Timeline for Difference between cycle and loop

4 events

when toggle format	what		by	license	comment
Feb 1, 2016 at 15:19	comment	added	Jay		The Interstate Highway System has a numbering scheme for this: Main highways are two-digit numbers, even for east-west and odd for north-south. Loops are three-digit numbers with the first digit even. Spurs -- roads that go from the main highway to a city that the highway misses -- are three-digit number with the first digit odd.
Feb 1, 2016 at 15:18	comment	added	Jay		@Msfolly When talking about highways in the U.S., we sometimes use "loop" to mean a road that goes around a city when the main highway goes through the city. Sometimes it's a circle that goes around the entire city, so you could start and end at the same point, but fairly often it's only part of a circle.
Jan 30, 2016 at 22:42	comment	added	Msfolly		We actually have official road signs in Atlanta, GA, USA that are referred to as, for instance, the "120 loop", etc. These roads are certainly not laid out in a circle, and indeed, do not return to the same place! They are referred to as loops because they enter and leave from the same road, if you stay on them long enough. (Imagine the loop part to the the curvy part of the letter P).
Mar 11, 2014 at 14:05	history	answered	Jay	CC BY-SA 3.0