known. For instance, did you know that 290 from Beltway 8 to Waller County is actually the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway, and even put up real signage to that effect? Like Reagan's nickname, "the Teflon President"...it just doesn't stick. Raise of hands, how many of you actually were aware of 290's other name? I wasn't.

As for the Gulf Freeway, the reason it's not called the Southeast Freeway was because the Gulf Freeway, as I'm remembering, was a pre-Interstate "freeway".

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Well, that and a "true rename" it's just not all that known. For instance, did you know that 290 from Beltway 8 to Waller County is actually the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway, and even put up real signage to that effect? Like Reagan's nickname, "the Teflon President"...it just doesn't stick. Raise of hands, how many of you actually were aware of 290's other name? I wasn't.

As for the Gulf Freeway, the reason it's not called the Southeast Freeway was because the Gulf Freeway, as I'm remembering, was a pre-Interstate "freeway".

 

Oh yeah, Gulf Freeway started out as U.S. 75 before it was designated as I-45.  Anyways I always thought the Gulf Freeway was sort of a directional name. After all it is telling you where it's going, to the Gulf. Same with Eastex, it's going to East Texas although Eastex is slightly difficult to decipher. 

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Southwest Fwy is also titled Lloyd Bensten highway. I'm not sure how long this has been the case but I recently noticed brown signs indicating this designation. Personally I'm not a fan of naming highways after people because the name is arbitrary to the direction. In a huge fan of naming based of direction or major city/town in the path (I.e. Katy). Naming after senators and the like seems very chicagoish

I believe it's been called that since the mid 80's.

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Southwest Fwy is also titled Lloyd Bensten highway. I'm not sure how long this has been the case but I recently noticed brown signs indicating this designation. Personally I'm not a fan of naming highways after people because the name is arbitrary to the direction. In a huge fan of naming based of direction or major city/town in the path (I.e. Katy). Naming after senators and the like seems very chicagoish

 

When they make me king of the world, one of my first edicts will be to ban naming infrastructure after politicians.  Right after I ban calling non-parkways "parkways".

 

The Bentsen name for the Southwest Fwy never caught on, thank god.  I'm surprised there are still signs for it. 

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When they make me king of the world, one of my first edicts will be to ban naming infrastructure after politicians.  Right after I ban calling non-parkways "parkways".

 

The Bentsen name for the Southwest Fwy never caught on, thank god.  I'm surprised there are still signs for it. 

 

Right arm, S'dude.

 

Sports heroes are a different deal, IMO.  I wouldn't mind calling 288 the Nolan Ryan all the way into town (and I don't think I ever hear anyone call it "the South Freeway").  And if Spur 5 / TX 35 ever gets built out, I'm all for naming it after Jack Johnson (the Galveston Giant, not the musician).

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When they make me king of the world, one of my first edicts will be to ban naming infrastructure after politicians.  Right after I ban calling non-parkways "parkways".

 

The Bentsen name for the Southwest Fwy never caught on, thank god.  I'm surprised there are still signs for it. 

 

I'm not wholly against the naming infrastructure after politicians, but it should be after they're dead. Lots of things were named after Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, or Kennedy, but not before they were long passed out of the world of the living.

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Technically "Nolan Ryan Freeway" is a tad misguided since it doesn't go through Alvin.  If the Alvin Freeway had been built it would make sense there.  As a rule of thumb I would stick to naming freeways after their destination (eg Katy) and where they don't go anywhere in particular, the direction.  So 288 could be the Freeport Freeway, which has a nice ring, or even Clute Freeway.  

 

I would avoid even dead politician naming, since it only encourages them.

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I don't like anything named after politicians either, but I am all for tollways being named after politicians, especially busy and trafficy tollways.

 

That way it reminds us (even if on a subliminal level) that all they really do is take money from us and don't  provide any real benefit.

 

However, there are and should be exceptions to this, politicians that history names particularly influential in shaping our country. Naming things after Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, or Kennedy. I mean, these guys have monuments named after them and most have been carved into the sides of mountains. They deserve to have freeways named after them.

 

I'd say that a good way to make a distinction is to say when their impact transcends politics, but at that point, we're remembering them not as the politician.

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I'd say that a good way to make a distinction is to say when their impact transcends politics, but at that point, we're remembering them not as the politician.

 

Remember politicians (most at least ^_^ ) are also human beings capable of doing distinguished things. Is the Johnson Space Center named for the former senator and president because he was able to finagle that important facility for Texas or because he championed many other social programs for people throughout the nation? BTW, notable achievements for his nation or not, what does Ronald Reagan have to do with a stretch of U. S Highway 290?

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Remember politicians (most at least ^_^ ) are also human beings capable of doing distinguished things. Is the Johnson Space Center named for the former senator and president because he was able to finagle that important facility for Texas or because he championed many other social programs for people throughout the nation? BTW, notable achievements for his nation or not, what does Ronald Reagan have to do with a stretch of U. S Highway 290?

 

290 runs through a solid suburban voting block that is hardcore repulbican..... most of whom are republican b/c of the 'Reagan revolution'. Without Reagan, the suburban white voting block of the republican party may not exist.

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Either way, roads are never named after politicians unless they're well-liked by the area/nation as a whole. While I think Culberson gets more hate than he actually deserves, rest assured, he'll never get a road or a highway named after him. On the issue of Ronald Reagan Highway, how far should the N/S/E/W designations actually extend? Should/does the East Freeway remain that name out to Beaumont? Should the Northwest Freeway designation terminate at Hempstead officially?

I like the naming scheme for the highways, they're simple, they're to the point, and they're a description of where they go. Gulf. East Texas. Northwest. Katy. South.

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