What is the allure of clinching?

[wphiii]

I personally don't go out of my way to "clinch" things when driving, but I totally get the allure, given that I do have some OCD tendencies with other hobbies (as the stack of baseball scorebooks in my closet which contain records of just about every professional game I've attended since I was about 10 can attest to). There are some long-distance single routes that I would like to some day drive end-to-end, but those ideally would be in-one-sitting endeavors, and not something I'd actively try to achieve by accumulating chunks at a time. In general, when it comes to travel and driving, I just prefer to be more flexible in my itinerary-making. I guess I could say I fear letting something like clinching becoming the tail that wags the dog of my road tripping.

The downside being- okay, I've driven the entire Wyoming highway system. Now I have to dodge the entire state of Wyoming to hit new territory, which can be tricky when driving east.

I also love taking new routes whenever possible, but time doesn't always permit and I've started to run out of reasonable alternatives for a few of my regular O/D pairs, too. So the way I look at that is, I'm learning which routes are my favorites going forward, which have scenery that really helps me relax while driving, which pass through a town with a local place I like to stop and eat, etc. I'm the first one to claim I want to see everything at least once, but there is also something to be said for really getting to know a particular place/route in the process.

For me what's more alluring is coming across a piece of road you've previously driven on but in a totally separate location. For instance, driving most of I-70 in Colorado and Utah and several years later driving a stretch of it in Pennsylvania felt pretty neat knowing I was so far away yet on the same highway.

I'll second that, this is something I get a kick out of as well. I've mentioned it a few times on this site before, but U.S. 62 is one in particular that has kept turning up in my travels over the years.

[Jim]

For me what's more alluring is coming across a piece of road you've previously driven on but in a totally separate location. For instance, driving most of I-70 in Colorado and Utah and several years later driving a stretch of it in Pennsylvania felt pretty neat knowing I was so far away yet on the same highway.

This is one that I, and my passengers, can relate to.  When I encounter a US or Interstate highway, I often think about other places where I've seen it or traveled it, or what far-away places it goes.  I mention passengers because they sometimes get drawn in with questions like "do you remember where we saw that route last summer?" or "do you know where we would go if we followed that road to its end?".  I've thought along these lines as long as I can remember - we would pass an exit on a summer trip when I was young and I'd reach for the Rand McNally to see where the roads off that exit could take us.  On point of the thread, my highway clinching hobby has definitely enhanced my knowledge of where the roads go and my awareness of when and where I travel them.

[kkt]

It's a mild outlet for OCD.

It's a bit like mountain peak bagging that some people enjoy:  climb the highest peak in all 50 states, or the highest peak of every continent, etc.  That makes road clinching look like a cheap hobby!

[huskeroadgeek]

I've had the desire for county-clinching ever since sometime back in the late 80s when I saw a news story about somebody who had visited all 3100+(whatever the exact number was back then) counties. Visiting every state is a goal that even some non roadgeeks have and is relatively easy-although I know few people who have actually done it, if it's a goal you really want to accomplish, it isn't that difficult to do. Visiting every town or city in every state would be virtually impossible-not only because of the incredible amount of time involved, but the definitions of localities differ from state to state. Visiting every place in a particular state is doable, particularly if you have some way of easily defining what places qualify-for instance I have a goal someday of visiting every town in my homestate of Nebraska that is listed on the state highway map. So to me, visiting every county is a good medium between those two-very difficult to accomplish and takes a lot of time to do so, but still doable if you have a real desire to do it.

The byproduct of that is that by trying to visit every county, it forces you to visit areas and experience places you wouldn't see otherwise. A person who has visited all 50 states may have missed large portions of some states and not really experienced the state, as one can see in the discussion in another thread about how quick one can visit all of the continental 48 states. But a person who has visited all counties has likely really experienced most of what each state has to offer, although in some western states with very large counties, one could even visit every county and still miss large portions of the state.

In addition to visiting every county(and every locality in Nebraska) I also have the non roadgeek-related "clinching" goals of visiting every presidential birthplace and burial site. I'd also like to visit every National Park and I'd also like to see a game at every major league ballpark. I'm not quite as in to the "highway clinching" thing as some roadgeeks are, although I would at least like to clinch every 2di at some point.

