[Ads-l] surface roads/streets

[Ben Zimmer]

On the latest episode of "That's What They Say" from Michigan Public Radio
(featuring Univ. of Michigan's Anne Curzan), they discuss a listener's
question about the expression "surface roads" or "surface streets."

https://www.michiganradio.org/podcast/thats-what-they-say/2022-09-11/twts-beneath-the-surface-road

Anne notes that "surface road" started out with the meaning given in Random
House Unabridged (and still on Dictionary.com): "a road or street level
with its surroundings," as in "surface roads and elevated highways." OED
defines "surface road" as "a road running along the surface of the ground,
as distinct from one which is elevated or underground," with the note, "In
early use applied to railroads; now more usually to roads for motor
vehicles."

As the listener observes, "surface roads" are now contrasted with
"highways." Anne says the meaning is "out there" but "you won't find it in
dictionaries yet." She cites an example from the US version of "The Office"
where a character who is supposed to be driving to the hospital asks,
"Highways or surface roads?"

Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/surface_street) doesn't have an
entry for "surface road" but it does have "surface street" with the newer
meaning: "A street that is not a freeway and has at-grade intersections
with other surface streets."

I associate this meaning of "surface street" with Los Angeles especially,
and sure enough, the databases take it way back in L.A. papers, with
"surface streets" contrasting with "freeways." Here it is from 1941 when
the freeway system was in its planning stages:

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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109416009/surface-streets/
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 19, 1941, p. 1, col. 8
"Need to Build Freeways Stressed at Hearing"
Members of the City Council's public works and State and county affairs
committees yesterday opened their public hearing on the City Planning
Commission's request for adoption of a system of 200 miles of freeways in
the city as part of the master plan for Los Angeles... Glenn A. Rick,
director of city planning, explained the program as one contemplating a
modern parkway system to handle the needs of the growing city and declared
the time had passed for handling city traffic by congested surface streets.
---

It's possible that early freeway planners envisioned an elevated system,
which would provide an obvious contrast to "surface" roads/streets. In any
case, by the '60s, the "freeway"/"surface street" distinction was very
common in SoCal, e.g.:

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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109415852/surface-streets/
Long Beach Press-Telegram, Oct. 25, 1968, p. 25, col. 5
You may feel you’re taking your life in your hands every time you drive on
the freeway, but your chances of being killed are actually much greater on
surface streets.
---

It's surprising that none of the major dictionaries have picked up on this
now-established meaning of "surface road/street."

--bgz

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