What is the allure of clinching?

[Dr Frankenstein]

The main reason why I clinch roads is because I like to see new and/or interesting things. The secondary reason is the same "futile" reason why some people grind on a video game to earn "achievements". Except I do it in real life. Note that the word "futile" is between quotation marks because on a purely practical point of view, all hobbies are futile. However, human beings are emotional and have passions for things that, while not strictly productive, keep them away from boredom. In that sense of things, clinching roads makes for a great hobby: it passes time and leads to very interesting discoveries (definitely not futile for the roadgeek himself). For example, I've started clinching city routes in Ottawa and I found some very old and interesting signage because of that, as well as some pretty damn cool bridges; and it kept me busy while my friend was at work.

[1995hoo]

I agree with a lot of the comments made in this thread. I first started keeping track of roads I'd travelled back in 1996 during my first year of law school when I had a roommate from France who had a map of the United States on which he highlighted all the major roads he'd driven here. I liked the idea and started using a road atlas to do that, without thinking in terms of what we now call "clinching." Naturally keeping track of roads in that manner led me to notice when I was close to finishing off particular routes in given states and the like, and then when I spent the summer of 1997 working in Montgomery, Alabama, I realized I'd driven the entirety of I-85 that year. So that sort of got me interested in what we have all come to call "clinching" (which is not a word I'd ever thought of in this context until I saw it somewhere on a road-related website some years back).

I find one benefit of using the Clinched Highway Mapping site and/or an atlas or map is that it helps with the conundrum most of us have experienced of trying to find new routes through very familiar territory. Sometimes it's just not practical for whatever reason and you have to re-tread the same old roads, but the idea of "clinching" can help you notice new routes you might not otherwise have considered, and sometimes those routes turn out to be good ways to go. To give an example in Virginia, we were coming home from a football game in Charlottesville and I'd never really paid attention to VA-22 on a map until I realized using that road on the way home would let me check off another route, and then we found the route we were using was a good alternate to our usual one because it let us avoid some annoying traffic lights near Fredericksburg. To give an example in Florida, someone on this forum recommended using the eastern side of I-295 around Jacksonville, which meant we went over the very nice Dames Point Bridge. Now we go that way every time we're driving in the Jacksonville area unless we're visiting a friend who lives southwest of the city. Never would have discovered the bridge had I not tried out that route.

The comment someone else, I think it was Oscar, made about how keeping track of clinched routes is a good way to determine what routes you DON'T want to use again is a good point too. I had just that situation arise last Thursday when we drove from the Miami area up to the Space Coast area. I had used Florida's Turnpike twice for that drive but had never used the portion of I-95 from the Golden Glades to Fort Pierce, so on this trip I used that I-95 route to make major progress towards a clinch (still need a segment in Massachusetts and another in northern Maine, plus New Brunswick Route 95). I'm glad I did it ONE time because I decided the Turnpike is a far more pleasant drive than the urban segment of I-95. Had I not driven it, I'd have always noted it on the map and wondered to myself whether I-95 might be a better route than the Turnpike. My curiosity is now satisfied.

On a personal-habit level, I also find a benefit to using unfamiliar roads in terms of how it keeps me more alert. That doesn't mean I don't pay attention to my driving. Of course I do. But on very familiar roads I tend to zone out a bit as to whatever scenery there may be and I tend not to pay as much attention to things like whether there might be cops ahead or the like (except, of course, when I approach an area I know to be a speedtrap). I think it's the "boredom" factor at work. On an unfamiliar road I don't encounter that, so I'm more alert to the road itself, the surrounding scenery, the sort of area I'm passing through, etc. I know some other people who have said they tend to drive faster on familiar roads because they have a better sense for where the cops are. I don't really think that applies to me these days since I don't drive as fast as I did even 10 years ago.

[AsphaltPlanet]

I used to be more interested in the concept of "clinching" than I think I am now.  I track the roads that I drive loosely, because I like the experience of driving something new, rather than something that I have done before, but I no longer get too hung up on finishing everything, just because.  Also, if I find a road that I really like to drive, I will still make a point of driving it even if it doesn't mean I am clinching new territory.  An example is the Foothill Freeway in LA.  i have driven it a bunch of times, but I still will go out of m way to drive it, simply because it is awesome.

When I was younger, I was really into the concept of driving all the roads in the Ontario.  Now, having driven most of the roads, and certainly all of the interesting ones, my desire has waned considerably.  (For example, Hwy 72, one of the only King's Highways i have left to drive is a 20 hour drive away from where I live).

I also used to be only concerned with clinching provincial or state highways, but as I have begun exhausting those types of roads in my general vicinity I now will drive county or municipal roads instead.

