What do you Count/Not Count When Clinching?

[Scott5114]

I am pretty liberal with my rules too, probably more liberal than most people. Because the whole point of clinching a road is to say "Yeah, I've seen all this road has to offer" and be satisfied with that. If I am required to follow a bunch of fiddly rules to make sure I covered every scrap of pavement then it just becomes tedious and I'm doing this for me, not to prove anything to anyone else. And I'm a lazy individual, so my rules reflect that.

So interchanges are treated as points. If I get off at exit 62 and get back on at 62 then there is no gap.

I've counted two clinches based on full closures of the highways we were doing because the closure was only a couple blocks and I could see all of what I missed ("sight clinched").

I would do the same. Hell, I would count time spent on Texas-style frontage roads as counting toward the freeway (especially if there were missing ramps causing me to ride down to the next interchange to get back on).

I don't need to reclinch a route if it's realigned, so long as the realignment is roughly within the same corridor. So if they move the road to a new street in the same city, or build a new carriageway roughly parallel to the old one to add a new bridge or remove some curves or hills, as long as it still generally serves the same area, I'm not going back to see it unless something specifically piques my interest about it. The idea is I clinched the route as it existed at the time, so it's done. If they do a big enough realignment where it now serves entirely different towns, then I would need to redo it–unless it was moved to be concurrent with something I've already done. Basically the only way something would get "unclinched" is through a pure extension along roads I've never done before.

I count clinches as a passenger. I count clinches from before I could drive. What can I say, I was in band and boy scouts, so I got to see a lot of roads that way. I was enough of a roadgeek as a kid that I remember the routes, so why shouldn't I count it?

[CtrlAltDel]

I think kphoger hit on one of the major differences among the various different clinching "camps": whether the mainline is the only bit of the freeway that counts or not.

I pretty much fall on the side of considering only the mainline, and so I generally exclude ramps (as well as that potential gap in the middle of the cross street).

What counts as clinching to me begins (when entering) and ends (when exiting) more or less at the theoretical gore, as it is painted on the ground. If I'm on a ramp, anywhere where the lines separating me from the mainline are solid, would not count as clinching, while if the lines are dashed or dotted, that does count. As a result, exiting and reentering at the same exit does not maintain a clinch unless the two ramps are loop ramps or something similar. The same goes for rest areas and the like. It doesn't really matter where the ramp goes, provided it's separate.

With that in mind, I would say that I-10 and I-45 are separate through Houston. I would also say that I-29 and I-80 are separate through Council Bluffs IA, that I-88 and I-355 are separate through the western suburbs of Chicago, and that I-295 is separate from I-76 and NJ 42 in Bellmawr NJ. (If it happens that one side merges together while the other doesn't, what would count is the one I traveled on.)

As far as sanity goes, I don't really feel that that's an issue. You don't win anything for completing a clinch, and you don't lose anything for not completing it. That said, clinching in this way does add some additional miles and turnarounds to work, but, I don't really mind them, considering them as something of an adventure.

[Rothman]

I also count clinches if I was a passenger and I don't care what age I did it at.  To each their own.

[ethanhopkin14]

I think kphoger hit on one of the major differences among the various different clinching "camps": whether the mainline is the only bit of the freeway that counts or not.

I pretty much fall on the side of considering only the mainline, and so I generally exclude ramps (as well as that potential gap in the middle of the cross street).

What counts as clinching to me begins (when entering) and ends (when exiting) more or less at the theoretical gore, as it is painted on the ground. If I'm on a ramp, anywhere where the lines separating me from the mainline are solid, would not count as clinching, while if the lines are dashed or dotted, that does count. As a result, exiting and reentering at the same exit does not maintain a clinch unless the two ramps are loop ramps or something similar. The same goes for rest areas and the like. It doesn't really matter where the ramp goes, provided it's separate.

With that in mind, I would say that I-10 and I-45 are separate through Houston. I would also say that I-29 and I-80 are separate through Council Bluffs IA, that I-88 and I-355 are separate through the western suburbs of Chicago, and that I-295 is separate from I-76 and NJ 42 in Bellmawr NJ. (If it happens that one side merges together while the other doesn't, what would count is the one I traveled on.)

