What hobbies have the most and least overlap with the roadgeek community?

Started by Roadgeekteen, December 17, 2024, 01:12:52 AM

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Roadgeekteen

So on AAroads we have a variety of different things we are interested in. We are mostly all interested in roads, but what hobbies most overlap with the roadgeek community? Obviously, other geography and travel related hobbies overlap a lot, as well as other adventure/nature hobbies like hiking. But international/Europe travel doesn't seem to have a big overlap- on this forum, most people would rather spend a week on dirt roads in Alaska than a week in Italy. Travel that has one mostly spending time in one city seems to not have a big overlap, but taking trains throughout Europe might have more of an overlap. I've also found that hobbies like vintage cars overlap, which is not surprising. Other types of travel/transportation geeking like railfanning and urban planning seem to have to big overlap. Also old music. For less overlap, most female/gen z dominated hobbies seem to have very little overlap with the roadgeek community. For example, modern music/rap music is not very popular. Also hobbies less popular with the non-white community. Look at the length of the baseball thread vs the NBA thread. This forum seems to match the interests of white men aged 25-65 though there are some exceptions.
My username has been outdated since August 2023 but I'm too lazy to change it


JayhawkCO

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on December 17, 2024, 01:12:52 AMSo on AAroads we have a variety of different things we are interested in. We are mostly all interested in roads, but what hobbies most overlap with the roadgeek community? Obviously, other geography and travel related hobbies overlap a lot, as well as other adventure/nature hobbies like hiking. But international/Europe travel doesn't seem to have a big overlap- on this forum, most people would rather spend a week on dirt roads in Alaska than a week in Italy. Travel that has one mostly spending time in one city seems to not have a big overlap, but taking trains throughout Europe might have more of an overlap. I've also found that hobbies like vintage cars overlap, which is not surprising. Other types of travel/transportation geeking like railfanning and urban planning seem to have to big overlap. Also old music. For less overlap, most female/gen z dominated hobbies seem to have very little overlap with the roadgeek community. For example, modern music/rap music is not very popular. Also hobbies less popular with the non-white community. Look at the length of the baseball thread vs the NBA thread. This forum seems to match the interests of white men aged 25-65 though there are some exceptions.

I, obviously, really enjoy international travel. I don't tend to stay in one place very long, and so I end up doing some roadtripping (normally via bus) when I'm in foreign countries. Normally, the roads aren't the main attraction when I'm abroad as much as they would be on a roadtrip here in the states, but I definitely try to pick places where the drives are scenic. As this is predominantly a US based group, it's not surprising that international travel is less popular. A good chunk of Americans have never left the country, and that's not necessarily an indictment on Americans either. A) The US is a long way away from other places and B) every kind of terrain can be found in the US. I've just been fascinated by travel since I was a little kid, especially to exotic places, and since I've had the means to do so, I've tried to take advantage.

Trains are fine, but I'm not a train nerd. Just a means to an end to go to new places.

I do hike a ton, including "climbing" mountains. I'm going to climb Kilimanjaro in June.

I don't love MODERN rap, with very few exceptions, but I do love 90's and 2000's rap, so there's that.

cl94

International travel really depends on the subset of road enthusiasts you're talking about. A lot of the ones with the means to do so quite enjoy extensive international travel, myself included. They just aren't super active on this forum in most cases, but many of the MTR-era road enthusiasts are big world travelers. Money is the big thing there, as it's expensive and time-consuming for most to leave either the US or Canada (and most forum users are in one of those two countries).

Railfanning also has a LOT of overlap, even among forum users. Not a total overlap, no, but there is enough that they are correlated. The new rail side of Travel Mapping has a decent amount of crossover users. Some people into both have made it a habit to combine the two in their material. I certainly will not turn down a chance to get a great combined road/rail photo.

And then hiking. Hiking circles overlap greatly with travel circles, and since all road enthusiasts are by definition in travel circles, the link is clear. Some people use hikes as an excuse to see new roads and vice-versa, some incorporate road and rail-related sights into their hikes. I do a lot of both, combining new roads with new hikes and making it a point to hike old and abandoned roads and railroads, as well as overlooks of road and rail infrastructure. Also, "peakbagging" is literally clinching mountains, so it is a very natural thing to do when new roads/etc. become hard to obtain. My expansion into county highpointing came when I was starting to run out of new roads in daytrip range.

