text: why do we park on driveways, drive on park ways, and pay tolls on freeways?   in the case of large estates, before we had suburbs, a driveway was the road that leads to the house from the public road. so you drive on it.  historically, the term "parkway" has often implied that the road was designed specifically with a naturalistic or manicured landscaping of the median and adjacent land areas. like a park.  freeways are named so because they have high speed limits and allow cars to move "freeeeely" without the burden of traffic lights or stop signs.  so that's why