As far as sanity goes, I don't really feel that that's an issue. You don't win anything for completing a clinch, and you don't lose anything for not completing it. That said, clinching in this way does add some additional miles and turnarounds to work, but, I don't really mind them, considering them as something of an adventure.

The first time I visited South Carolina I was driving with my brother south on I-95 from New York, planning on taking I-20 back west to Texas.  At that point I had only been as far east as Shreveport on I-20 so this trip would clinch everything east of Shreveport for both of us on I-20.  Instead of taking the ramp from I-95 to I-20, we exited I-95 to BL-20 and turned around at the Walmart in Florence.  Then we traveled east on BL-20 to the point where it turned into I-20 so that we could say we went on the pavement the whole way that was considered I-20.  At the time I wasn't sure if I would ever be back.  Luckily I now have friends in South Carolina so I have been back to Florence several times since then, but this was a good example of going slightly out of the way to make sure that small portion of highway that was not the entrance ramp was traveled by us. 

[ethanhopkin14]

I am pretty liberal with my rules too, probably more liberal than most people. Because the whole point of clinching a road is to say "Yeah, I've seen all this road has to offer" and be satisfied with that. If I am required to follow a bunch of fiddly rules to make sure I covered every scrap of pavement then it just becomes tedious and I'm doing this for me, not to prove anything to anyone else. And I'm a lazy individual, so my rules reflect that.

So interchanges are treated as points. If I get off at exit 62 and get back on at 62 then there is no gap.

I've counted two clinches based on full closures of the highways we were doing because the closure was only a couple blocks and I could see all of what I missed ("sight clinched").

I would do the same. Hell, I would count time spent on Texas-style frontage roads as counting toward the freeway (especially if there were missing ramps causing me to ride down to the next interchange to get back on).

I don't need to reclinch a route if it's realigned, so long as the realignment is roughly within the same corridor. So if they move the road to a new street in the same city, or build a new carriageway roughly parallel to the old one to add a new bridge or remove some curves or hills, as long as it still generally serves the same area, I'm not going back to see it unless something specifically piques my interest about it. The idea is I clinched the route as it existed at the time, so it's done. If they do a big enough realignment where it now serves entirely different towns, then I would need to redo it—unless it was moved to be concurrent with something I've already done. Basically the only way something would get "unclinched" is through a pure extension along roads I've never done before.

I count clinches as a passenger. I count clinches from before I could drive. What can I say, I was in band and boy scouts, so I got to see a lot of roads that way. I was enough of a roadgeek as a kid that I remember the routes, so why shouldn't I count it?

This same way of thinking is how I, in someway, consider visiting baseball fields.  I went to (old) Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium back in 2007.  Obviously both are torn down now,.  I am not in a hurry to go back to watch a game at either of the Yankees' or Mets' current homes because I feel in a way I have done that.  If you ask the question have you been to the current Yankee Stadium or Citi Field, the answer is of course no, but if you ask me how many home stadiums for Major League teams I have been to, I can count those two, or if you simply ask me if I have been to a home game for the Yankees or Mets, the answer is yes. 

[CtrlAltDel]

The first time I visited South Carolina I was driving with my brother south on I-95 from New York, planning on taking I-20 back west to Texas.  At that point I had only been as far east as Shreveport on I-20 so this trip would clinch everything east of Shreveport for both of us on I-20.  Instead of taking the ramp from I-95 to I-20, we exited I-95 to BL-20 and turned around at the Walmart in Florence.  Then we traveled east on BL-20 to the point where it turned into I-20 so that we could say we went on the pavement the whole way that was considered I-20.  At the time I wasn't sure if I would ever be back.  Luckily I now have friends in South Carolina so I have been back to Florence several times since then, but this was a good example of going slightly out of the way to make sure that small portion of highway that was not the entrance ramp was traveled by us.

