At times I’m fascinated by policy, so I wondered how the “Interstate Highway System” came to be known as such. Early on, the name, “National System of Interregional Highways”, was suggested, but the word “Interregional” caused some friction:
Mr. MacDonald. The National Interregional Highway Committee was appointed by the President in 1941 and he also directed me, to get this report out. The Public Roads Administration was responsible for the preparation of the whole report.Mr. Peterson. But it incorporates this interregional idea that they had initiated?
Mr. MacDonald. Yes. There is absolutely no significance in this interregional term.
Mr. Peterson. Wouldn’t the discussion of strategic highways be a much smoother proposition than interregional highways?
Mr. MacDonald. Yes. We wanted to get away from the idea of transcontinental highways because that was associated with a lot of schemes that we thought were wholly unsound. We also wanted to get away from the use of the term “superhighways.” There is no intention, where a two-lane highway is adequate, as it is on some of these western routes, of building a superhighway of 4 or 6 or 12 lanes as some people have advocated.
And people accuse DC folks of living in a bubble 
In typical Cali style, it goes by:
- Santa Monica Freeway
- Rosa Parks Freeway
- Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway
- Veterans Memorial Highway
- Blue Star Memorial Highway
- Sonny Bono Memorial Freewa
- Doctor June McCarroll Memorial Freeway
In AZ:
- Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway
- Papago Freeway
- Maricopa Freeway
- Pima Freeway
The “Land of Enchantment”, New Mexico, is having none of your “naming” or “conventions”, and Interstate 10 is known as:
- Interstate 10
Texas:
- Northwest Expressway
- McDermott Freeway
- East Expressway
- José López Freeway
- Katy Freeway
- Baytown East Freeway
- Gateway East
- Gateway West
- Hell
In Louisiana;
- Stephen Ambrose Memorial Highway
- Pontchartrain Expressway
- Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway
Mississippi and Alabama are unable to spell “highway” and prefer to call it:
- That road we ain’t painted with Confed’rat flags (yet)
And Florida stuck with what I think is a pretty good name for the road:
- Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway
