You Know You're A Roadgeek If...

[Michael]

...your non-roadgeek friends call you to tell you about a sign they saw with the wrong font.  I posted about it in the "Signs With Design Errors" thread:

A couple of my friends were on their way to Ohio earlier today, and they called me to say they saw a road sign with the wrong font.  After looking at it in Street View, I saw that the letter spacing is too tight.  Look on the left sign on this assembly.

[authenticroadgeek]

...you beg your parents to let you tag along on their errands just so you can explore down new roads.
...you draw fictional road maps to kill time in school.
...you bought Cities Skylines just for the fun of the roads.

[Max Rockatansky]

You actively seek out every abandoned U.S. Route alignment you can find on any given road trip and take a billion photos for friends/family when in reality you are the only one who cares.

[GCrites]

Sheesh, that stuff has to be terrible to a non-roadgeek. Imagine back in the slide projector days if you are a normal person and someone came over to your house and showed you a bunch of old alignments for hours.

[TravelingBethelite]

...you try to take a photo of absolutely every sign on any and every road trip you go on (no matter how long or short)
...you worry about falling asleep because you might miss an interesting sign (related to above)
...you get in trouble with your teacher because you drew road signs, BGS's, and diagrams all over your homework
...you got confused in math class when learning about square "sines"

I'm guilty of all of these. No regrets. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Sheesh, that stuff has to be terrible to a non-roadgeek. Imagine back in the slide projector days if you are a normal person and someone came over to your house and showed you a bunch of old alignments for hours.

Oh I'm sure looking at my social media account probably draws just as much ire.  For me it's not just old road alignments but ghost towns, historic structures, bridges, rail roads and even off-roading on top of highways.  My brother specifically gets all bent of shape why I like to go do those things and post them.  My usual retort is to point out that now he knows how I feel when I see nothing but political rants, selfies, theme park photos and pictures of kids repeatedly with nothing unique or captivating in between.  I've always been big into cars and motorcycles as well, even those communities don't necessarily have a big following for anything road related. 

...you try to take a photo of absolutely every sign on any and every road trip you go on (no matter how long or short)

I do enjoy a good signage quest myself but if I'm taking some big road trip I tend to limit it to only when I change routes or lose a multiplex.  When I was transferring back west about five years back I had a ton of quality pictures of the rural as all hell route I took.  There were some gems to be had on the US Highways in Texas to be specific...good times.

[kphoger]

You ... take a billion photos for friends/family.

It's time to give up hope.

...you try to take a photo of absolutely every sign on any and every road trip you go on (no matter how long or short)

Some of these people become our heroes.  (Eric Stuve, are you out there?)  And then you see a picture or meet them, realize just how much of a geek they are, and start to question yourself.  (Eric Stuve, are you out there?)  And then you finally just give up and accept your own geeky nature.

[CobaltYoshi27]

your carry-on is filled with maps of where you're going

you carry at least two memory cards in your car

you refuse to go to Breezewood

you have tested how your camera would fit when test driving a car

That third one is me. I REFUSE to go I-76 in PA.

[noelbotevera]

your carry-on is filled with maps of where you're going

you carry at least two memory cards in your car

you refuse to go to Breezewood

you have tested how your camera would fit when test driving a car

That third one is me. I REFUSE to go I-76 in PA.

Same, but my family always takes the fast route, taking the Turnpike and going through the hell named Breezewood. I'd rather take US 30.

[TravelingBethelite]

your carry-on is filled with maps of where you're going

you carry at least two memory cards in your car

you refuse to go to Breezewood

you have tested how your camera would fit when test driving a car

That third one is me. I REFUSE to go I-76 in PA.

Same, but my family always takes the fast route, taking the Turnpike and going through the hell named Breezewood. I'd rather take US 30.

One weird thing about my roadgeek-iness is that I enjoy seeing the business(es) and "supply culture" that surrounds the Interstates, i.e. the commercialism. And so, Breezewood is one of my favorite places on the system. It's also why a great deal of my roadtrip photos are the blue signs like these:



And billboards like this:

[jeffandnicole]

your carry-on is filled with maps of where you're going

you carry at least two memory cards in your car

you refuse to go to Breezewood

you have tested how your camera would fit when test driving a car

That third one is me. I REFUSE to go I-76 in PA.