That's pretty much what I did when clinching I-4. I went straight through the I-95 interchange, made a right and 3 lefts, and then took the ramp to I-95.

[Bruce]

I will count clinches by bus or train that is in the same ROW (e.g. a median or with shared traffic signals). Helps with urban clinching, especially since car rental is a bit too expensive at my age.

[bm7]

Ramps count as part of the highway to me. I don't see the point in being pedantic about what technically counts or not. I mean, why stop at having to drive over every inch of the length of the highway? Why not require driving the entirety in each lane, both ways? Or taking every exit and entering on every on-ramp? Only then will you have truly experienced all of the route... What about when they repave part of it, and now you technically haven't been on that section of the asphalt, do you have to go drive on it again? 

[JoePCool14]

Ramps count as part of the highway to me. I don't see the point in being pedantic about what technically counts or not. I mean, why stop at having to drive over every inch of the length of the highway? Why not require driving the entirety in each lane, both ways? Or taking every exit and entering on every on-ramp? Only then will you have truly experienced all of the route... What about when they repave part of it, and now you technically haven't been on that section of the asphalt, do you have to go drive on it again? 

Don't forget you must also ride all four shoulders, use every "official vehicles only" turnaround, use every lane of every ramp, and also see every single sign in both directions with no exceptions. 

[dlsterner]

One of the things I sometimes consider when clinching highways is what I call a "Sight Clinch" - that is, when you can see the road from where you are and it is impractical to actually drive on said road.  I take these on a "case by case" basis.

Here are some examples of when I would definitely allow a "sight clinch":

• Getting off and back on at an interchange when I exit the highway to get gas or food.
• Getting off and back on at a "typical" rest area.
• Being on one carriageway where there are multiple ones in the same direction (think I-270 north of Washington DC).
• Seeing the southbound carriageway when traveling northbound - i.e., don't have to clinch both directions.
• A bridge replacement adjacent to the old bridge, or a re-alignment to smooth out some curves.  Is it approximately the same right of way?
• Traveling one direction on a pair of one way streets in a city.

These may on a case by case basis - have I kept with the "spirit" of the clinch? :

• A route that travels up to (or through) an entrance to a military base, an international border, or some other barrier that I would not be allowed to pass through.
• A short detour due to road closure (e.g., for an accident or for construction)

These would most likely not be allowed:

• A route number that has been significantly re-routed onto another right of way and serving new towns.  Basically I am counting asphalt as opposed to a number.
  

I don't worry about which vehicle.  Having had a drivers license for 46 years, I have obviously owned several cars.  Rental cars count too.  Buses do not.  I don't have to be the driver, but I need to be aware of the trip, and have a 100% memory of the trip.  I will go back in time to about my teens, as long as the memory is present.

I also try to avoid an "in-and-out" maneuver to get a clinch (drive a short distance and U-turn).

A footnote:  Even as a little kid, I always wanted to know where we were going, and how we were going to get there   I started getting my Dad's hand-me-down roadmaps when I was still in elementary school.

Clinching highways is supposed to be fun.  Sure, you should have some ground rules.  But you shouldn't be so pedantic that is ceases to be enjoyable.

[kphoger]

Clinching highways is supposed to be fun.  Sure, you should have some ground rules.  But you shouldn't be so pedantic that is ceases to be enjoyable.

And yet the impression I'm getting is that those with 'pedantic' route-clinching rules actually do enjoy abiding by them.

[TEG24601]

With the exception of incomplete interchanges (where you can get off at one point, but cannot get on until another interchange), I would count getting off and on at the same exit as a continuous route.


Of course, with the routes I've counted as clinched, I have driven over them, multiple times.  So, regardless of the rules, I can safely say that I have completed the entire constructed route.  The sole Exception is H-201, which I only traveled in one direction, from H-1 to H-1.

[ethanhopkin14]

Clinching highways is supposed to be fun.  Sure, you should have some ground rules.  But you shouldn't be so pedantic that is ceases to be enjoyable.

And yet the impression I'm getting is that those with 'pedantic' route-clinching rules actually do enjoy abiding by them.

