What do you Count/Not Count When Clinching?

[texaskdog]

Once in the gate area, I need to buy something like a drink or food in the terminal.

Better have receipts!

[ethanhopkin14]

Once in the gate area, I need to buy something like a drink or food in the terminal.

Better have receipts!

Receipts or it didn't happen!

[ctkatz]

for interstates I count as a clinch all drivable miles, entry at the same exit and everything up to the last exit before a national border or a tollbooth.  i also count as a clinch of an interstate just covering all of those miles in one direction. there have been a few instances where if there was no cumbersome double back where I backtracked to cover the interstate I didn't cover by taking the exit.

I count as a state visit just crossing the border even if I do nothing in the state, so technically the only lower 48 place I have yet to visit is louisiana.

[Gnutella]

My clinch criteria:


1. I must be driving in order to clinch a route

2. One direction or the other is acceptable

3. Driving the entire length at once is not necessary

4. The starting point does not matter if the entire length is not driven at once

5. The mainline on controlled-access highways must be driven straight through all interchanges, unless the route exits itself

6. The mainline on secondary roads must be driven straight through all intersections

7. Once a segment of a route is driven, minor realignments do not matter, but major realignments and extensions do

8. Losing a route due to wrong, missing or confusing signage is not acceptable

9. Construction zones are acceptable, but closures are not

10. Nighttime is acceptable, though daytime is preferred

11. Pulling over is acceptable, though staying on the mainline is preferred

12. Once a route is clinched, that status is indefinite

[formulanone]

Once in the gate area, I need to buy something like a drink or food in the terminal.

Better have receipts!

Receipts or it didn't happen!

Nah, receipts fade. Photographs are much more permanent.

[1995hoo]

One thing I'm genuinely curious about in some of y'all's criteria (Guntella's comment bring this to mind) is why you feel strongly that you must be driving. As others have noted, as a passenger you're more free to look around and actually see the road and any scenery (or lack thereof) along it, and certainly it's a lot safer to take pictures from a moving car as a passenger rather than as a driver.

[Avalanchez71]

My clinch criteria:


1. I must be driving in order to clinch a route

2. One direction or the other is acceptable

3. Driving the entire length at once is not necessary

4. The starting point does not matter if the entire length is not driven at once

5. The mainline on controlled-access highways must be driven straight through all interchanges, unless the route exits itself

6. The mainline on secondary roads must be driven straight through all intersections

7. Once a segment of a route is driven, minor realignments do not matter, but major realignments and extensions do

8. Losing a route due to wrong, missing or confusing signage is not acceptable

9. Construction zones are acceptable, but closures are not

10. Nighttime is acceptable, though daytime is preferred

11. Pulling over is acceptable, though staying on the mainline is preferred

12. Once a route is clinched, that status is indefinite

What about pulling into scenic overlooks?

[webny99]

One thing I'm genuinely curious about in some of y'all's criteria (Guntella's comment bring this to mind) is why you feel strongly that you must be driving. As others have noted, as a passenger you're more free to look around and actually see the road and any scenery (or lack thereof) along it, and certainly it's a lot safer to take pictures from a moving car as a passenger rather than as a driver.

I've been wondering the same thing. We've had the whole "pictures are just as easy when you're driving" discussion before, but even setting that aside, it doesn't seem like there's any inherent disadvantage to not being behind the wheel (unless you're in the back seat of a bus or something, that's a little different).

I like to think I'm attentive as either the driver or the passenger, but it's unavoidable that what I pay attention to is very different. As a driver, I'm paying attention to intuitive things like maintaining a consistent speed, the overall traffic flow, and the other cars on the road, while as a passenger I'm paying attention to more specific details like signage, lane configurations, traffic on the other side of the highway, etc. In terms of taking in and remembering the route itself, I'd actually prefer to be a passenger, but I don't see how it would really matter either way.

[1995hoo]

One thing I'm genuinely curious about in some of y'all's criteria (Guntella's comment bring this to mind) is why you feel strongly that you must be driving. As others have noted, as a passenger you're more free to look around and actually see the road and any scenery (or lack thereof) along it, and certainly it's a lot safer to take pictures from a moving car as a passenger rather than as a driver.

I've been wondering the same thing. We've had the whole "pictures are just as easy when you're driving" discussion before, but even setting that aside, it doesn't seem like there's any inherent disadvantage to not being behind the wheel (unless you're in the back seat of a bus or something, that's a little different).

I like to think I'm attentive as either the driver or the passenger, but it's unavoidable that what I pay attention to is very different. As a driver, I'm paying attention to intuitive things like maintaining a consistent speed, the overall traffic flow, and the other cars on the road, while as a passenger I'm paying attention to more specific details like signage, lane configurations, traffic on the other side of the highway, etc. In terms of taking in and remembering the route itself, I'd actually prefer to be a passenger, but I don't see how it would really matter either way.

