How old were you when you became a roadgeek?

[Roadgeekteen]

Age 6-7 for me.

[kphoger]

Probably about the same.  I drew road signs in the car as far back as I can remember drawing.

[SignGeek101]

I don't know who old I was when I became a signgeek.

I do know I got into signs (and road construction) sometime when I was 15-16 years old.

[D-Dey65]

Before I was even old enough to go to school.

[cjk374]

Before many of y'all were even a twinkle in your daddy's eye.

[Max Rockatansky]

When I was little kid, I loved cars and had some weird affinity with The Lodge Freeway in Detroit.  I used to build below surface level freeways in my sandbox for my Matchbox cars even though it required tossing most of the sand into the yard to get the depth I wanted.  I distinctly remember asking my Dad why we weren't taking a freeway to Chicago (US 12) from Detroit and got a less about what US Routes...I want to say I was maybe 4 or 5?  I even got briefed on the Interstate Highway System and how everything used to be different.  My Dad really enjoyed a lot of the same things I do with like travel, back roads, and cars...funny how things like that can possibly influence you.

[bandit957]

I remember noticing road stuff before I was even 3. I was about 4 when I drew a very sketchy map of a local neighborhood on a paper grocery bag.

[OracleUsr]

Probably 4 or 5.   

[Duke87]

Define "became". I've had a thing for maps as long as I can remember.  I freaked my mother out at age 3 because I recognized that we were going to the grocery store based purely on which roads we were driving on. By age 5 I had the configuration of every traffic signal in the town I lived in memorized.

I didn't know there were other people like me until I was in middle school, though, and I didn't start actively interacting with any of them until I was in college. Getting into "roadgeeking" as a thing to go out and do in a car as opposed to in front of a computer didn't happen until I was finishing up college... since I did not own a car prior to that.

[plain]

For as long as I can remember. Probably like 4 or 5

[ColossalBlocks]

4 or 5 was when I became obsessed with roads. I had some weird interest in Interstate 55, and would look around in the atlas, and sometimes draw new areas.

[MNHighwayMan]

First real sign (pun not intended) was when I'd invented my own word for orange construction cones/barrels: "orangies." I would even make my mom drive through construction zones just so I could enjoy the scenery. I was probably five or six at the time, and obviously, it's only grown from there.

[Henry]

When I was 2 or 3, and could remember the entire Chicago road network like the back of my hand!

[Rothman]

Very young.  Started reading stop and one way signs when I was about 2 or 3 (Sesame Street had a road sign song where they sang the words on them), according to my mother.  She would be driving and I would be in the back seat and she would hear "one way" or "2-way stop" from me as we passed the signs.

Back in the 1980s, there was actually some concern about kids that were able to read "too early" on.  I don't think that amounted to anything in the end, but got hauled into some specialist every now and then.

Also, I was a roadgeek from the first time my father laid a road atlas in front of me -- same age.

[roadman]

For me, it would be at about age three.  I could read, albeit at a basic level, before I could walk.  The two family stories are that I taught myself to read by reading highway signs (this was in the mid-1960s, when graphic signs were unheard of), and that one of the first phrases I regularly spoke was "stop sign".

My roadgeek tendencies were further reinforced when, starting at age seven, we would travel from Massachusetts to Annapolis, and later to Williamsburg, to visit older brothers and sisters in college.  After the first or second trip, I became the only family member my father (who was always looking for faster or better routes) would trust with the road maps.

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

I would say, around 7 for me!

[slorydn1]

I was reading maps and giving rudimentary directions at 2-3 years old according to my mother.

[kphoger]

I freaked my mother out at age 3 because I recognized that we were going to the grocery store based purely on which roads we were driving on.

This is pretty common, in my experience.  Our youngest son, in fact, just did it for the first time Wednesday evening.  He is 2½ years old and can barely make a sentence but, as soon as we pulled up to the stoplight three blocks from home, he said "hey, look, mama!," and pointed in the direction we needed to turn to get home to mama.  Kids notice landmarks more than we might think.

[noelbotevera]

About the same age as everyone else stated - maybe 2-5 years old. I perused NYC subway maps, a PA atlas that we still have, and some NC maps (such as a RMcN map of Charlotte). At about 7 years old I was able to self guide my dad from our house to Shady Grove Metro Station (when we go to DC, we enter DC via this station and take Metro in). And, at 10 years old, I found this forum.

[TravelingBethelite]

At the least, 5 or 6, maybe? I remember my parents buying me an Interstate "Mickey" 4 sign when we went to Disney in 2006. I actually still have it in my room somewhere. I do remember me telling my dad the exits to take to get to our grandparents' house (he already knew it by heart, obviously) when I was still in a car seat. On another note, I think roadgeek-dom is nature, not really nurture...what do you guys think about that? 

[inkyatari]

Probably very young.  I always loved family vacations, and I would draw highways and such.

[route17fan]

I was 4.   1974 when my Uncle gave me his copy of New York State Manual of Traffic Control Devices (1956) from N Y State Traffic Commission.

[triplemultiplex]

Not sure when exactly, but at age 10 I was navigating part of the family vacation.  Must've been around then that we got our first Delorme Atlas of Wisconsin.  A few years later we got a new Delorme atlas and I started my first fictional musings in the old one.  I think that's where I graduated from just a kid that liked maps and geography to a full fledged roadgeek.

[D-Dey65]

I was 4.   1974 when my Uncle gave me his copy of New York State Manual of Traffic Control Devices (1956) from N Y State Traffic Commission.

Sounds like quite the collector's item.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I was 2 or 3, but I liked reading maps and being on the road a lot. Thankfully, that was quite often.

[MikeTheActuary]

Before many of y'all were even a twinkle in your daddy's eye.

Ditto.

I have vague memories of building highways and highway signs with colored blocks, even before I could read.