Agreed.  I am pretty picky about the rules, but I actually enjoy following them.  I don't keep a log, I just memorize it. 

For instance, for a very long time I had driven all of I-10 except for the portion between I-215 in San Bernardino and I-110 in downtown Los Angeles.  That was simple enough for me to remember, and I just kept saying the next time I drove to Los Angeles I was going to take I-10 all the way to Santa Monica and that would cover that.  I didn't lose sleep over it and it didn't make driving not fun because of it.  It took about 15 years for me to have a reason to drive that missing section.  It was great to finally do it and cover all or I-10, but before that I wasn't a wreck.

Another example is I have all of I-95 in Florida covered except a section from FL-404 to FL-405 where my wife and I went to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral.  It was my first and only trip on that part of I-95, so maybe skipping it is a missed opportunity, but eh.  At the time I didn't say, we need to backtrack to cover that area.  I just said, I am sure I will find another trip in the future that will take me over that stretch of the highway.   It's that kinda of thinking that I actually love.  Thinking later of a trip that could possibly take me over the missing segment.  My wife and I would love to go to the Keys again, so I am sure we will get a chance to drive that portion.  Again, no lost sleep and no worried minds. 

[kphoger]

Don't forget you must also ride all four shoulders, use every "official vehicles only" turnaround, use every lane of every ramp, and also see every single sign in both directions with no exceptions. 

Remember, this thread does exist.

[MikeTheActuary]

I don't actively track highway clinches, although I have in the past gone back and reconstructed them and used that as the basis of some weekend wandering.

However, when "collecting" things (e.g. county-counting, or my various wallpaper-chasing in ham radio), my philosophy is that the rules I follow should not be burdenosme.  If it's not fun, then why the heck am I doing it?

To that end, if I were actively tracking clinches, I would agree with the concept of "sight clinches" / not fussing with missed mainline pavement caused by stopping for fuel or a bio-break, etc.  My rules would focus on routes traveled upon, regardless of whether I was driver or passenger, but I would not give myself cross-modal credit (e.g. riding mass transit rail in a highway's right-of-way).

Where I might be inclined to take a pickier line is when it comes to realignments.  I wouldn't concern myself over "very minor" realignments (moving a route a couple of blocks in a town) or twinning a route in essentially the same right of way, but when there is enough of a change to give a new character to a highway (e.g. a new bypass of a town, or moving the route from a surface road to a new controlled-access or divided highway in a very-similar-but-mostly-not-overlapping ROW), I would no longer be able to count it in good faith.

Similarly, with route renumberings, I think it would depend on a "character of the route" criteria.  For example, when I-865 was created in Indiana, I mentally gave myself credit because I had traveled that stretch of roadway many times in the past, and the new number didn't really do anything about changing the character of that highway oddity.   However, depending on the context, I don't know that I'd give myself any credit for having traveled I-69 between Indianapolis and Memphis, even though I have traveled on roadways that have become / are becoming I-69, because I-69 south of Indianapolis is a "new thing".  But, I don't feel the same way about portions of US78 that were upgraded to I-22, probably because the "new thing" was the construction of the freeway, rather than the interstate shield and number per sé.

[MikeTheActuary]

I don't actively track highway clinches, although I have in the past gone back and reconstructed them and used that as the basis of some weekend wandering.

However, when "collecting" things (e.g. county-counting, or my various wallpaper-chasing in ham radio), my philosophy is that the rules I follow should not be burdenosme.  If it's not fun, then why the heck am I doing it?

To that end, if I were actively tracking clinches, I would agree with the concept of "sight clinches" / not fussing with missed mainline pavement caused by stopping for fuel or a bio-break, etc.  My rules would focus on routes traveled upon, regardless of whether I was driver or passenger, but I would not give myself cross-modal credit (e.g. riding mass transit rail in a highway's right-of-way).