One of my principle interests when out roadgeeking is photography.  For that, I tend to look for interesting and photogenic scenery, or interesting and photogenic bridges.  I have gotten really interested in old bridges of late.  Photographing bridges has also breathed some new life into driving roads that I may have driven before, but haven't really paid a lot of attention to.

[Zzonkmiles]

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.

WTF?! I need a job like this! I was actually going to start a thread about great jobs for roadgeeks other than trucking. Does this job have a title? You don't need to reveal your specific organization, but if I knew the job title, I'd look for a similar job locally! Wow! 

[Alex]

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.

WTF?! I need a job like this! I was actually going to start a thread about great jobs for roadgeeks other than trucking. Does this job have a title? You don't need to reveal your specific organization, but if I knew the job title, I'd look for a similar job locally! Wow! 

A thread on that was started in 2010.

[triplemultiplex]

WTF?! I need a job like this! I was actually going to start a thread about great jobs for roadgeeks other than trucking. Does this job have a title? You don't need to reveal your specific organization, but if I knew the job title, I'd look for a similar job locally! Wow! 

The actual job title could be just about anything; "Field Systems Operator".
There are only a small handful of companies that specialize in collecting pavement data like this.  The one I work for contracts with states to do the actual data collection or they also trick out vehicles for states that want to do it themselves.  As an example, they built one for WisDOT, but in Illinois, we do the collection for IDOT.

The amount of travel is a barrier to many people.  I've been on the road over 10 months in the last year.  So anybody with a family or even a semi-serious relationship might be dissuaded from doing it.  But you do get to go all over the place and see every little nook and cranny of a state you are working in.  If you're good at navigating, this is a great way to use that skill as part of the job is being efficient going between different segments of road that need collection.

(I do recall that old "roadgeeking jobs" thread.  If a mod wants to chop off this discussion and merge it into that old thread, that would be okay.)

[Sykotyk]

I enjoy taking roadtrips, so this provides a sort of method to the madness, I guess.

I follow along with a lot of others here. But, I wanted to note corco's post, this line particularly, as my basis for 'clinching', or at least how I started.

When I was a kid, my family went on several trips to North Dakota to visit family stationed in Grand Forks. So, that really got my travel bug going early on. I would stare out the windows the whole way up (18 hours of driving). I loved it. Because of that, we also got a lot of maps, including eventually a Rand McNally atlas (1995 I believe). I started taking a highlighter to it showing which roads I had ridden on. And then started adding other roads from other trips. I really liked experiencing new roads.

When I started driving at 16, I realized that the old map just wasn't sufficient. I got a new one, and started marking off only roads _I_ had driven on. This made my map fairly tame. But, with time, I slowly added trips to it (New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Grand Rapids MI, West Virginia, Philadelphia, etc).

After moving out on my own, and taking smaller trips, and one giant trip around the country ( http://www.sykotyk.com/supertrip/ ) I started working for myself, and would travel extensively. My map was beginning to be a burden. Previously, I would update my routes to a new map every year. But, the last time I did that, it took me two days to match it up entirely. So, I'm still updating a 2009 map that has since lost its cover and many of the first few pages (front and back).

It was sometimes in 2008 that I stumbled upon County Counting. Being that I've driven quite a few places, I thought for sure I had been to a lot of counties. So, I took an old Rand McNally atlas and began marking off counties (I use an outline/circle approach, I'll explain in a minute). I realized I wasn't anywhere close to clinching even the 48. In fact, the only state I had clinched was Delaware, all three of them.

// My map method //

Take a county you've been in, and draw the outline of it in pen. Then at each major corner or intersecting county border, put a partial circle INSIDE the county you've been in, so that the count you haven't been in lacks the rest of the circle. When you've been to all counties at that intersection, it forms a perfect circle and you now have new semicircles elsewhere with new outlines. I also then circle the name of the county once clinched.

Once I get down to just a few counties in a state, I start underlining the county name so I can note more easily which counties I haven't been to. Then, when I will highlight the name above the underline mark when I'm down to 2 or 3 usually. And lastly, if I have one stubborn county that will take a while, I don't want to forget about it, and will highlight the entire county so I can easily spot it.

About a year later, I downloaded all the state outline maps on Wikipedia that are used to show counties, and use Paint to fill in the counties I've driven in blue and ones I've been in red. It's rudimentary, but it works.


// End //

Anyways, once I realized there was so much out there that I haven't seen, I made it a point to see it. I'd be somewhere, and rent a car, and go driving. Did that in WA/OR/ID/MT, CO/NM, CA, FL, and then on my travels would always try to take different routes if time allowed. Though that sometimes left obscure 'blank spots' in my map, which really annoy me.

