"The" highway question

I've been spending some time in CA lately and although I picked up on it a few years ago, I never thought to ask who else does it.
Everyone in CA refers to a highway by preceding it with "The". Ie: "take The 101". In NJ and every other state I've been to in th U.S. it's simply the route/hwy number without having the utilize the word "The" before it. Ie: "take 22".

So my question is, what other states do this as the norm. If it's only in CA, anyone know why?

 

...in my experience it's largely a phenomenon of the L.A. area... one guess is that they started prefixing the "the" in talking about roadways because the highways, and the side effects of them, became influential to everyday life there... a second guess might be a modification of the first, in adding that folks there seem to profess a high esteem for their congested corner of the world...

 

never been out west but this is an interesting subject to bring up. we reference "77" around here and say the second example you presented. Guess it's like saying "y'all' and "you guys"

 

Not unique to CA. I think it's common to prefix the highway when it has three digits or three letters, "the 405", "the PCH", "the FDR" (New York) etc. But you wouldn't say "the 10" or "the 91".

 

that actually makes a lot of phonetic sense...i like it

 

Not common in tx that I'm aware of. I never say take the i10 or the 45 I say take i10 or take 45. Putting the In front makes no sense to me.