Where I might be inclined to take a pickier line is when it comes to realignments.  I wouldn't concern myself over "very minor" realignments (moving a route a couple of blocks in a town) or twinning a route in essentially the same right of way, but when there is enough of a change to give a new character to a highway (e.g. a new bypass of a town, or moving the route from a surface road to a new controlled-access or divided highway in a very-similar-but-mostly-not-overlapping ROW), I would no longer be able to count it in good faith.

Similarly, with route renumberings, I think it would depend on a "character of the route" criteria.  For example, when I-865 was created in Indiana, I mentally gave myself credit because I had traveled that stretch of roadway many times in the past, and the new number didn't really do anything about changing the character of that highway oddity.   However, depending on the context, I don't know that I'd give myself any credit for having traveled I-69 between Indianapolis and Memphis, even though I have traveled on roadways that have become / are becoming I-69, because I-69 south of Indianapolis is a "new thing".  But, I don't feel the same way about portions of US78 that were upgraded to I-22, probably because the "new thing" was the construction of the freeway, rather than the interstate shield and number per sé.

Thinking about this a little more... I think my frame of reference would have to be that of a printed road atlas or printed state highway map.

If I can point to a line in an atlas/on a map that is as innately connected to a particular highway number as when I traveled upon it (even if the number has changed), then I could count that.

However, if I could say "I have traveled on this line on the map that that used to be part of the route, but is no longer" or "this is an entirely new route, comprised of some stretches of highway I may or may not have traveled upon"...then I wouldn't give myself credit for that route for that prior travel.   But if there were a minor realignment in the route as part of an upgrade that wouldn't be clearly differentiated from the old alignment in Rand McNally...I'd probably continue to count it.

(I started down this path of thought by considering the upgrades to US 431 between Phenix City and Dothan vice the updates to US 84 in Coffee County.  I didn't mentally lose credit for US 431 when it was upgraded, but I did for the US 84 bypasses of New Brockton and Elba.  Maybe that's a function more of familiarity than of lines on the map -- I used to live in Enterprise, AL while working in Elba, AL -- but my mind went fishing for a somewhat more objective criterion.)

[CtrlAltDel]

Clinching highways is supposed to be fun.  Sure, you should have some ground rules.  But you shouldn't be so pedantic that is ceases to be enjoyable.

And yet the impression I'm getting is that those with 'pedantic' route-clinching rules actually do enjoy abiding by them.

Agreed.  I am pretty picky about the rules, but I actually enjoy following them.  I don't keep a log, I just memorize it. 

I concur. It is fun. I've had a number of adventures working my way around gas stops and the like, since I prefer not to back-track directly on the interstate to cover the interchange. As a result, I've seen a number of places I would otherwise never have, making the experience of clinching, at least in part, a stop-and-smell-the-roses sort of thing.

Also, just for the record, I would prefer thorough over pedantic.

[US 89]

I see no reason not to allow getting off the freeway and getting back on at the same interchange. Disallowing this maneuver becomes especially tedious and not fun if located in a region way out in the middle of nowhere with long distances between exits. Of course, there will be disputes on how to define "same interchange", but places where this arises are almost always going to be urban areas where it's easy to backtrack a bit if necessary

I'm pretty liberal with clinching - any time of day, driver or passenger, any age. I don't see why I have to be the driver if I know where I'm going. It's really more a "where have I been" thing than anything else. Same goes for county collecting.

Main reason I don't think age matters is that the roads I travel on has been something I've paid close attention to really ever since I can remember. When I was in first or second grade, for a school writing project I described the exact routes and exit numbers my family had taken to get from Salt Lake to the Grand Canyon over spring break. If that trip doesn't count towards clinching I don't know what does.

[JayhawkCO]

Highways:

• If I've been in a car on the road covering the mileage (doesn't matter driving or riding)
• Entering and exiting at the same point counts
• The couple of times I've encountered a closed road, if I can see whole closed portion, I count it

Counties, States, & Countries:

• If I've crossed the border in a vehicle or on foot
• If I've had a layover at an airport there and gotten off the plane to enter the airport

Chris

[jaehak]

I am pretty liberal with my rules too, probably more liberal than most people. Because the whole point of clinching a road is to say "Yeah, I've seen all this road has to offer" and be satisfied with that. If I am required to follow a bunch of fiddly rules to make sure I covered every scrap of pavement then it just becomes tedious and I'm doing this for me, not to prove anything to anyone else. And I'm a lazy individual, so my rules reflect that.