The point you make in your second paragraph is similar to something I said earlier in the thread about a comment my father made in 1989. My father was extremely familiar with the roads in question (the "traditional" I-95/New Jersey Turnpike route from Fairfax County to Brooklyn), but he had always been the driver on all of our family trips up to that point and his comment was interesting to me back then when I was learning to drive. ("Drove most of the way" denotes that he wouldn't let me drive in New York City, especially seeing as how I couldn't yet parallel park, so I pulled off at the last service area prior to the Goethals Bridge and he took over the driving from there.)

....

Regarding some people saying "I must be the driver," in the previous thread I linked above, someone made the good point that as a passenger you are better able to look around and focus on things other than strictly driving. I remember when I was 15 and had my learner's permit and we took a family trip to New York, I drove most of the way and my father commented on how nice it was to get to look around and see what was along those roads. He had always been the driver prior to that trip.

[NWI_Irish96]

I logged a lot of miles on family trips as a passenger between ages 8 and 15, so there's no way I'd exclude all those miles. There were a couple times we drove at night and I slept and I didn't count those miles since I didn't actually see them.

[roadman65]

Cash Less tolling bridges while driving a rental car on a route you got done on both sides.

[dlsterner]

One thing I'm genuinely curious about in some of y'all's criteria (Guntella's comment bring this to mind) is why you feel strongly that you must be driving. As others have noted, as a passenger you're more free to look around and actually see the road and any scenery (or lack thereof) along it, and certainly it's a lot safer to take pictures from a moving car as a passenger rather than as a driver.

In my case, I was very interested in roads, and where I've been, since being about 8 years old or so.  I would follow along and watch where we were driving on family vacations, and we kept written logs of the routes taken.  So because of this, I do not require that I be the driver (although for most of my age 18+ driving I have been the driver).

I always have required that I be aware of where I was, so any time spent napping in the back seat wouldn't count.  But if I napped, I would miss things!  So I rarely, if ever, did.

[hbelkins]

I logged a lot of miles on family trips as a passenger between ages 8 and 15, so there's no way I'd exclude all those miles.

My clinch of US 25 is dependent upon a family vacation we took in my childhood. So is my clinch of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

[Scott5114]

One thing I'm genuinely curious about in some of y'all's criteria (Guntella's comment bring this to mind) is why you feel strongly that you must be driving. As others have noted, as a passenger you're more free to look around and actually see the road and any scenery (or lack thereof) along it, and certainly it's a lot safer to take pictures from a moving car as a passenger rather than as a driver.

I used to count them as different "levels" of clinch. My old marked-up maps, when I used to track clinches that way, used yellow highlighter for passenger and pink highlighter for driven. They both still counted toward a clinch of a route, though. Of course, Travel Mapping doesn't allow you to show any distinction between different clinch segments, and the vast majority of my clinches are now from me driving, so it's whatever.

[dkblake]

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.

Yeah, that's part of the fun- what's thorough enough to satisfy your own personal need for cataloging your travels without making it too cumbersome to be enjoyable. I track highways with a blue marker on a normal-sized Rand McNally paper atlas, so I just highlight the route I traveled without worrying about where I got off for gas, etc. I don't care about driving or not since I shared duties with my wife or friends on long trips. Counties are on mob-rule, and I don't count airport layovers or overnight train rides when I was sleeping.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

In 2018 I clinched US 138. There was a full closure of it in Ovid, which I ignored the posted detour of US 385 and followed into town anyway. The local detour was a one-block workaround. I could see over the dirt pile back to the stop sign I had just come from. I called it good. I was happy.

[Gnutella]

My clinch criteria:


1. I must be driving in order to clinch a route

2. One direction or the other is acceptable

3. Driving the entire length at once is not necessary

4. The starting point does not matter if the entire length is not driven at once

5. The mainline on controlled-access highways must be driven straight through all interchanges, unless the route exits itself

6. The mainline on secondary roads must be driven straight through all intersections

7. Once a segment of a route is driven, minor realignments do not matter, but major realignments and extensions do

8. Losing a route due to wrong, missing or confusing signage is not acceptable

9. Construction zones are acceptable, but closures are not

10. Nighttime is acceptable, though daytime is preferred

11. Pulling over is acceptable, though staying on the mainline is preferred

12. Once a route is clinched, that status is indefinite

What about pulling into scenic overlooks?

If it involves a ramp, see rule #5. If it involves a turn, see rule #6. If it involves stopping on the shoulder, see rule #11.

[Avalanchez71]

I logged a lot of miles on family trips as a passenger between ages 8 and 15, so there's no way I'd exclude all those miles.

My clinch of US 25 is dependent upon a family vacation we took in my childhood. So is my clinch of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

What was the routing of the old Blue Ridge Pkwy?

