[Ads-l] surface roads/streets

[Dan Goncharoff]

My understanding was always that surface line was used in the rail/trolley
biz in NYC back in the 19th century, and surface street was used as a
retronym contrast to highways right from the conception of highways.

Google has a map with a fragment view that mentions "Manhattan surface
streets" in a 1937 doc about the Queens-Midtown Tunnel (opened in 1940).

On Mon, Sep 12, 2022, 4:19 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> When is a street ever a freeway??
>
> On Mon, Sep 12, 2022, 12:55 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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:
>>
>> ---
>> 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.:
>>
>> ---
>> 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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org