As far as why there isn't a ton of female-dominated hobby overlap, well, most road (and rail) enthusiasts are male. The handful of women in the hobby often do have other hobbies that tend to be female coded. Things like gaming are not particularly gendered at this point, and that is pretty popular among many in this hobby.
Please note: All posts represent my personal opinions and do not represent those of my employer or any of its partner agencies.

Travel Mapping (updated weekly)

Roadgeekteen

Just to clarify, by international travel I'm more talking about the "fly to London, stay there for 5 days, fly back to the US", mostly visiting the famous sights in London, more than all international travel.
My username has been outdated since August 2023 but I'm too lazy to change it

freebrickproductions

For least, one of them has to be tornado sirens. I certainly ain't too aware of too many other people on here who are also siren enthusiasts, though I'm aware of a few siren enthusiasts who are also traffic signal collectors or railfans.
It's all fun & games until someone summons Cthulhu and brings about the end of the world.

I also collect traffic lights, road signs, fans, and railroad crossing equipment.

(They/Them)

Ted$8roadFan

For some reason, I think collecting license plates (which I do) qualifies.

Scott5114

Things with no obvious reason to have any overlap, but they seem to:
- Game shows. There's at least three people here that have accounts on golden-road.net. The host of Jeopardy! has an account here.
- Weather, specifically The Weather Channel. I think our rules set is based on one from a Weather Channel forum. Most roadgeeks seem to know what the WeatherStar 4000 is.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

74/171FAN

Quote from: Scott5114 on December 17, 2024, 07:03:17 AMThings with no obvious reason to have any overlap, but they seem to:
- Game shows. There's at least three people here that have accounts on golden-road.net. The host of Jeopardy! has an account here.
- Weather, specifically The Weather Channel. I think our rules set is based on one from a Weather Channel forum. Most roadgeeks seem to know what the WeatherStar 4000 is.

I was obsessed with The Weather Channel as a kid to the point that I learned the interstates by watching the radars (though they did not tell me about that I-95 gap in NJ).
I am now a PennDOT employee.  My opinions/views do not necessarily reflect the opinions/views of PennDOT.

Travel Mapping: https://travelmapping.net/user/?units=miles&u=markkos1992
Mob-Rule:  https://mob-rule.com/user/markkos1992

hotdogPi

I have no idea what the racial makeup of this forum is. Do we know it's whiter than US demographics would indicate?

Current video games seem to have very little overlap. Max Rocktansky will often mention 1990s games, and Minecraft gets the occasional mention, but no Call of Duty, Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto, most things by Valve, etc.
Clinched

Traveled, plus
US 13, 50
MA 22, 35, 40, 53, 107, 109, 126, 141, 159
NH 27, 78, 111A(E); CA 90; NY 366; GA 42, 140; FL A1A, 7; CT 32, 320; VT 2A, 5A; PA 3, 51, 60, WA 202; QC 162, 165, 263; 🇬🇧A100, A3211, A3213, A3215, A4222; 🇫🇷95 D316

Lowest untraveled: 36

Max Rockatansky

While there is some overlap I'm finding there is a difference between Road Enthusiasts and Driving Enthusiasts. 

In that thought I've noticed that Driving Enthusiasts tends to have overlap with Ghost Towning circles but only a little with Road Enthusiasts. 

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: hotdogPi on December 17, 2024, 07:37:57 AMI have no idea what the racial makeup of this forum is. Do we know it's whiter than US demographics would indicate?


While there isn't a data set one can glean it is highly caucasian and male from off forum road fan groups.

Interestingly our Facebook page offers some demographic statistics.  We have a 66.3% male following and are most popular in the 45-54 age demographic at 21.2%. 

Rothman

All this speculation needs to be confirmed via a survey of our forum members. :D
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

thspfc


Bobby5280

Graphic design has quite a bit of overlap with roadgeek activity via highway related signage and iconography. I make my living doing graphic design work, so it isn't really a hobby. But there are lots of people who mess around with graphics on an amateur/hobbyist level.

When I was a kid my family traveled around a lot by car due to my dad being in the Marine Corps. We lived all over the country and even overseas for 3 years. My dad would get a month of leave each year; he would usually take that during the summer when me and my brother were out of school so we could drive to places in Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico to visit family. I already loved drawing at the time, but the highway signs on those road trips stuck in my brain.

Takumi

Quote from: thspfc on December 17, 2024, 12:35:49 PMI'm surprised we don't have more "car guys" here.

We're out there, but cars are an expensive hobby and a lot of us have disparate interests in the specific cars we like and there isn't much overlap.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: Takumi on December 17, 2024, 02:04:35 PM
Quote from: thspfc on December 17, 2024, 12:35:49 PMI'm surprised we don't have more "car guys" here.

