Have you ever succeeded in turning someone onto roadgeeking?

[Zzonkmiles]

I was driving in an unfamiliar part of Atlanta during rush hour yesterday. After getting off of I-285 to go to some shop my wife wanted to visit, I had to be careful navigating my way back to the interstate because I knew it would be really difficult to change lanes. My wife couldn't find our location with respect to the I-285 interchange on her phone with Google Maps. That's when I told her "I can't remember if the intersection we took to get here was a diamond or a cloverleaf." She looked at me like, "uhhh, what are you talking about?" That's when I told her about the shape and type of the intersection regarding access roads. That's when I remembered there wasn't enough available land for the intersection to be a cloverleaf, so I said "it must be a diamond, so I need to be in the left lane." Since I had the benefit of turning right at a green traffic light, I could get into the left lane easily.

As we got close to the I-285 bridge, sure enough, the intersection was a diamond and we were able to get onto I-285 easily while avoiding having to merge over four lanes of rush hour traffic. My wife then said something I never thought I'd hear her say. "You know, that road nerd stuff might actually be useful after all." Granted, she's not going to become a diehard roadfan or anything like that, but at least she's starting to see the utility in studying roads and speaking the lingo. Her remark made me feel like I was staring down an interstate acceleration ramp with no slow cars in front of me. Yeah!

So, do any of you have stories of turning people onto the joy that is roadgeeking or at least appreciating road literacy? Maybe a child or a spouse?

[renegade]

So, do any of you have stories of turning people onto the joy that is roadgeeking or at least appreciating road literacy?

I've tried, but have given up.  Some people I know are just too stupid for words.  One couldn't figure out how to use a road map to find his driveway from his front door.  Another person I know has the latest and greatest GPS, yet still calls me for directions.

[Tom958]

This was back in 1983... My dad, my two brothers and I drove a 15,000lb Ryder truck from ATL to Hampton, VA to move my grandparents into my parents' 'hood. We got started after I'd worked a long, hot summer day surveying, got on 285 from Ashford-Dunwoody as rush hour was ending, so traffic was heavy but moving fast. Perfect. My Dad was driving the truck for the first lift with me as copilot. I saw him starting to panic a bit about merging onto 285, so I told him, "Don't worry! This merger lane is a mile long. You have plenty of time to find a gap in traffic!" Later on, I was able to tell him exactly which lane to be in as we approached the pre-Spaghetti Junction cloverleaf at I-85. Later on, Dad said, "I don't know how you remember all that stuff, but I'm glad you do!" 

My own kids started out being defensive about the huge disparities in road network knowledge between me and them, but they're more practical about it now and even ask me for advice sometimes. That's a long way from turning someone on to roadgeeking, though.

Unrelated story from that trip in '83: We were heading eastward toward Hampton on US 58, and I was driving as we approached the I-95 interchange. Just too late, my brother pointed toward a store on the left side of the road and said, "Hey, I wanted to stop there!" So I nonchalantly took the loop ramp onto I-95 north.

"WTF ARE YOU DOING???," he screamed. "We don't need to go to Richmond!"

"Calm down," I said, and calmly took the loop ramp for 58 westbound. "Look, we're headed to that store you wanted to stop at."

"Well, I don't want to stop there now. Let's get to Nana and Pop's house!" So I took the loop ramp for 95 southbound.

"WTF ARE YOU DOING???," he screamed. "We don't need to go to Rocky Mount!"

And of course I took the fourth loop ramp to return us to our original eastbound-on-58 direction.

I don't think my brother appreciated that at all. 

[vdeane]

At some point my parents learned the exit numbers for Rochester's freeways.  They never used exit numbers before I was born.

[Henry]

I've made a roadgeek out of my daughter, who can memorize all the major highways and where they go to without me telling her. Of course, all those roadtrips with her played a major factor in it.

[1995hoo]

I've gotten some people interested in historic photos, but I think that's more a function of seeing what familiar places used to look like.

I've also gotten some people to appreciate the value of knowing multiple routes to get somewhere, but they'll never have the same interest in studying maps or taking other routes just to use new routes. It's more a case of them realizing the value of knowing another way to go if you hit a traffic jam or the like.

[bing101]

Myself I never intended to be a roadgeek I thought I would only depend on Public transit my entire life. Roadgeeking came into play when I had to get over fears of driving.

[Scott5114]

The topic came up when I was driving with a friend, and the problem with Oklahoma signs specifically. We merged onto I-240 westbound from I-40 so I started calling out the design errors and inconsistences on each BGS. He seemed interested and by the time we got to I-35 he said he had never really thought of it but he was starting to see the errors too.