So interchanges are treated as points. If I get off at exit 62 and get back on at 62 then there is no gap.

I've counted two clinches based on full closures of the highways we were doing because the closure was only a couple blocks and I could see all of what I missed ("sight clinched").

I would do the same. Hell, I would count time spent on Texas-style frontage roads as counting toward the freeway (especially if there were missing ramps causing me to ride down to the next interchange to get back on).

I don't need to reclinch a route if it's realigned, so long as the realignment is roughly within the same corridor. So if they move the road to a new street in the same city, or build a new carriageway roughly parallel to the old one to add a new bridge or remove some curves or hills, as long as it still generally serves the same area, I'm not going back to see it unless something specifically piques my interest about it. The idea is I clinched the route as it existed at the time, so it's done. If they do a big enough realignment where it now serves entirely different towns, then I would need to redo it–unless it was moved to be concurrent with something I've already done. Basically the only way something would get "unclinched" is through a pure extension along roads I've never done before.

I count clinches as a passenger. I count clinches from before I could drive. What can I say, I was in band and boy scouts, so I got to see a lot of roads that way. I was enough of a roadgeek as a kid that I remember the routes, so why shouldn't I count it?

I do all of these, and I'm even ok with a "pre-clinch."  For example, I drove U.S. 78 from Birmingham to Memphis in 2002. It wasn't I 22 yet, but most of it was already interstate standard, so I absolutely count it as clinching most of I-22. If I were to drive it again the only part of the experience that would be different is the shield. Same for I 49 in Missouri. From 435 to Nevada it's been interstate standard or close since the 90s, so I don't feel compelled to drive it again.

[Rothman]

Dirty cheaters.

[M3100]

Regarding highway segments on the Travel Mapping.net site:

- I count any road segment traveled over the past several decades, whether as a driver or passenger.  This includes recalled journeys where I was a passenger, which includes selected family vacations and moves between states.  I've also gone on multi-day bus tours of historic sites, and those routes "count".  I also have counted two road segments where I walked the (short) routes, in downtown Salt Lake City and Atlantic City.
- If I use an off/on-ramp at the same location, I don't treat that as a "break" in the route unless the on and off ramps are separate data points on the Travel mapping site.
- I treat clinching rail travel as distinctly separate, even where a rail line is parallel to, or in the median of, a numbered highway.  In the Boston area I have ridden the MBTA line (ex B&A/NYC/PC) from South Station through the Back Bay west to Worcester, and have clinched that.  But I have never traveled the parallel I-90 for a stretch in that area, so I do not count that.
- Regarding counties, I have clinched all where I have traveled by highway and/or rail.  One exception: Whatcom County in northwest Washington state.  I have never set foot or traveled on any segment of that county, but I have traveled on the British Columbia (Canada) ferry that connects Vancouver Island to the mainland, and the ferry route traverses a corner of that US county in the water.

[hobsini2]

For me to clinch a county...
Driving or by train...simply crossing a line that the highway or rail goes over.
Flying...I need to actually be on the physical ground. Feet on the tarmac count. If it is a layover with the same plane, I need to debark the plane for it to count. Once in the gate area, I need to buy something like a drink or food in the terminal.

A "super" clinch is being in the county seat anywhere in the city limits. So for instance, being at O'Hare does clinch Cook County since Chicago is the seat. But not DuPage County despite some of the southwest side runways going into DuPage.

[kphoger]

Dirty cheaters.

Which is it?  Do you count dirty cheaters when clinching?  Or do you not count dirty cheaters when clinching?  Based on the wording of the topic, your post is ambiguous.

[texaskdog]

I never count clinches or anything.....if I did a whole roadway one direction it would look completely different than the other.  plus being married my wife wouldn't tolerate my road habits.  just trying to get to 50 states...10 to go.