Whatever happened to North and South?

[theoriginalblurker]

I've lived in Houston for 10 years now, and you would think that I would have learned the names and directions of all the main streets around here. 




For those of you not familiar with Houston, there are 3 concentric circles of highway around "downtown."  Working from the inside out, you have 610, Beltway 8, and Highway 6.  There are then several highways that cross through these circles at various points.  Interstate 10 cuts through horizontally, just north of the center, Interstate 45 runs through at a tilt from about 5 o'clock to 11 o'clock (well, 4:30 to 11:30, really), and 59 comes in from 7:30, takes a quick turn in the center, and continues north through about 1 o'clock.

Then there are a few major freeways that start/end at 610, such as 288, which goes straight down from the middle (through 6 o'clock) and 290, which runs NW out from 610 through about 10 o'clock.

Mapquest has a pretty good picture for those of you who are now totally confused. 

All this would be very simple to remember, if people used the same names for these streets wherever they were located.  Unfortunately, however, there is a north freeway, a southwest freeway, Katy Road, the beltway, the loop (containing a south loop, east loop, and west loop, but, mysteriously, no north loop), the gulf freeway, and the tollway, all of which were also listed in my original list of highway names.

The trick is where you are located.  For example on I-45, if you are north, it's the North freeway, and if you are south, it's the Gulf freeway.  However, I have no idea where the magic N/S dividing line happens to exist.  But even with this confusion I might be able to figure it all out if they only used a reasonable method of description when referring to a highway location.

I present, for your edification, the silliness of Inbound and Outbound.

When I'm tooling along southbound on I-45, listening to the radio for the traffic report, I often hear something like this: "There's an accident inbound on 45 just before [insert the name of a street which I have never heard] causing a backup all the way to [insert the name of another street unknown to me]."  WTF?  How does this help me?  These radio announcers constantly use inbound and outbound when referring to a direction.  Why not north or south?  Or even (dare I suggest?) southwest?  How do I know whether you are moving toward downtown or away from downtown when I don't know the names of every cross-street in existence?

This was not the case in S. Florida, where I grew up, nor was it the case in mid-Michigan, where I grew embittered.  Why is it like this in Houston?  Do these people not like the idea of compass directions?  Is it too clear??  Perhaps the first compass was engineered by a Yankee, and so is anathema to the great state of Tejas.



I will never learn to orient myself with respect to this enigmatic "downtown" of which they speak.  Never.

Comments

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

My guess on the traffic report thing is that they've decided that if you haven't heard of the street, it isn't on your commute. Otherwise you'd think to yourself, "Oh, damn, I pass that exit every day. Guess I'm in for a bit of a wait."

The traffic reports around here (for all that I've ever managed to listen to them, since I ignore them as a car-less person) use "inbound" and "outbound" only to refer to the tunnels and bridges, which makes perfect sense. "Inbound" is ALWAYS towards Manhattan. The other roads seem to get more of the "northbound" and "southbound" type treatment.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

I suppose my problem is magnified every time I move and my commute changes. Also, depending on the day, I am either driving home, or to rehearsal, or some other random location.

I maintain that inbound and outbound only make sense when they do not change depending on how far you've gone. The tunnels to Manhattan are a good example.

[gentlyepigrams]

You furriners are funny. I've never had any problem with deciphering the traffic reports, just with them being wrong.

Inbound and outbound make sense because some of the freeways bend. The Southwest Freeway comes in at about 7:30 until it hits Westpark, where it turns and parallels the Katy (east-west) the rest of the way to downtown. Also, technically, there is southeast-bound and northwest-bound on the Northwest Freeway and the Gulf Freeway.

On 45 technically there is another section, the Pierce Elevated. If you're north/west of that, you're on the North Freeway; if you're south/east of it, you're on the Gulf Freeway. I would call the dividing line for 59 about where it hits 45/288, and "downtown" on 10 as the part between where it crosses 45 and where it crosses 59.