[KCRoadFan]

Lately, I’ve been traveling US 20 (the longest US highway) end-to-end in Street View, and someday after COVID is over I might do it in real life, if I save up enough money. On my trip, I plan on taking the business routes or other former alignments of the highway through towns that the mainline currently bypasses.

I would count that towards clinching US 20 (or really, any other US highway I decide to drive end-to-end) because my philosophy is that the whole point of such a trip would be to see what there is to see along the route, a big part of which is the towns. I might follow the old route through a town to grab some lunch, get some gas, or just see what the town looks like. Based on that line of thinking, I would consider that to count towards clinching the route even if it does involve turning off the official highway. That’s just my point of view, though. (In addition, regarding business routes: they are, after all, what the road through would have been back in the day.)

[hbelkins]

I logged a lot of miles on family trips as a passenger between ages 8 and 15, so there's no way I'd exclude all those miles.

My clinch of US 25 is dependent upon a family vacation we took in my childhood. So is my clinch of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

What was the routing of the old Blue Ridge Pkwy?

I don't follow your question. What I was saying is that I got much of the mileage for my clinches of those two routes on family vacations. On a trip to Florida, we took US 25 from its southern terminus all the way north to I-26. I was a passenger in the back seat of the family car. On another family vacation, we took the Blue Ridge Parkway from its terminus in Virginia to the Asheville area. Again, I was a passenger in the back seat. I filled in the other portions of those roads later when I was driving. If I had to count driving as a criteria for a clinch, I couldn't count those two roads. But the fact remains that I have traveled every mile of the routes as they existed at the time I was on them. So they count.

On the BRP trip, we overnighted somewhere in the vicinity of Boone. The next morning dawned extremely foggy, to the point where you couldn't see any scenery. Our intent was to follow the route all the way to Cherokee, but my dad bailed at Asheville and took US 19 on to Cherokee. I ended up backfilling the part we missed many years later.

[Scott5114]

Say a route in a faraway state is 100 miles long, and you do all of it from mile 0 to mile 95. (You're traveling with one of those people that don't get it.) Clearly not a clinch. Five years later, the DOT truncates the easternmost 5 miles, putting the terminus where you turned off of it. Would you count it as clinched?

On the one hand, you traveled all of what is now considered the route. On the other, you deliberately (or were coerced, whatever) didn't travel all of the route as it existed at the time you were there, and you didn't go back and do anything to secure the clinch (the DOT did it for you).

Do you count it?

[SkyPesos]

Say a route in a faraway state is 100 miles long, and you do all of it from mile 0 to mile 95. (You're traveling with one of those people that don't get it.) Clearly not a clinch. Five years later, the DOT truncates the easternmost 5 miles, putting the terminus where you turned off of it. Would you count it as clinched?

On the one hand, you traveled all of what is now considered the route. On the other, you deliberately (or were coerced, whatever) didn't travel all of the route as it existed at the time you were there, and you didn't go back and do anything to secure the clinch (the DOT did it for you).

Do you count it?

Not 5 miles, but a close real life example to that is I-70 in Maryland. It was truncated a couple of years ago from the park and ride (MM 94) to the I-695 interchange (MM 91), which is where most of the drivers would exit off I-70 anyways.

[oscar]

Not 5 miles, but a close real life example to that is I-70 in Maryland. It was truncated a couple of years ago from the park and ride (MM 94) to the I-695 interchange (MM 91), which is where most of the drivers would exit off I-70 anyways.

Except the truncation never happened. AASHTO authorized the truncation, but it was never carried out. The state canceled the truncation, once plans for a new light-rail station replacing the park-and-ride fell through.

There still is error signage on I-70 EB west of exit 91, indicating that I-70 ends at I-695.

For an example from my own travels, it bothered me that I had not clinched CA 111 because I had not continued into Mexico at the Calexico border crossing, instead taking the last U-turn before the border. (That is something I am more fussy about than many other forum members. But I was driving a rental car I was not allowed to take across the border.) CBP took care of that problem for me by taking the southernmost route segment from Caltrans, then closing it and replacing it with a new crossing (one block to the west, from Cesar Chavez Blvd. rather than Imperial Ave.) never under Caltrans' control and not added back to CA 111. I cheerfully went along with that truncation. 

[NWI_Irish96]

Say a route in a faraway state is 100 miles long, and you do all of it from mile 0 to mile 95. (You're traveling with one of those people that don't get it.) Clearly not a clinch. Five years later, the DOT truncates the easternmost 5 miles, putting the terminus where you turned off of it. Would you count it as clinched?

On the one hand, you traveled all of what is now considered the route. On the other, you deliberately (or were coerced, whatever) didn't travel all of the route as it existed at the time you were there, and you didn't go back and do anything to secure the clinch (the DOT did it for you).

Do you count it?

Yes, if I traveled all of the route as it currently exists I consider it clinched. Conversely, if a route got extended after I clinched it I consider it un-clinched.

[Avalanchez71]

I count a scenic overlook as part of clinch as it is there for a reason.