Definition of "Clinching" a Route

[SEWIGuy]

In particular, can a route become "unclinched?"

For example, if a route gets moved or extended onto a new routing, such as a bypass, do you view that you have to now take that bypass to "reclinch?"  What about if it is moved or extended over highways that you have driven on previously? 

A real life example.  When WI-13 was given a new route through Marshfield, it was also re-routed between Wisconsin Rapids and Marshfield.  Instead of taking the current WI-73 and WI-80, it was routed over WI-34 and US-10.

I had previously clinched all of WI-13, as well as US-10 and WI-34.  Since the stretch through Marshfield was a completely new route, would you consider my clinching reversed until I took that routing?  How about the stretch that was previously clinched as existing state highways?

[Max Rockatansky]

The semantics of clinching signed routes is why I generally tend to stick to trying to drive what I think will be fun or just the most interesting.  But yeah, if you had a highway clinched and it suddenly has a huge alignment shift then it would seem it would be something you'd need to go clinch again.  Wether that is worth the effort or not really depends on the individual.  Example: I have a clinch of CA 132 but the highway is about to be realigned west of CA 99 in Modesto.  I don't intend to rush out any time soon to do the new alignment unless l can chain some new stuff I want to see together with it.

[NWI_Irish96]

Here's how I count it:

If I get off a route briefly, such as at an interchange to get food/fuel, or to go around a bridge out, I count it as clinched if I can see where I got off the route from where I got back on and vice versa.

If a route gets re-routed onto a brand new roadway that didn't exist before (US 33 in Goshen for example) I would consider it unclinched until I get that new segment.

If a route gets re-routed or created onto a numbered route I clinched previously (I-41 for example), I consider that clinched. This is mainly driven by travelmapping, where clinching the route under its old number automatically counts it for the new route that gets added.

If a route gets upgraded to freeway but follows the same path (I-69/IN 37 in Morgan county for example), I consider that clinched for the same reason as above.

[SEWIGuy]

Here's how I count it:

If I get off a route briefly, such as at an interchange to get food/fuel, or to go around a bridge out, I count it as clinched if I can see where I got off the route from where I got back on and vice versa.

If a route gets re-routed onto a brand new roadway that didn't exist before (US 33 in Goshen for example) I would consider it unclinched until I get that new segment.

If a route gets re-routed or created onto a numbered route I clinched previously (I-41 for example), I consider that clinched. This is mainly driven by travelmapping, where clinching the route under its old number automatically counts it for the new route that gets added.

If a route gets upgraded to freeway but follows the same path (I-69/IN 37 in Morgan county for example), I consider that clinched for the same reason as above.

This is exactly how I view this as well.

And Max I agree with you too. I don't go out of my way to clinch. I just like to see things that I haven't seen before. Like last year when I took WI-32 north out of Green Bay. I decided to take it because I hadn't been on most of it and it was eventually going to get me where I needed to go. It wasn't until after that I realized I had clinched it. Which I don't really keep track of anyway.

[kphoger]

It would seem strange to me, if someone drove US-6 from end to end on an epic cross-country road trip, but then a realignment happened two years later, that he should no longer be able to say he clinched US-6.

To me, if you drove a highway in its entirety, then you've clinched it.

Then again, I don't really keep track of these things.

[NWI_Irish96]

It would seem strange to me, if someone drove US-6 from end to end on an epic cross-country road trip, but then a realignment happened two years later, that he should no longer be able to say he clinched US-6.

To me, if you drove a highway in its entirety, then you've clinched it.

Then again, I don't really keep track of these things.

What if, instead of an existing segment getting realigned, the route got extended?

[Rothman]

I had to deal with this when the Interstate crossings in Saint Louis got all swapped.  I reclinched them.

[wanderer2575]

The OP asked about a route later being rerouted.  Let me ask the opposite question:  Do you consider a route clinched even if you haven't driven every previous routing?  I think most of us would say "yes."  Why would your answer be different for a later routing?

Either you count a route clinched if you're on its current routing at the time you drive it, or you don't.

What if, instead of an existing segment getting realigned, the route got extended?

That would be the only circumstance where I would say the clinch is lost.

[SectorZ]

I clinch routes cycling, and I am of the mindset that if I've clinched what existed at the time, I've clinched it. If a portion gets re-aligned at some point, I get to it when I get to it.

Case in point, NH 111. Clinched it way back in 1996. In 2008-ish a new routing east of NH 28 opened, and a few years later a new routing opened west of I-93. I added them at some point, then inevitably last year rode it all from NH 1A to the Mass state border to get done in one nice chunk.

It's also, west of Kingston, one of the most boring and noisy things to ride a bicycle on.

[Rothman]

The OP asked about a route later being rerouted.  Let me ask the opposite question:  Do you consider a route clinched even if you haven't driven every previous routing?  I think most of us would say "yes."  Why would your answer be different for a later routing?

Either you count a route clinched if you're on its current routing at the time you drive it, or you don't.

Nope.  If the alignment changes drastically, then the clinch is lost, like with the Saint Louis examples I provided above.

This is one of the reasons why I don't like it when Travel Mapping automatically counts some concurrencies.  I haven't been on I-41, but Travel Mapping counts it even though I have only been on the concurrent routes before I-41 was designated.

[kphoger]

It would seem strange to me, if someone drove US-6 from end to end on an epic cross-country road trip, but then a realignment happened two years later, that he should no longer be able to say he clinched US-6.

To me, if you drove a highway in its entirety, then you've clinched it.

