[Talk-us] Mass Pike naming convention

[Mike Thompson]

I was able to find some additional evidence that the name
"Massachusetts Turnpike" is in common usage:

It seems that at least one local news source (from 2017) uses
"Massachusetts Turnpike" in its reporting[0]

Here is another article referring to the "Massachusetts Turnpike", this one
from 2020[1]

Here is a photo of an actual sign on the highway (at a toll plaza) stating
"Massachusetts Turnpike"[2], it is time stamped 2016.

Yet another article (from 2019) using the term "Massachusetts Turnpike"[3]

Mike

[0]
https://www.masslive.com/news/boston/2017/08/all_mass_turnpike_lanes_reopen.html
[1]
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2083294992978/police-pursuit-down-massachusetts-turnpike-ends-in-crash-at-framingham-exit
[2] https://malmeroads.net/mass21c/i90toll1016f.JPG
[3]
https://www.masslive.com/traffic/2019/12/crash-causes-45-mile-traffic-backup-on-massachusetts-turnpike.html

On Tue, Jul 5, 2022 at 4:23 PM Mike Thompson <miketho16 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Jul 5, 2022 at 2:53 PM Brian M. Sperlongano <zelonewolf at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> My read of group consensus is that we have
>>>
>>>   - 4 in favor of using the official name
>>>   - 1 in favor of using the shortened version
>>>   - wiki and precedent is very strong in "don't abbreviate" (and I
>>>     realize you are saying it isn't an abbreviation)
>>>
>>
>> That tally-up doesn't include the parallel discussion [1] in
>> #local-massachusetts on Slack.  Don't worry, there's a screenshot below so
>> you don't have to log into Slack to see it.  With that and by my count, you
>> have three people that have lived in Massachusetts at some point in their
>> lives (myself included) understanding Mass Pike as the on-the-ground name,
>> one opposed, and three folks from out of state who understand it as an
>> abbreviation.
>>
> I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the views put forth by those of us who
> have not resided in Massachusetts.  While we need to respect local
> communities, we should also strive (even if sometimes in vain) for some
> consistency, and this decision - regardless of what that is - will be used
> as precedent for future decisions which might be closer to home for those
> of us not residing in Massachusetts.
>
>
>>
>> Now, if "Mass Pike" is an abbreviation that's just pervasively common,
>> then of course I have no leg to stand on here.  If it's entrenched to the
>> point of being a common name and not an abbreviation (my contention), then
>> it's consistent with the state and country naming examples above.  "Pike"
>> isn't even the abbreviation for "Turnpike".  Per the FHWA, Turnpike is
>> abbreviated "Trnpk" [2].  If this road were being abbreviated, it would be
>> "MA Trnpk" or "Mass. Trnpk" or "Massachusetts Trnpk".
>>
> To my knowledge, in the English language, there isn't any one official way
> of abbreviating a given word.  The US Postal Service has standardized on
> two letter state abbreviations, but in another context if one chooses to
> use a different abbreviation, such as "Mass" I don't think it would be
> considered wrong[0].  Also "Mass Pike" is a lot easier to pronounce than
> "MA Trnpk", and "Mass" was the traditional abbreviation for
> Massachusetts[1] before the USPS standardized on two letter state
> abbreviations sometime in the 1970's. Incidentally, saving printed space is
> only one of the reasons for using abbreviations, they are also used for
> quick and easy pronunciation.
>
>>
>>
>> In my opinion, in the absence of a single on-the-ground example of the
>> fully-spelled-out name, at least that I've been able to find, I think it's
>> a hard sell to call this a simple abbreviation.  A contemporary example of
>> "Massachusetts Turnpike" signed on the ground would go a long way to
>> satisfy my complaint.
>>
> It's not a sign on the ground, but Wikipedia has an entry for
> "Massachusetts Turnpike" [3], but not for "Mass Pike" (searching for
> "MasspIke" or "Mass Pike" redirects to "Massachusetts Turnpike.").  The
> article states that "Mass Pike" is used "colloquially"
>
>
>
>> Without that, it looks stupid on the map
>>
> Don't tag for the renderer. Submit a pull request for the style/app in
> question to look at other name related tags.
>
>
> Mike
>
> [0] The Wikipedia page for U.S. postal abbreviations (
> https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._postal_abbreviations) states that
> "in other contexts, such as newspaper articles, the traditional
> abbreviations for the states are used."
> [1]
> https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_traditional_abbreviation
> [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Turnpike
>
>>
>>
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