The warm weather has finally arrived here in the Midwest, so that can only mean two things: construction and ghastly traffic joy rides and road trips! So, in honor of these annual summertime traditions, today’s post explains how to write names of highways, streets, and other roadways in sentences.
1. Capitalize Road-Related Terms in Formal Names
Capitalize road-related terms such as highway, expressway, interstate, street, road, avenue, drive, boulevard, and route when they are part of formal names.1
The Kennedy Expressway is part of Interstate 190, Interstate 90, and Interstate 94.
The kitten was rescued between Madison and Monroe Streets.
The National Mascot Hall of Fame is located at 1907 Front Street in Whiting, Indiana.
Important Note: If you follow The Associated Press Stylebook, see the Style Guide Alert at the bottom of this post for clarification on AP style’s recommendations for roadway names, which differ from the general guidelines explained above.
2. Lowercase Standalone Road-Related Terms
Lowercase road-related terms such as highway, expressway, interstate, street, road, avenue, drive, boulevard, and route when used alone even if you are referring to a specific roadway.2
Shooting Park Road goes through Peru, Illinois; it is the main road to many local businesses.
Life on the highway is a popular theme in country and rock music.
Further Reading: How to Write Compass Points in Sentences
Style Guide Alert: The Associated Press Stylebook (AP style) recommends lowercasing any road-related term in combined names if the term is the same for both names.3 AP style also recommends abbreviating avenue (Ave.), boulevard (Blvd.) and street (St.) when used in a singular, formal name preceded by an address number.4
The kitten was rescued between Madison and Monroe streets.
The National Mascot Hall of Fame is located at 1907 Front St. in Whiting, Indiana.
Unless you must adhere to AP style, strongly consider capitalizing all road-related terms in formal names within sentences, as explained in the first section above, because AP style’s complex capitalization guidelines for roadways may cause your readers to think your text includes typos. For example, they might wonder “Why is avenue capitalized on page one but not on page three?”
References
- The Associated Press Stylebook 2019 (New York: Associated Press, 2019), 6, 136–7; The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 8.56, 9.51.
- The Associated Press Stylebook 2019 (New York: Associated Press, 2019), 6, 136–7; The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 8.56.
- The Associated Press Stylebook 2019 (New York: Associated Press, 2019), 6.
- The Associated Press Stylebook 2019 (New York: Associated Press, 2019), 6.
Hi Erin,
Thanks for your helpful guides in how to write names of highways, etc. I’m struggling to know how to write names of freeways as used primarily by Californians. Their habit, now spreading across the country, is to call freeways by their numbers with the definite article “the” in front. So…”the 405″ or “the 101”, etc. In writing text, such as in an essay or book, how does one write this informal name for a proper noun of the highway as it is now so prevalent as to be like the nickname of Mike from Michael? Appreciate your thought on this.
Hi, Holly. That is a very interesting question! Here in the Midwest, I haven’t noticed a common use of the before highway numbers…yet. In a formal, nonfiction text for a general audience, I would remove the in favor of a descriptor word such as interstate (e.g., “Over 100 trillion cars drive on Interstate 405 [or, I-405] every day.”). However, if you are writing a formal, nonfiction text specially for Californians, you may want to follow whatever format is used by California’s department of transportation.