> drive on THE 101
excuuuuuuse you? It's "drive on 101" in NorCal :P
in fact, use of the article before the highway number is a giveaway that the person is from elsewhere.
Eddie Izzard was joking in 1998 about the "The" and the prohibited names for The City (https://youtu.be/QRB_GhLXCds?si=R4kYkodzvYDxe33H&t=276), so it's probably been like this for many decades thence!
like "the tristate"
ride the BART
Funny enough, though, it wasn't until I moved here 15+ years ago that it struck me how odd it is to call it "the Bay Area" and expect people to know what that means. Nonetheless, sportscasters do it. Musicians do it. All other bay areas are just areas around bays...