I'm confused about the name of that 4-lane road in south Lincoln. You know the one. It crosses south Lincoln diagonally from the east until eventually it turns into 9th and 10th Streets. What's that road called?
I have always called it "Highway 2". That seems to make the most sense to me since it is, in fact, the route of Nebraska Highway 2. I think Highway 2 is the road's most common name.
The street signs, however, don't agree. They all call the road "Nebraska Highway". That has always struck me as a remarkably unspecific thing to call the road. After all, there are lots of Nebraska highways around the state. Just around Lincoln there are Nebraska Highway 79; Nebraska Highway 63; Nebraska Highway 43; Nebraska Highway 33; and so on. Nobody would ever call Highway 77 "U.S. Highway" and expect anybody to know what they are talking about. So why do our street signs do that with Highway 2?
I have pondered this name confusion for several years. It began back when I first heard about the South and East Beltways. I thought, if we're going to re-route Highway 2 onto the new South Beltway, we will need to rename the current stretch of pavement. From there I decided we should not only rename the road, we should redesign it as well. What is now Highway 2 should become Boosalis Boulevard. Or Lincoln Boulevard. Or whatever. The important part is the boulevard concept. The whole stretch should be prettied up with fancy medians and a more residential feel, rather than the highway-y ugliness that pervades much of the road today.
Actually I would love to put the boulevard plan into motion today. Alas, if we can't even find the will to prioritize the beltway there's no way we'll gain any traction toward the boulevard.
So back to my main point. It seems to me like the street signs should read "Nebraska Highway 2". If they're going to chop off a word, they should chop off "Nebraska", not "2". Can I get an amen?
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Amen.
Do you ever hear anyone refer to it as Nebraska Highway? Where is Taco John’s? It’s at 56th and Highway 2. Not 56th and Nebraska Highway.
If I heard a news reporter call it Nebraska Highway, I’d presume they just moved here and didn’t know any better.
These are great ideas, Mr. W.
I never call it “Nebraska Hwy” because that’s too easily confused with “Conhusker Hwy” at the other end of town. Yes, “Hwy 2” is sterile-sounding & generic, but if we want a more creative name, I prefer your ideas over “Nebraska Hwy”.
Because it is the one highway that stretches from SE Nebraska all the way to the NW corner of the panhandle it is called “The Nebraska Highway” for the entire stretch and not just the piece that is in Lincoln.
Of course, if you follow the exploits of a certain 1950’s criminal it could be called “The Starkweather Highway”.
I’ve never seen it called Nebraska Highway outside the city. Isn’t it always just labelled as Highway 2?
Actually Lincoln to Neb City is the Jerome and Betty Warner Memorial Highway and Neb City to the Bridge is the J. Sterling Morton Beltway.
When I first moved to Nebraska I was told that Highway 2 being the longest single highway in the state was called “The Nebraska Highway”. It was an old timer who told me the story.
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