Once a Roadgeek, Always a Roadgeek

[webny99]

What are your thoughts?
Have you always been a roadgeek, and do your road-related interests ebb and flow over time?

In my case, I didn't *know* that's what it was called, but I've been into roads pretty steadily since I was really young, and used to get excited about trips involving freeways.

[Max Rockatansky]

My parents had a photo of me building my version of the Lodge Freeway in my sandbox when I was a toddler.  I've never recall a point where I wasn't interested in the Road hobby.  My Dad was into roads and maps just as much as I was, so I had a lot of early exposure.  He was more into freeways than me, aside from that our interests were always pretty similar. 

Suffice to say if anyone has followed some of my stuff on Surewhynotnow or read anything Daniel has linked over on CAhighways.org that it's probably obvious I'm in this hobby for the long run. 

[jon daly]

I've usually been more of a baseball stat and history geek, but my interest in that has waned a little lately.

I was going to start a new topic asking what other online communities people participate in, but I may as well put that here.

I spend a lot of time at Baseball Think Factory and its offshoots. (But a lot of the discussions there have lost their freshness.)I also have spent some time lately at railroad.net and Old Gas, because my roadgeekdom intersects with railroads and Petroliana. Old Gas is less active than here, but compared to Railroad.net it's high velocity!

[MNHighwayMan]

I have been for as long as I can remember, and I don't think that will ever change.

[slorydn1]

I started reading maps and highway signs at a very young age. Sure my overall interest ebbed and flowed at times, especially in my teens when girls, cars, and video games really started becoming a thing. The older I get, the more I hear the call of the road. Its a good thing that my wife has become somewhat of a closet roadgeek as well (she won't admit that she has caught the disease but she has).

We have even discussed getting our CDL's and hitting the road as truck drivers when we retire from our current jobs. I don't know how realistic that is at this point, that's about 7 years away and we will be in our mid to late 50's then.

[Desert Man]

An interest in roads, streets and highways are a healthy, normal one...what makes one a "geek" is they are into hobbies not many people are into. I mean, not everyone is into roads, and still it's perfectly fine to have a fascination with roads and road maps. Jon Daly  (over here!), US 6 in Iowa became I-80 - Wikipedia's feature article of the day.

[Hurricane Rex]

I have been for as long as I can remember, and I don't think that will ever change.

That will be the case with me in this topic and when it relates to the weather and COD Zombies unless something drasticly changes.

LG-TP260

[Rothman]

Always.

[qguy]

Yup.

[hbelkins]

I've been one ever since I was a little kid. I just wish I could have transferred that interest into a more lucrative career than sending out press releases and social media posts on road construction and closures. Unfortunately, drawing roads and using up packs of notebook paper and sketch pads didn't translate to an aptitude for engineering. I could already be retired from one job and working a second job while drawing a pension if I'd had that talent. Then someone else could translate all those technical terms into verbiage that lay people understand, instead of the other way around. 

I have to admit, though, over the past year or so there have been a couple of things that have dampened my enthusiasm for some of the aspects of the hobby. Certain parts of it aren't as much fun as they used to be.

[jon daly]

An interest in roads, streets and highways are a healthy, normal one...what makes one a "geek" is they are into hobbies not many people are into. I mean, not everyone is into roads, and still it's perfectly fine to have a fascination with roads and road maps. Jon Daly  (over here!), US 6 in Iowa became I-80 - Wikipedia's feature article of the day.

Thanks, DM. At one point, I lived right off of US-6, now I work right off of it. I could choose other roads, but I figure it is an apt avatar for me.

[OracleUsr]

Nope, hasn't faded a bit.  In college, when I was on trips with the marching band, I'd sit there and mutter to myself all the goofiness of signs (a lot in SC by the way) en route.

[jeffandnicole]

I've always been one, although my involvement may rise and fall a bit.

[kurumi]

It will continue to change over time. Other interests and responsibilities have certainly pushed in. But whenever I visit a new place, I'm always checking maps in advance, finding interesting photo locations. I still want to visit the ConnDOT library and archives some time. That interest will never go away.

[wanderer2575]

I've always had an interest, since infancy.  My family lived at the northern edge of Detroit, just a few hundred feet south of Eight Mile Road, and I'm told that when taken out for a walk in the stroller I was always fascinated by the traffic.  My parents thought I would get into engineering, but I never had the academic drive (pardon the expression).  As long as I can remember I've had a fascination with studying road maps, and went through a period of many years when I hand-drew fictional highways and interchanges.  My current primary interest (has been for at least 15 years) is taking photos of highway signs.

[sparker]

My dad instilled in me a fascination with all things geographical from about age 2.5 (as far back as I can accurately remember) on through high school.  When in college, indulged it periodically with as many road trips as I could afford (money & time-wise).  Never lost interest, but practical application waned in my 20's and early 30's (coincident with my first marriage and much of my 2nd, which were working periods as well).  In my late 30's and through most of my '40's I did stints in grad school (one masters' program and one doctoral); my selected field of study was public policy with an emphasis on transportation issues -- although the field was dominated by urban planners, real and "wannabe", I carved out a bit of a niche with studies of freight movement within and between urban areas (following one of my professors in the PhD program and my principal dissertation adviser).  During times between school terms I managed to fit in about two dozen cross-country road trips, carrying an early Fujitsu 486-based laptop (ca. 1992) to take notes and write paper segments on things that fit into my wheelhouse.  Unfortunately, a series of health issues caused (a) the necessity to obtain employment with a medical plan in my postdoctoral years, with (b) the severe truncation of road trips as collateral damage -- partially due to starting an on-again/off-again relationship with my current GF, who I met when she was a nurse/physical therapist working with my mother during her final illness.  She's not much into long-distance automobile travel (she tends to nod off in the first hour or so) -- but we've been together since 1999, with an unavoidable "break" from 2007 to 2013, when she obtained a job out of state so she could assist with her dad's recovery from a major stroke. 