I've enjoyed it, because it gives me an excuse to see someplace different.  I try to find something to see.

Then, I stumbled upon clinching highways. I would like to clinch all Interstate and US routes, but that will probably just be a guide, and less a real goal. I do like driving some US routes out west, though. Next prime target is US2 from Shelby, MT to Grand Forks, ND.

[J N Winkler]

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.

Mandli?

[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.

Mandli?

That's the one.

[J N Winkler]

Mandli?

That's the one.

Thanks--I figured it was the likeliest candidate since it seems to have the biggest market share among the state DOTs that have full or partial photologs online where I can identify a vendor.  I have seen Mandli photologging for UT, NV, KS, KY, and WI, while OR, WA, and CO seem to have gone with different photologging platforms.  I have even run across Mandli photologging for Sweden.

Apropos the thread topic, I think online photologging is a fantastic way to clinch highways, without committing the time, money, and fuel to drive them, or get into position to drive them.  I have used it to preview possible driving routes.  Unfortunately, we are nowhere near full fifty-states online availability--just WA, OR, CO, UT, KY, FL, PA, CA, and CT that I am aware of (the last two are actually videologs, CA being severely out of date).

[triplemultiplex]

Thanks--I figured it was the likeliest candidate since it seems to have the biggest market share among the state DOTs that have full or partial photologs online where I can identify a vendor.  I have seen Mandli photologging for UT, NV, KS, KY, and WI, while OR, WA, and CO seem to have gone with different photologging platforms.  I have even run across Mandli photologging for Sweden.

I was working on the latest round for Utah this spring.  Eventually, you'll be able to see some of my handiwork; especially in northern Utah.  UDOT is one of the most forward-looking DOT's in the country and were early adapters of this type of data collection.  I'm told they've done some cool shit with the LIDAR data the company gathered for them.
I'm currently rocking southeast Alaska and all its isolated pockets of roads served by the Marine Highway.  Nothing like getting paid to "tour" one of the most amazing places on the planet.

[hbelkins]

Apropos the thread topic, I think online photologging is a fantastic way to clinch highways, without committing the time, money, and fuel to drive them, or get into position to drive them.  I have used it to preview possible driving routes.  Unfortunately, we are nowhere near full fifty-states online availability--just WA, OR, CO, UT, KY, FL, PA, CA, and CT that I am aware of (the last two are actually videologs, CA being severely out of date).

Virginia used to have this feature, but it's either been removed or made more difficult to find.

Of course, Google Street View also helps in this regard.

[sipes23]

When I started driving at 16, I realized that the old map just wasn't sufficient. I got a new one, and started marking off only roads _I_ had driven on. This made my map fairly tame. But, with time, I slowly added trips to it (New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Grand Rapids MI, West Virginia, Philadelphia, etc).

After moving out on my own, and taking smaller trips, and one giant trip around the country ( http://www.sykotyk.com/supertrip/ ) I started working for myself, and would travel extensively. My map was beginning to be a burden. Previously, I would update my routes to a new map every year. But, the last time I did that, it took me two days to match it up entirely. So, I'm still updating a 2009 map that has since lost its cover and many of the first few pages (front and back).

...

I've enjoyed it, because it gives me an excuse to see someplace different.  I try to find something to see.

Then, I stumbled upon clinching highways. I would like to clinch all Interstate and US routes, but that will probably just be a guide, and less a real goal. I do like driving some US routes out west, though. Next prime target is US2 from Shelby, MT to Grand Forks, ND.

I started out pretty much the same. I've got a very special Rand McNally that I replace every 10 years that records my travels. Since I didn't want the headache of redoing it this year, I started with a blank atlas. It made the first few months of daily driving fun to record like it was all fresh. I replace the atlas on years ending in 4 since I started with a 1994 atlas when I was in college. I've always considered it a journal of sorts, but with starting completely fresh, it will be even more so.

Clinching? I'll 'fess up to some, but I'm not obsessive about it. It's more of an excuse to drive a new road.

[ElPanaChevere]

I do it with Interstates. I've clinched I-85, I-4, I-87, I-24, I-16, etc. It's good to keep track and it's just a fun challenge. I try to see where I've been on a road. Take I-40 for example. I've been on it from Winston-Salem to Raleigh, Asheville to the split with I-75 in Loudon County, Tennessee (exit 366), Exit 238/ US 231/Lebanon, Tenn. to Little Rock, Ark. I-30 (Exit 153), Oklahoma City out to Kingman, Arizona (exit 53). So now I know what I need to do in order to have the entire highway clinched, if that makes sense. If I only have a little measly section of an interstate left, then there's another roadtrip for me in the near future.

[ET21]

It's a fun achievement list