[texaskdog]

i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!

[huskeroadgeek]

i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!

Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.

[Arkansastravelguy]

i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!

Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.

I actually had the goal of visiting every Nebraska historical marker when I lived there. I got maybe half of them


iPhone

[Zzonkmiles]

I think clinching a highway is the road geek's equivalent of "collecting" something. Some people want to collect all the video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Some want to collect all the baseball cards for people who played for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. Others want to collect photographs of all types of birds native to a specific area. When you have that "completionist" bug, it's hard to satiate it unless you actually accomplish your goal.

And now, a philosophical question:

If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?

[Alex]

I think clinching a highway is the road geek's equivalent of "collecting" something. Some people want to collect all the video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Some want to collect all the baseball cards for people who played for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. Others want to collect photographs of all types of birds native to a specific area. When you have that "completionist" bug, it's hard to satiate it unless you actually accomplish your goal.

And now, a philosophical question:

If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?

As long as the entry and exit point are at the same interchange, absolutely. You don't need to be in a car whose wheels are rolling across every inch of pavement. If that were the case, you'd never be permitted to leave a freeway to consider it clinched and that's just silly.

If you can see it, it counts.

[sammi]

If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?

I consider taking at least one ramp at an interchange as having 'taken' that interchange. So clinching becomes taking every stretch of road between interchanges. I'm sure I've done that a few times on the 401, and I still consider that clinched.

[jeffandnicole]

Personally, I'd like to clinch every interchange along a highway, including every ramp. There's only a few highways though I would care to do this for - those that I drive nearly every day anyway.

[hotdogPi]

Personally, I'd like to clinch every interchange along a highway, including every ramp. There's only a few highways though I would care to do this for - those that I drive nearly every day anyway.

I have entered and exited every interchange on MA 213. Not sure about every ramp, though.

[oscar]

And now, a philosophical question:

If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?

As long as the entry and exit point are at the same interchange, absolutely. You don't need to be in a car whose wheels are rolling across every inch of pavement. If that were the case, you'd never be permitted to leave a freeway to consider it clinched and that's just silly.

If you can see it, it counts.

My preference is to count a freeway as clinched if I've gotten off and back on at the same interchange.  But if it's a really large or complex interchange, if I have time I try to backtrack so I can drive the freeway completely through the interchange; and if that's not practical, next time (if ever) I re-drive the freeway, I'll make a point of driving completely through that interchange.

For freeways really far away from home, that you might never re-travel (like the Pacific Northwest Interstates I covered in summer 2008), you can't be too fussy. 

FWIW, the Clinched Highway Mapping project makes no provision for the fussy.  If you drive the freeway from its beginning to exit 48, then rejoin the freeway at exit 48 to its end, you get counted as traveling the whole freeway, unless you go out of your way not to claim any of the mileage between the previous and next interchanges. 

[english si]

AFAICS, there's not a huge amount of 'willy waving' "I've got more miles than you". It's not seen as a competition, or a way of keeping score over other people.

The last couple of times I've done a deliberate clinching run, its been merely walking on central London's roads for more than necessary. The most recent occasion was quite a long route, but I fully-clinched two-mostly clinched roads and an unclinched one, and fleshed out their stubby SABRE Wiki articles off the back of that (which was part of the main justification the going out of my way, though filling in some gaps on this map). I like walking around Central London anyway, and this gave my walk some purpose.

[Zzonkmiles]

I remember driving on I-20 in Georgia sometime last year when the highway was blocked because two tractor trailers crashed. So traffic had to be rerouted to US 278 for a few miles. I don't know if there were any casualties in the accident, but if I were trying to clinch I-20 through Georgia (200 miles), I would be mildly pissed, especially since the road is so boring there.

[hbelkins]

I remember driving on I-20 in Georgia sometime last year when the highway was blocked because two tractor trailers crashed. So traffic had to be rerouted to US 278 for a few miles. I don't know if there were any casualties in the accident, but if I were trying to clinch I-20 through Georgia (200 miles), I would be mildly pissed, especially since the road is so boring there.