[corco]

I was on a weeklong roadtrip with my boss a couple weeks ago and was pointing out '57 spec interstate shields and other various signage things and she usually laughed and was like "you're so funny" but more in the "who the hell did I hire and why am I stuck in the car with him for a week" kind of way than the "this is actually interesting" kind of way.

[adventurernumber1]

For about the first 13 years of my life before I knew I wasn't the only one that liked roads (I had discovered road videos on YouTube at age 10, but wasn't sure if the people with the videos exactly had the love of roads I had, but now I know many do and are Roadgeeks) I spent such a long time trying to make my brother (5 years younger than me) like roads, LOL.

Something I'd do a lot is I'd try to persuade him to draw chalk roads with me on the driveway (a daily/weekly thing I did back then; I both drew roads that were in real places like my hometown and also drew roads in fictional places). He never got the gist of how roads were supposed to look, and he drew unrealistic roads with uneven lanes and scribbly, crappy striping, forcing me to stop him. I still persuaded him to at least drive his toy cars on my roads and roleplay with his toy people, for I thought it was cool when my roads were used, and also liked the idea of existing roads being used while I was constructing new roads, and etc.

I also tried to persuade him to watch the road with me on roadtrips, but that never worked out well at all, for he just drifted into sleep.

In short, I tried to make my brother like roads at least a little, but I always had failed attempts, haha. Just had to come to town with the fact that my brother is an athlete crazy into sports. On the other hand, I have given my parents a better appreciation of roads, and thanks to me they know more about roads, and know more alternative routes to places.

[DandyDan]

I like to think I turned my dad into a roadgeek, but he was already a railfan (having worked for various railroads basically his whole adult life), so I don't think that was too much of a stretch.  As for my brother, he has some mental disabilities, so I can at least smile at the fact I turned him on to always having a road atlas along so he can follow the roads whenever he (and his parents) go somewhere long distance.  Everyone else is a zero.

[codyg1985]

My ex wife started noticing when signs were posted in Clearview, but other than that she didn't get too interested. I'm kind of glad she didn't, come to think of it.

[dfwmapper]

The topic came up when I was driving with a friend, and the problem with Oklahoma signs specifically. We merged onto I-240 westbound from I-40 so I started calling out the design errors and inconsistences on each BGS. He seemed interested and by the time we got to I-35 he said he had never really thought of it but he was starting to see the errors too.

That's just cruel teaching someone in Oklahoma to recognize shitty signs. Unless they work for ODOT, and then it's a public service.

[-NCX75-]

For about the first 13 years of my life before I knew I wasn't the only one that liked roads (I had discovered road videos on YouTube at age 10, but wasn't sure if the people with the videos exactly had the love of roads I had, but now I know many do and are Roadgeeks) I spent such a long time trying to make my brother (5 years younger than me) like roads, LOL.

Something I'd do a lot is I'd try to persuade him to draw chalk roads with me on the driveway (a daily/weekly thing I did back then; I both drew roads that were in real places like my hometown and also drew roads in fictional places). He never got the gist of how roads were supposed to look, and he drew unrealistic roads with uneven lanes and scribbly, crappy striping, forcing me to stop him. I still persuaded him to at least drive his toy cars on my roads and roleplay with his toy people, for I thought it was cool when my roads were used, and also liked the idea of existing roads being used while I was constructing new roads, and etc.

I also tried to persuade him to watch the road with me on roadtrips, but that never worked out well at all, for he just drifted into sleep.

In short, I tried to make my brother like roads at least a little, but I always had failed attempts, haha. Just had to come to town with the fact that my brother is an athlete crazy into sports. On the other hand, I have given my parents a better appreciation of roads, and thanks to me they know more about roads, and know more alternative routes to places.

Hah, I've tried to turn my family on to roads, or transportation in general, but the farthest I've gotten was getting my parents to watch Freewayjim's "I-70 King of the Mountains" video on the TV... but I consider that to be a success. Don't want to bug my family about rads too much, they hear me blab about roads and YouTube (road) videos enough.

[jeffandnicole]

My wife is actually pretty good with roads, road features, signs and such. When she's with me, she tries to rely on me too much, but she's driven on trips by herself or with friends or her mom pretty damn well without me around. And in the instances she starts going the wrong way, at least she realizes it quickly...then calls me to guide her to the correct way.

[jwolfer]

My mom turned ME into a roadgeek. I am 14 months older than my brother. To keep my toddler self occupied while I asking care of my baby brother she would cut open paper grocery bags and draw maps for me to drive matchbox cars on.. Got me started.  Funny my brother who can't make a trip without GPS is now a civil engineer