[SOLAR_FIELDS]

Are you from Houston originally, by chance, or from a part of western Louisiana? Anytime I hear the word “feeder” it’s a dead giveaway the person either grew up near Houston area or hung around there long enough to use this word in their lexicon

[genewitch]

Nope! I'm from the state where i had to consciously not type "the 5, the 10" - California. I've lived in Louisiana for 12 years, total, now, though. I couldn't think of a better name for like the 405 or 710 than "feeders" - maybe tributary; i know there is a term of art for those freeways, though.

[SOLAR_FIELDS]

“Frontage” is the nomenclature I usually see in lieu of “feeder”. Though I agree that feeder is more descriptive of what the road actually does when we consider a road as being as a network or graph with flow.

Though the roads you reference would probably not be called “feeders” in the same way. I take feeder specifically in the Houstonian meaning to refer to a frontage road that is used for local access that runs parallel to a limited access highway. Notably it must run parallel to the highway and exist for the primary purpose of providing local ingress and egress while preserving the limited access nature of the highway.

[dmoy]

Beltway or bypass (or spur(?)) depending on the configuration.

405 in WA, OR, and CA are bypasses.

495 in DC is a beltway.

Minneapolis / St Paul has 394 - a spur (I guess?), 494/694 beltway, and 35E which really is a bypass but still carries a legacy name alongside 35W.