We're out there, but cars are an expensive hobby and a lot of us have disparate interests in the specific cars we like and there isn't much overlap.

I'm certainly a car guy myself.  I'm more from the world of car clubs prior to my time on the forum.  I used host to driving events with the last major club I was part of a couple times a year.  They weren't too dissimilar to how road meets go.

english si

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on December 17, 2024, 01:53:40 AMJust to clarify, by international travel I'm more talking about the "fly to London, stay there for 5 days, fly back to the US", mostly visiting the famous sights in London, more than all international travel.
We have quite a bit of that (I, obviously, tend to notice it a bit more as it's people coming to my patch) though it's not talked about in great detail here.

I think a key thing is there's other, better, places to look for travel advice. And unless it's road-related this isn't really a forum for posting your holiday snaps (international or domestic). And a trip to London or Paris doesn't have much roadgeekery around it.

JayhawkCO

Some of my hobbies that seem less likely to correspond with road geeks are:

Mountain Climbing
Wine
Heavy Board Games
Backpacking
Poker

TheStranger

Motorsports, I dunno if it has overlap with roadgeekery but I do recognize one poster from the NASCAR subreddit who is a regular here! (I only lurk on Reddit though and don't have an account there)

Probably my one hobby with the least crossover here would be Korean pop music...
Chris Sampang

GaryV

FIRST Robotics. I know there's at least one other member of this board involved.

NWI_Irish96

Quote from: Ted$8roadFan on December 17, 2024, 05:24:00 AMFor some reason, I think collecting license plates (which I do) qualifies.

I have every license plate that I've ever owned, but never had an interest in collecting plates in general.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

Scott5114

Quote from: 74/171FAN on December 17, 2024, 07:33:03 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on December 17, 2024, 07:03:17 AMThings with no obvious reason to have any overlap, but they seem to:
- Game shows. There's at least three people here that have accounts on golden-road.net. The host of Jeopardy! has an account here.
- Weather, specifically The Weather Channel. I think our rules set is based on one from a Weather Channel forum. Most roadgeeks seem to know what the WeatherStar 4000 is.

I was obsessed with The Weather Channel as a kid to the point that I learned the interstates by watching the radars (though they did not tell me about that I-95 gap in NJ).

Heh, that wouldn't have worked for me. The WS4000 maps had Interstate shields with no numbers in them.

On the flip side, you could learn airport codes from them since they had those instead of city names.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

freebrickproductions

Quote from: english si on December 17, 2024, 04:34:16 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on December 17, 2024, 01:53:40 AMJust to clarify, by international travel I'm more talking about the "fly to London, stay there for 5 days, fly back to the US", mostly visiting the famous sights in London, more than all international travel.
We have quite a bit of that (I, obviously, tend to notice it a bit more as it's people coming to my patch) though it's not talked about in great detail here.

I think a key thing is there's other, better, places to look for travel advice. And unless it's road-related this isn't really a forum for posting your holiday snaps (international or domestic). And a trip to London or Paris doesn't have much roadgeekery around it.

Admittedly even most of my domestic travelling ain't roadgeek related, though I do like to look for roadgeekery-stuff when I'm out and about. It's part of why I've only ever clinched one US highway (two if you count Alt. US 72) and have only clinched like I-16 and I-65 as far as 2dis go. I think the closest I get is usually when I decide to take a daytrip somewhere for signal hunting, usually my trips are railfanning-related and occasionally siren-related, with the occasional ponycon mixed in in recent years. I think the last time I went on a full signal hunt was back in 2023 when I went down to the Selma area in the spring.
It's all fun & games until someone summons Cthulhu and brings about the end of the world.

I also collect traffic lights, road signs, fans, and railroad crossing equipment.

(They/Them)

bandit957

There seems to be more people here interested in 'American Top 40'.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

Scott5114

Quote from: JayhawkCO on December 17, 2024, 04:53:47 PMHeavy Board Games

This is a little surprising to me. You'd think there'd be more board gamer/roadgeek overlap. (I haven't really done any of the really hard drugs when it comes to board games—I made it through one turn of Twilight Imperium once—but you'd think there'd be people into the Catan-tier stuff.)

I'm also kind of surprised that I'm pretty sure there's only one other D&D player here besides me (and I only know that cause I DMed him to tell him his avatar was cool, and it turned out it was his D&D character).
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef



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