I was trying to clinch I-88 in New York a few years ago, but it was closed in two separate places due to flooding. I was very upset, because I did not know if I would ever have a chance to clinch it again. The delays in getting around the flooding closures caused me to have to skip an attempt to visit a couple of counties in New York.

Fortunately, I did get another chance to drive the route, and to visit the missed counties.

[Alex]

I remember driving on I-20 in Georgia sometime last year when the highway was blocked because two tractor trailers crashed. So traffic had to be rerouted to US 278 for a few miles. I don't know if there were any casualties in the accident, but if I were trying to clinch I-20 through Georgia (200 miles), I would be mildly pissed, especially since the road is so boring there.

I was trying to clinch I-88 in New York a few years ago, but it was closed in two separate places due to flooding. I was very upset, because I did not know if I would ever have a chance to clinch it again. The delays in getting around the flooding closures caused me to have to skip an attempt to visit a couple of counties in New York.

Fortunately, I did get another chance to drive the route, and to visit the missed counties.

This is a story that many of us can relate too. When I went to Saginaw, MI in 2009, a part of I-675 south was closed. I had to circle around to the south end and took the single lane north that was still open to clinch the missing portion. Yes it sucked, but being that Saginaw was ultra far away, I wanted to make sure I got it.

[Henry]

The beauty of clinching a highway is the many different landscapes you encounter along the way. I enjoy transitions from mountainous terrain to flat land, from wide open spaces to wooded areas, and such.

[huskeroadgeek]

i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!

Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.

I actually had the goal of visiting every Nebraska historical marker when I lived there. I got maybe half of them


iPhone

I'd never even thought about doing that. I didn't know there was a list of all of them. Just found one online.

[hbelkins]

This is a story that many of us can relate too. When I went to Saginaw, MI in 2009, a part of I-675 south was closed. I had to circle around to the south end and took the single lane north that was still open to clinch the missing portion. Yes it sucked, but being that Saginaw was ultra far away, I wanted to make sure I got it.

I was in Michigan a few years ago, and was attempting to clinch US 131. It was closed for a bridge replacement just north of the end of the freeway section at Cadillac. I drove all the way to the closure point southbound, detoured around the closure, then backtracked north to the closure point. So I consider it clinched.

Same with US 27 in Indiana between the Ohio state line and Richmond. Part of the road was closed for a total reconstruction, from the base up. I drove as far as I could north, detoured, then drove south to the point where the road was barricaded. So I consider it clinched as well.

[Arkansastravelguy]

i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!

Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.

I actually had the goal of visiting every Nebraska historical marker when I lived there. I got maybe half of them


iPhone

I'd never even thought about doing that. I didn't know there was a list of all of them. Just found one online.

Nebraska has nice historical markers. It ties in history and to road geeking


iPhone

[triplemultiplex]

It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes.  I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's.  Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all.  There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy.  The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything.  That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.

It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job.  It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions.  Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp.  And I mean every ramp.  Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals.  Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state.  I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days.  Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.

[Pete from Boston]

It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes.  I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's.  Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all.  There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy.  The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything.  That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.

It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job.  It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions.  Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp.  And I mean every ramp.  Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals.  Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state.  I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days.  Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.

Now that's a job. 

[hbelkins]

It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes.  I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's.  Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all.  There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy.  The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything.  That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.

It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job.  It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions.  Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp.  And I mean every ramp.  Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals.  Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state.  I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days.  Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.

Where do I sign up?

[vdeane]

The pavement conditions inventory is actually part of my job too.  Should be doing that part-time in the fall (my supervisor doesn't want me to drop everything else for two months to do sufficiency).  Because Region 1 is short staffed, though, our program manager is looking to outsource the interesting counties (Essex, Warren, and Greene) to other regions.

It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes.  I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's.  Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all.  There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy.  The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything.  That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.

It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job.  It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions.  Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp.  And I mean every ramp.  Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals.  Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state.  I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days.  Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.

Where do I sign up?

It's probably rolled in with traffic or inventory.  It's in planning at NYSDOT Region 1, but we're a weird planning department with only one actual planner (and she's part time and currently on maternity, at that).  I'm a mix of planning and traffic, my boss is modal (rail), and his boss was a designer.

And I REALLY with my appointment would just switch from provisional to permanent already so that I can PM the admins to add the "DOT employee" banner to my username!