Favorite meet environment?

Started by hbelkins, September 22, 2017, 11:28:54 AM

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What is your favorite environment for a road meet?

Urban areas/big cities
4 (20%)
Rural areas/smaller cities or towns
3 (15%)
Both. Because it's a road meet! ROADS!!!!
13 (65%)
Other (please specify in comments)
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 20

hbelkins

I'm curious as to what types of meets are the favorites of attendees.

Most of the meets I've hosted (two in Pikeville, Somerset, Tri-State, the ill-fated New River Gorge, and if there were others I've forgotten) have centered on smaller towns/cities or rural projects. The major exception is Charleston, WV, and even though lunch and one of the featured projects was in the urban area, much of the tour focused on the rural US 35 construction.

Conversely, a lot of the other meets I've attended were held in larger cities and tended to focus on urban subjects.

So, do you all have favorites, and if so, why? What are the pluses and minuses of each locale?


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.


Brandon

I enjoy both, large cities and small, rural areas.

Larger cities:
Pros: Everything can be closer together.  There's generally a wide range of projects and/or older structures like bridges.
Cons: Congestion.  If not planned properly, the meet can become a cluster, fast.
One must focus on a part of the area instead of gallivanting all over the metro area.  2014 St. Louis comes to mind as one that could have focused a bit better.

Rural areas:
Pros: Lack of congestion.  Scenery (especially if in a place the the UP, North Shore, or Adirondacks).
Cons: Things can be a distance apart, and there might not be as much to see.
Again, this works well if focused and a route is planned out ahead of time.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

Alps

I tend to enjoy the denser meets, where there aren't long drives between sights. My Central Jersey meet accomplished this without being in an urban setting, while my other meets have tended toward urban settings (Providence, Baltimore, NYC) that are more conducive. While driving meets like Merritt Pkwy. have their own appeal, they also exclude people who have seen that road. I also like a mix of bridges, construction, old alignments/signs, and other points of interest. The Joliet meet is an excellent, relatively recent example that had a nice breadth of exposure.

A.J. Bertin

This is an interesting topic! I actually selected the urban (bigger city) option in the poll simply because I've always had an affinity toward big cities. However, I should have probably selected the "both" option because some of the best road meets I've been to have been in smaller, more rural areas.

To me a big factor in choosing whether or not I will attend a meet is how much of an interest I have in visiting that area. The infrastructure that is featured (or not featured) on the tour really has no bearing for me on whether or not I would want to attend. If it's a big-enough city that I've never been to before and is within a reasonable driving distance from home (generally within a 2-day drive or so), I will very much want to attend and do whatever I can to make that happen. If it's a city I've been to a few times before and feel like I gained a good "sense" of on my previous visits, it's less likely that I'll want to attend a meet there... especially if it's a place where I can't get any new counties or highway mileage I hadn't gotten before.

I have kind of a mental list of cities within a 2-day drive of Michigan that I would very much like to visit by way of a road trip. Some of the cities on my mental list aren't all that big. Road meets are, for me, an excuse to visit places on my list that I would otherwise have no reason to visit... not to mention getting to hang out with some awesome people at those meets.
-A.J. from Michigan

vdeane

Also both.  Meets within day trip range (historically a 4 hour drive one way, though that can be a bit much for the return trip) I'll generally attend if I'm free and it's not short notice (though I may have an odd definition of "short").  Otherwise, what determines if I'll attend the meet if if I'm interested in where it's located, how much new stuff I can clinch and still keep the drive time reasonable (and how interested I am in clinching said stuff), and who else is attending the meet (this last one is a major reason why I'll often plan to attend a meet but RSVP "maybe"; that, and waiting until hotels are booked before switching to "going"); also which other meets are happening that year, because money is not infinite (right now, my upcoming Florida trip next year is affecting things too, since that will be the longest roadtrip I'll have taken to date when I do it).
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

cjk374

I just need to make it to more road meets. Period.
Runnin' roads and polishin' rails.

jakeroot

I've only attented one meet (Seattle, Autumn 2014) and it was about as urban of a meet as it gets. And that was cool, because everything was nearby and all sights were reachable within a few hours.

My preference depends on the time of year. In the winter, many of the rural construction projects in Washington are shut down. Urban projects tend to keep going, albeit with occasional rain delays. So urban areas are a must in the winter of you want to see actual stuff going on. In the summer, rural projects are cool to see because work tends to progress rather fast so as to accomplish the needed work before winter (rain) arrives.



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