But enough personal rambling -- I guess I've always been a roadgeek; but translating that interest into activity hasn't always been consistent.  Did some consulting while I was still in Southern California, but my current business interests in another field have placed enough demands on my time that much of my outlet is right here -- this forum, where I can "mouth off" about things that pique my interest when I can carve out an hour or two.  Right now I'm waiting for outside contractors to finish various initial production pieces (specialty audio products, including a couple of rather large loudspeaker systems), so in the meantime this forum occupies my downtime, particularly when my GF is working a shift at the hospital (like right now!).  When production ramps up, my posts will probably dwindle down quite a bit, since I'll be involved in assembling and testing products.  But, regardless of outside forces pulling me away, I'll always find a few minutes to scan the various threads to see if there's at least something to contribute.       

[Beltway]

Began just after I started driving at 16, which is logical since it ties into driving.  I didn't pay much attention to highways before then.

Had a bunch of hobby interests when I was younger, such as electronics, baseball, football, golf, sailing, military history especially WW II, chemistry, aviation, stock market, astronomy, and a few others.  Still follow some to this day.

[davmillar]

I have ADHD and a lot of my interests wax and wane over time, but I am definitely a road geek for life. My current project is at a nexus of roadgeekery, web development, and puzzles, which brought me here. I also like taking a road trip vacation at least once a year and geek out on the signage and traffic controls and such when I do.

[jon daly]

I was roadgeeking over the weekend. I bought five old maps and a travel brochure for Howe Caverns (a place my family visited when I was young.)

The maps were

1. A street map of SE Connecticut manufactured by Arrow. Not sure of the year, but it is from the 1970s. (As were most of these.)
2. A 1969 Gulf Map of the DC area.
3. An official Mass Turnpike Map.
4. An official Penn Turnpike Map.
5. An official Florida map.

[formulanone]

There's no guarantees: If you'd asked me a decade ago if I had the slightest care about the goings-on of roadwork in Vermont or Texas I would have shrugged because it had no local relevance to me. Without being there nor needing to be there, it might as well occur in a vacuum. If you have other things on your mind or other priorities, that's what life does...you have to set priorities.

Eventually, ennui can set in, as with any hobby. Eventually, you really start to feel that you know 90-99% of something, and that there's not a lot more to learn (or just getting tired of waiting for changes and new stuff to occur). There's a point where I didn't really care about the latest car models, video games, movies, and music any more, and shut off the valve to new information considerably.

Other priorities take over, or another interests eclipse it. At some point, it's not unusual for folks to drift away from one interest to another. And there's some people who have a new interest every few months or years. Or there's other reasons why you feel you can't really go much further with your interests; for example, if I couldn't drive, I would probably be a lot less interested.

[jon daly]

Eventually, you really start to feel that you know 90-99% of something, and that there's not a lot more to learn (or just getting tired of waiting for changes and new stuff to occur).

This sort of happened with me and a sabermetrically inclined baseball board. There have been changes recently in the amount of data collected in baseball (a huge amount of data is collected now that wasn't previously,) but that stuff doesn't interest me as much as it would have 15 or so years ago.

[GaryV]

In elementary school, my best friend and I drew up cities on butcher paper.  No scheme to it, just see what you could do drawing in streets.

In 8th grade we had a class trip from Michigan to Washington DC.  My mom gave me a AAA Eastern States road map to take along.  I thought it might be too geeky to get it out, but once I did, a lot of my classmates around me on the bus wanted to know where we were.

[SCtoKC]

I once built a diamond interchange out of clay when I was in elementary school.  I'm pretty sure it was based on a random interchange on I-85.  I also have a few pictures of road signs and highway shields I took when I was a kid.  I can recall drawing each exit sign between Greenville, SC and Charlotte on one trip when I was probably eight or nine years old.  And I think my parents still have a few of the Rand McNally atlases and state highway maps I collected as a child.

It's always been a fascination of mine.

[index]

I would consider myself to have been one my entire life, but with other interests dabbled between. For three periods in my life I was actively into roads, this time being the third. My interest in it waxes and wanes, although because I'm not as much of an idiot as I was the first two times and I'm learning to drive, this time it's bound to last for a while.

[Henry]

Definitely a lifelong roadgeek! As a kid, I used to draw various road signs and interchanges around Chicago, and then I would mark up the old atlases that I would get whenever my father bought new ones. My other passion is Chicago sports, especially the Cubs (and I still can't get over the fact that they won the World Series two years ago!), but I digress. My brother is also the same way, and my daughter has picked up on the hobby too, so I guess roadgeeking runs in the family.