There is a North Loop. I used to live not too far from it. But I'm a native, so I understand the difference between West Loop North and West Loop South. Not to mention the difference between Sam Houston Tollway and Sam Houston Parkway, because I remember before they finished building that. :)

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

So I need to have been born here to truly understand? That sounds familiar. Sort of like those mandatory Texas History classes. ;)

West Loop North and West Loop South make perfect sense, since they are stable directions. All you need to know is the template (Loop Location - Direction) to understand.

But when is 10 the Katy Freeway and when is it I-10?

[gentlyepigrams]

I would say it's the Katy between about 45 on the east end and somewhere between 6 and Katy itself on the west end. It's always technically correct to call it I-10, but it makes you sound like you're not local.

And you should stop getting your traffic information from the radio. The TAMU web site with the data from the EZ Tags is much more accurate about freeway slowdowns, anyway.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

I check TAMU before I leave, but traffic changes so suddenly that I like to keep an ear open while driving, especially on 45 when I'm driving from HP to Rice.

...and I get to listen to those conservative talk shows as well. ;)

[nicoleallee.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was Katy after 610 on the east end and Katy on the West end. The part between 610 and 45 that *always* floods I don't think of as being part of the "Katy freeway".

Of course, I do think of it as being a river...

[gentlyepigrams]

I'd say check the road signs, but there's not a lot of frontage on 10 inside the Loop west of downtown. I think on what there is, they say Katy, though.

[crusherdisciple.livejournal.com]

Reason # 461 why La Bunny is glad that she rides the bus to work.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

Hey, you forgot the East freeway to "Pasa-(git-down)-dena" and the EasTex (that's I-10 eastbound on the far side of downtown and 59N to Humble).

Also, Highways have names! The Lloyd Bensen has fewer lanes than the Nolan Ryan Expressway.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's right, the dreaded EasTex! I never knew they meant 59N, thanks.

Man, it's a good thing I have such a marvelous sense of direction. I always know where I am, I just don't know what to call it.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

Houston's highways are constructed like a spiderweb. Inbound is meaningful, as long as the announcers are consistent. There's a wreck on the North Freeway Outbound at Kuykendahl that has traffic snarled all the way to the loop is a meaningful piece of info. If they sub in I-45 for North Freeway, it's a little less meaningful. What it means, btw, is "take the Hardy."

The EasTex goes to East Texas. The Gulf freeway goes to Galveston. The Baytown-East (aka the BEast) goes to Baytown and Pasadena, the Katy goes to Katy, the Southwest goes southwest to Victoria, the North Freeway goes to Dallas and Yankeeland. The Nolan Ryan Expressway goes to Clute and Lake Jackson. The Hardy goes to the Woodlands by way of the airport.

It's all so simple, really. And the Katy goes to Wisconsin.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is, if I knew where the roads were called by different names, I would know whether I was going north or south when the radio folks say "inbound."

Damn. It always comes down to more work for me, doesn't it?

;)

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

The names are descriptive. "Hmm. I live between Houston and Katy, it's likely that a freeway Houstonians call the Katy Freeway is important to me. However, the Gulf freeway is only important to me if I want to go to the gulf of mexico, or perhaps to a Gulf station."

"I-10 is slow from Navigation to the loop" provides inadequate information.

[drelmo.livejournal.com]

I hear 610 on the north side of downtown referred to as the North Loop all the time.

I HATE giving freeways names. They have numbers for a reason! Numbers are unambiguous. If, say, I'm a Rice grad student recently moved to Houston, I have no idea where Katy is, no reason to know where Katy is (or even if it's a place--the Bentsen freeway doesn't go to Bentsen), I couldn't guess where the Katy freeway is, but I can sure locate I-10.

[kcarp.livejournal.com]

I'm in Wisconsin.

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Katy

[veazeyae.livejournal.com]

Whew.

And I thought Memphis and Birmingham was bad.

Y'all have my sincere sympathies...

[veazeyae.livejournal.com]

er, that's *were* bad.

[paracoon.livejournal.com]

I wasn't born here, and I think Houston makes perfect sense :)

But then, I was born in Boston, which makes *no* sense.