What's wrong with I-76? 

[Max Rockatansky]

I might be the only one given the recent trashing of Breezewood and I-76 but I find both fascinating.  Even when I kid all the way back in the 1980s the bizarre nature of how I-70 basically was routed through town and abrupt sea of road side diners in addition to gas stations seemed off.  It almost seemed like a time capsule to me simply due to the fact that the US Route has everything you would ever need on it, just like it would have before the Interstate era.

The PA Turnpike itself is a strange place since the design is so old.  There are some old double lane tunnels from the early Turnpike east of Breezewood which are a nice relic of how things were.  I haven't been on the Turnpike a good ten years at least so I don't know if the timed toll tickets are still a thing.  I remember my Dad and many others would pull over on the shoulder for 5 before hitting a toll booth because they would get a speeding ticket otherwise.   

[hbelkins]

...I don't know if the timed toll tickets are still a thing.  I remember my Dad and many others would pull over on the shoulder for 5 before hitting a toll booth because they would get a speeding ticket otherwise.   

So they were really real? I heard that said about closed, ticketed systems (the Kansas Turnpike in particular) but later heard that those were just rumors and it wasn't true.

[Max Rockatansky]

...I don't know if the timed toll tickets are still a thing.  I remember my Dad and many others would pull over on the shoulder for 5 before hitting a toll booth because they would get a speeding ticket otherwise.   

So they were really real? I heard that said about closed, ticketed systems (the Kansas Turnpike in particular) but later heard that those were just rumors and it wasn't true.

Come to think of it I never did find out if that was really true and I can't find anything online that says it ever was.   My Dad and a whole hell of a lot of other people sure believed it though, so at minimum there has to be a story.  It was either pull over before the booth to wait for 5 minutes or stop at a plaza just to chill out so we could speed the rest of the way. 

[kphoger]

I've only ever heard the story in relation to the Ohio Turnpike.

[Max Rockatansky]

The irony there is that he was insistent that the Ohio Turnpike was on the up and up.  I seem to remember some similar talk about the Chicago Skyway also back in those days.  I would speculate that somewhere someone was blistering down a toll road at a high rate of speed and their ticket ended up being used in a court hearing. At least that's how I imagine the origin story of all those rumors about timed tickets started.

But then again I'm talking about a person who would literally go to the bank a week in advance of having to go on the New Jersey Turnpike to buy $100 dollars in quarters.  I would get the inevitable talk on the way through NYC about my responsibility as quarter jocket and I couldn't afford to screw it up.  I don't recall the man ever getting a speeding ticket and he did probably drive 35,000 to 50,000 miles most years.  He wasn't like that on regular freeways or US Routes but for whatever reason he sure was paranoid about anything tolled. 

[thenetwork]

I can say that I was once "reprimanded" by a toll taker on the Ohio Turnpike after he noticed that I made the trip between two exits a bit "quicker" than what it should take if you drove 55 MPH (which was the speed limit at the time in the 80s).

Whether he looked at the time stamp when I got on and knew it took xx minutes to get to his toll booth, or if there was a machine in the booth that displayed both the toll amount and the "elapsed time" on the Turnpike, I don't know.  But what was this guy going to do anyway?  Tell me to wait until the police come over???  He is a toll taker -- not a law enforcement officer.

[CobaltYoshi27]

your carry-on is filled with maps of where you're going

you carry at least two memory cards in your car

you refuse to go to Breezewood

you have tested how your camera would fit when test driving a car

That third one is me. I REFUSE to go I-76 in PA.

Same, but my family always takes the fast route, taking the Turnpike and going through the hell named Breezewood. I'd rather take US 30.

I-80 through PA is like the same amount of time. lol

[tckma]

...I don't know if the timed toll tickets are still a thing.  I remember my Dad and many others would pull over on the shoulder for 5 before hitting a toll booth because they would get a speeding ticket otherwise.   

So they were really real? I heard that said about closed, ticketed systems (the Kansas Turnpike in particular) but later heard that those were just rumors and it wasn't true.

