🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3269C25C.55F3@uclink4.berkeley.edu> Jeff Bishop <jwbishop@uclink4.berkeley.edu> writes:

> John R. Grout wrote:
> 
> > No, it is not an oxymoron... "free" is a reference to the flow of
> > traffic which is optimized by limited access (the legal definition).
> 
> Well, I guess that makes American Heritage Dictionary's second
> definition an "illegal" one?
> 
> free-way. n. 1. See expressway. 2. A highway without tolls.

The state of California, and a number of other Western and Southwestern
states, have defined a "freeway" as a highway where owners of adjacent
property do _not_ have the right to access the highway (as they would
otherwise).  As I mentioned before, this abridgement of those property owner's
rights is intended to improve traffic flow (and, of course, safety too).
Elsewhere in the country, the term freeway is more informal, and "expressway"
is heard more often (e.g., in the Northeast where I grew up).

As for the second definition above... I'm guessing that that usage evolved
outside the states where "freeway" means something specific and legal, and I
still maintain that it is bad usage when discussing highway projects in states
where it is a legally defined term.
-- 
John R. Grout	Center for Supercomputing R & D		j-grout@uiuc.edu
Coordinated Science Laboratory     University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign