When did you start liking roads?

[Angelo71]

When did you start liking roads?

I don't remember when I started liking roads, but  we traveled a lot when I was a little kid, and I was apparently fascinated with all of the signs.

[tolbs17]

Since when I was 8. I talked about the highways a lot.

[Big John]

Since around age 3 before I could talk, so I was pointing at everything.

[Max Rockatansky]

Pretty much always.  I recall building the Lodge Freeway for my toy cars in my sandbox when I was a toddler.

[SkyPesos]

Around 7-8 yrs old for me. I started paying more attention to road signs, lane layouts and traffic signals on trips since then.

[Rothman]

About 3, if not a tad younger.  I was pointing out one way signs.

[bugo]

When I was a baby. I don't remember not being interested in two things: old cars and roads.

[bandit957]

One of my first memories is when I was about 2 or 3, I noticed all the traffic signs along US 27 (or other nearby roads) and made up a sound effect that went with the yellow diamond curve sign. I think I really got into roads when I was about 4 with the Lourdes Lane stuff, just before that street was torn down to build I-471.

I actually remember another time possibly even before all of that when I was laying down on my back and looking at a local street map.

I think all of this was between about 1975-78.

[Roadgeekteen]

Probably age 5-6 when I started looking at AAA maps and road atlases. I first really got into Massachusetts state routes, in fact I probably knew almost as much about them at age 7 than at age 17.

[hotdogPi]

13-14, surprisingly.

[GaryV]

We built road layouts in the sandbox with hills, tunnels, etc.  We used croquet balls for vehicles, since they rolled in the sand and toy cars and trucks didn't.

In late elementary, my friend and I were drawing out city street designs on large sheets of butcher paper.

In middle school we had a trip to Washington DC.  My mom gave me a map to follow our progress. (So by that time I was thoroughly into trips and maps.) I thought I'd be made fun of for having it, so I didn't get it out for the first half or so of the trip.  But when I did look at it, others on the bus were interested in how far we still had to go.

[JoePCool14]

As long as I can remember and even earlier than that. I would always be looking out the window on car rides, noticing the signs, signals, and street names. I would also spend much of my youth drawing roads on notebook paper, setting up fictional cities on an old pool table using board game boxes to represent "buildings". Later on, I even made some rudimentary BGS which I printed out and taped to popsicle sticks stuck in clay bases.

Roadgeekery isn't just a hobby—it's a lifestyle.

[1995hoo]

As long as I can remember, although as a little kid I mostly liked looking at maps.

[JayhawkCO]

We took a road trip from Minnesota to Arizona to visit my grandparents when I was 6.  I was given the AAA maps and helped to navigate.

Chris

[zachary_amaryllis]

like, since the first time my mom had to pull to the side of one to change my diaper, basically.

when i was in my tween years, i used to draw them, insane fusterclucked interchanges, with little numbers alongside them to indicate what signs went where, drawn on another sheet.

[bandit957]

I drawed maps on paper grocery bags. Sometimes they were fictional places, but sometimes they were attempts to show real places. I think the first one I remember was when I was about 4 when I drew the aforementioned Lourdes Lane area.

That was an area around Newport or Woodlawn (Ky.) that we used to drive through on shopping outings. I really liked this area, but one day we discovered it was all torn up to build I-471. But I was interested in it before I heard I-471 was going in there. I'm guessing this was 1977 or 1978.

[I-55]

6 years old. First time I was handed an atlas and everything went from there.

This has inspired me to create a document on my roadgeeking history especially with my fictional highways.

[Scott5114]

Since I was a toddler, at least. I was always pestering Mom to "go exploring" and take new routes to and from the grocery store when I would go along with her.

My first experience with the wonderful world of ODOT signage was this sign (photo by Eric Stuve). Even at age 4 I knew there was something weird about it.

[bing101]

When I was 3 years old and wondered why I-280, CA-480, I-80 and US-101 had different shields if they were freeways.
Note I didn't realize that US-101 is a scenic coastal road in Oregon and Washington state until I saw videos of US-101 being called Pacific Coast Highway in other places.

[Roadgeekteen]

My favorite book as a young child was cars and trucks and things that go

[capt.ron]

I was around 6 when I became aware of different types of roads & highways. I was from Southern California so streets and freeways were all I knew, along with 2 lane highways that ran up into the mountains (Big Bear, etc.). I began to pay attention to various road signs around that time too. I became aware of US 66 around that time as well since we had to use it due to I-40 not being completed at that time. I was more enamored by I-40 at that time rather than US 66 since I had a thing for freeways.

[bandit957]

Since I was a toddler, at least. I was always pestering Mom to "go exploring" and take new routes to and from the grocery store when I would go along with her.

I used to do this same thing. I remember once when I was about 7, we went to some department store to have a portrait taken, and my mom said something like, "If you're really good, we can drive down Three Mile Road on the way home." Or maybe it was Bramble Avenue.

During the summer when I was about 8, a bunch of us would visit yard sales all over the county. I'd give my mom a route to the next yard sale, and she always thought I was making up the route just so I could explore some new roads.

[kevinb1994]

Since I was a kid. I recall looking at old map books and pull-out maps from back in the day. Some of them were definitely older than others (it took awhile for I-287 and I-295 to be completed, and I recall Middlesex County filling in CR 522). NJ has had its share of antique signage and alignments, though I've seen things being lost to progress over the years (like some new development off of the Old Road, which is technically the former Lincoln Highway, right near where I used to live).

[MikeTheActuary]

One of my earliest memories was of my laying out highways and setting up BGSes with building blocks in my babysitter's basement, before I could read.  (Age 3, maybe?)

[Roadgeekteen]

13-14, surprisingly.

What started your interest? I joined the forum at 13.