Then again, I don't really keep track of these things.

What if, instead of an existing segment getting realigned, the route got extended?

Sure.  You just had an easier time of it than someone else trying right now.   

[Dirt Roads]

Another twist to my "unclinched routes" was when VDOT completed the eastbound lanes of US-460 between Rich Creek and Narrows.  The old mountainous two-lane was converted into the westbound lanes.  My first time back across this section was also westbound.  It was several months before I returned to Blacksburg using the eastbound lanes, which got me the clinch again.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I think it's fun that everybody has their own rules about it (even if everyone insists their view is the correct one ). My clinching philosophy is a little more based on my personal feelings about whether I clinched the "spirit" of the route or not, especially if it's a targeted clinch and not a coincidental situation. I mean if I missed 50 miles, I didn't clinch it. But I decide based on case-by-case bases sometimes.

[LilianaUwU]

If the route changes alignment, I will say I clinched it as of (year I did), but I won't count it as a current clinch. Such is the case with A-85 and R-185 in Québec, where I clinched the 2018 mileage but both have since been modified.

[dlsterner]

As far as a route's change of alignment, for me ... it depends.

The replacement of the Gov. Nice bridge on US 301 over the Potomac River (due to be completed next year) is technically a change of alignment.  Will I consider that part of US 301 un-clinched?  No.

The new I-85 bridge over the Yadkin River in North Carolina is about 500 feet east of the site of the old bridge.  Did I consider that part of I-85 un-clinched?  Nah.  (I did get the new bridge eventually)

US 301 was re-routed in Delaware recently to a path a few miles away from the old route.  Did I consider that part of US 301 un-clinched?  Yes, I did.  Went back and re-clinched it.

Conclusion:  I call it an un-clinch if it looks like an un-clinch   Do I have a hard-and-fast threshold for separation distance?  No.  So it's kind of like a "sight clinch" for me.  Especially if the only reason is a bridge replacement.

We all have our own rules, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Avalanchez71]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

[Rothman]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

Yes.

[Max Rockatansky]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

Yes, but this is highlighting a reason why it just isn't worth pursuing outright clinches for me unless it has a payoff somehow.  Doubling back to a modern bypass when inconvenient isn't a viable payoff for me.  Hell, derelict former routings bannered or not generally are more interesting to me subjectively over modern bypass routings.  Others I know a great many feel differently about that scenario.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

I don't really care about bannered routes anymore. Many of them aren't even state-maintained anyway.

[epzik8]

To steal someone else's wording, I clinch pavement rather than route numbers. I had all of 301 in Delaware before the toll road.

[kphoger]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

If this were the only route a person had ever driven through Amarillo, would you say he had clinched I-40–even though there were 23 miles of I-40 he'd never even seen?

[ethanhopkin14]

I clinched I-70 this past December, but I needed the section from Salina, KS to Pittsburgh-ish to do it.  As everyone knows that involves going through Indianapolis, which the highway is non-existent.  It's a short distance and it wasn't my fault the road was torn up, plus I drove along it's skeleton taking the last possible exit and getting on on the next possible entrance ramp.  Can I say I have clinched this part of I-70?  I personally say I have and will continued to think so, but I just ant some opinions. 

[NWI_Irish96]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

If this were the only route a person had ever driven through Amarillo, would you say he had clinched I-40–even though there were 23 miles of I-40 he'd never even seen?

I wouldn't, and how I handle bypass or bannered routes in an area I'm not likely to come back to is I'd take the main route past town, then take the bannered route "backwards" through town, and then back onto the main route again.

[Dirt Roads]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

Yes, but this is highlighting a reason why it just isn't worth pursuing outright clinches for me unless it has a payoff somehow.  Doubling back to a modern bypass when inconvenient isn't a viable payoff for me.  Hell, derelict former routings bannered or not generally are more interesting to me subjectively over modern bypass routings.  Others I know a great many feel differently about that scenario.

This all sounds like a fun idea, but I preferred to just "go someplace new" whenever I travelled.  Then after 20 years, I looked back and figured out where I had clinched roads (and where I hadn't).  That helped to find more new places.  Now after another 20 years or so, I realize how many of those worn paths are now unclinched.  There's a bunch of new highways here in North Carolina and the road will eventually call me.  Even if I don't recognize the "phone number" anymore.

[Max Rockatansky]

Well what if I decide that I want to go through the Business route through town?  What if I take the truck route due to clearance issues or the like?  Do I have to go back another time and take the main non-bannered route?

Yes, but this is highlighting a reason why it just isn't worth pursuing outright clinches for me unless it has a payoff somehow.  Doubling back to a modern bypass when inconvenient isn't a viable payoff for me.  Hell, derelict former routings bannered or not generally are more interesting to me subjectively over modern bypass routings.  Others I know a great many feel differently about that scenario.

This all sounds like a fun idea, but I preferred to just "go someplace new" whenever I travelled.  Then after 20 years, I looked back and figured out where I had clinched roads (and where I hadn't).  That helped to find more new places.  Now after another 20 years or so, I realize how many of those worn paths are now unclinched.  There's a bunch of new highways here in North Carolina and the road will eventually call me.  Even if I don't recognize the "phone number" anymore.

In the case of some highways I've made an entire page based off their former alignments:

https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-us-route-99-page.html?m=1

I've found that out old alignment blogs on average get double the readership compared to modern alignments.  I think there is something to said for how an older or abandoned highway can carry intrigue from a modern lens.