Come to think of it I never did find out if that was really true and I can't find anything online that says it ever was.   My Dad and a whole hell of a lot of other people sure believed it though, so at minimum there has to be a story.  It was either pull over before the booth to wait for 5 minutes or stop at a plaza just to chill out so we could speed the rest of the way.

I wrote to the NJ Turnpike in late 80s as a kid for information on the ticket system.  Official press-release type material I received in the response stated that the timestamps were not used to issue speeding tickets but rather for people working at the control center to get an idea about how many cars were traveling on what parts of the Turnpike at different times of the day and week so that they could plan enhancements to the road.

E-ZPass similarly has timestamps, and authorities could conceivably use those timestamps on a closed system to issue speeding tickets (or even on an open system, say to time someone's travel on I-95/I-295 from the Susquehanna River bridge to the Delaware Turnpike toll booth).  But they don't, or at least, I've never heard of a case where it was done.

[Max Rockatansky]

I can say that I was once "reprimanded" by a toll taker on the Ohio Turnpike after he noticed that I made the trip between two exits a bit "quicker" than what it should take if you drove 55 MPH (which was the speed limit at the time in the 80s).

Whether he looked at the time stamp when I got on and knew it took xx minutes to get to his toll booth, or if there was a machine in the booth that displayed both the toll amount and the "elapsed time" on the Turnpike, I don't know.  But what was this guy going to do anyway?  Tell me to wait until the police come over???  He is a toll taker -- not a law enforcement officer.

I think the rumors were in the same vein as red light camera and photo radar tickets.  Basically neither of those really have an officer giving you an infraction, in some instances it's a third party company reviewing the data and sending you the ticket on behalf of an agency.

[/quote]

I wrote to the NJ Turnpike in late 80s as a kid for information on the ticket system.  Official press-release type material I received in the response stated that the timestamps were not used to issue speeding tickets but rather for people working at the control center to get an idea about how many cars were traveling on what parts of the Turnpike at different times of the day and week so that they could plan enhancements to the road.

E-ZPass similarly has timestamps, and authorities could conceivably use those timestamps on a closed system to issue speeding tickets (or even on an open system, say to time someone's travel on I-95/I-295 from the Susquehanna River bridge to the Delaware Turnpike toll booth).  But they don't, or at least, I've never heard of a case where it was done.
[/quote]

You know where I've never heard a story similar to all this from?....Florida..  You'd think with all the SunPass transponders down there stamping the times there would have at least been a murmur of it somewhere.

[kphoger]

I think the rumors were in the same vein as red light camera and photo radar tickets.  Basically neither of those really have an officer giving you an infraction, in some instances it's a third party company reviewing the data and sending you the ticket on behalf of an agency.

But red light camera tickets aren't even legal everywhere, and certainly not decades ago.

[Max Rockatansky]

I think the rumors were in the same vein as red light camera and photo radar tickets.  Basically neither of those really have an officer giving you an infraction, in some instances it's a third party company reviewing the data and sending you the ticket on behalf of an agency.

But red light camera tickets aren't even legal everywhere, and certainly not decades ago.

Right but the premise is similar someone who isn't a police officer sending you a speeding ticket in the mail or a toll attendant giving you one because your time stamps showed you went too fast.  Might not technically legal depending the statutory definition in certain states but there are a ton of them where it would be.  It wouldn't be too different than getting a ticket in the mail for a toll violation depending on who is sending it.

Oh, and one roadgeek trope I neglected to mentioned; collecting signage.  That can be street signs, highway signs, guide signs, gas, oil or anything of the like tends to suggest someone is a roadgeek.

[jeffandnicole]

If you're on I-76, Breezewood doesn't impact you.

If you're on a toll road, the time stamps don't impact you.

[kkt]

Sheesh, that stuff has to be terrible to a non-roadgeek. Imagine back in the slide projector days if you are a normal person and someone came over to your house and showed you a bunch of old alignments for hours.

Hey, if I can suck it up and pretend to care about a bunch of guys I don't know running into each other on a lawn, they can look at my damn pics.

[1995hoo]

There are a lot of people who swear E-ZPass is used to issue tickets. Seems to me if a state did that they'd be shooting themselves in the foot because so many people would cancel their accounts, thus causing more traffic delays and necessitating more manned toll lanes.