There's a lot of direct or indirect mention on this and other road sites of "clinching," checking a road or place off one's list.
Why is clinching important to you (if it is)? Is it having some complete knowledge or experience of something? Or is it just the satisfaction of filling out the bingo card, so to speak -- checking off everything on the list?
What's your story? Do you go out of your way to clinch, or is it just something that happens?
This is a sincere interest, because I've been reading mentions of this for years. I have a real nagging curiosity to know more about why this idea matters to people, and I think it's an interesting subject to explore.
I think roadgeekery lends itself to a certain degree of obsession and compulsion (witness all of the renumbering proposals), and "clinching" is a natural fit with that profile.
Beyond that, unless you've driven the whole thing, you don't know what sights you've missed.
Well, I've always had a desire to take different roads just to explore and see what there may be to see. So keeping track of what I've clinched is pretty much just adding a formal structure to this.
Of course, once you turn it into a checklist, it then immediately follows that checking off every box is a goal to work towards. It also kind of plays into my video gaming mindset. Why go crazy trying to unlock every achievement in a game? Because I can, damn it, and it means bragging rights if I do.
Very similar to Duke's explanation.
I've clinched the entire state highway systems of three states now (WA, WY, AZ), with a fourth on the way (ID) this summer.
I couldn't really tell you why I do it- I enjoy taking roadtrips, so this provides a sort of method to the madness, I guess. I clinch whatever state I live in at the time (or is most convenient- in the case of Idaho, the furthest point away from me in Idaho is closer than the furthest point away from me in Montana), so when I want to take a daytrip, it gives me a sort of formula to follow.
On longer trips to states I'm not focusing on, it gives me incentive to make sure I take a different route every time- often the roads I have left to clinch dictate my route for me. particularly in states I've travelled in fairly extensively already .
And sure, I do get some personal satisfaction from being able to say "I've driven every mile of state highway in Washington" or whatever- not that that's something that comes up often in conversation, but it does give me an internal good feeling. I would say the ultimate goal is to drive the entire nation's state highway system, but, you know, unless I win the lottery, I expect I would probably die before that occurs.
The downside being- okay, I've driven the entire Wyoming highway system. Now I have to dodge the entire state of Wyoming to hit new territory, which can be tricky when driving east.
I agree with what most everyone said here. I personally enjoy photography and history. Clinching kind of puts a method to the madness. To me it's like a grid, research things I want to see of Hwy 71, then move on to the next. I have clinched all of Virginia, North Carolina, most of Georgia, most of Maine except Aroostook County (which I will do in September) most of NH and all of Vermont. Working on Arkansas and Missouri as well.
iPhone
My reasons are similar to what has been said so far. I like going new places. By the time I finished the 50 states, I had discovered county-counting. I started keeping track of my travels on Interstate highways, then discovered CHM. I look at it as a good excuse to go to new places, or at least find different ways to go to the places I was planning to go anyway. I've rarely taken a trip or even a very significant detour on a trip with a sole purpose being to clinch something. Exceptions are things like a route planned specifically to get my last missing Florida county, or a side trip when in Boston to re-clinch I-90 after it was extended to Logan. The times I'd say a part of my actual travel is motivated by clinching occur when I fly somewhere for business and try to tack on a day or two when I can take a rental car out in some direction I haven't been before. Even if it's a city I've visited many times before, there's a good chance I can hit a lot of new and interesting places with an 8-10 hour day on the road. It's allowed me to see a lot of small towns and scenery I otherwise wouldn't have seen, and often gives me a chance to try out a local restaurant or two. The routes partially motivated by clinching have given me a chance to see how much of this country is not just another busy strip off the interstate with all of the same chain stores, restaurants, and hotels. There's still a lot of local flavor out there if you look.
Another thing I "clinch" is professional baseball parks. After completing the MLB parks, I started in on the minors. That often plays nicely together with the other kinds of clinching. I decide I want to take a side trip somewhere because there's a minor league game somewhere I haven't been, and I can get there by routes I haven't taken before. I usually only pick up a few new ones each season, so I'm about as likely to finish all of those any time soon as I am to complete my counties.
One thing I don't do that I've noticed in some others' clinching efforts is putting order to it. I don't have any preference for which highway I travel or clinch next based on numbering or geography. Maybe an exception is if I am down to a single county in a state, or have just a small missing segment in a long highway, I feel a little extra motivation to get there. But for the most part, I'd rather cut a new path across a state by taking a US highway instead of an interstate, no matter its number or how many new counties it hits.
You are right you become obsessed with clinching. You set goals for yourself and once they are achieved you then find some more to conquer.
I find that after I clinch a road that I often wanted to do, I want to go back as either signs change or new alignments come into existence that were not there the first time around.
That is why I am waiting to do the US 31 Kokomo Bypass, because the other two US 31 freeways are almost near completion and then there is the I-69 extension as well. Somebody here suggested that I wait till that progresses more so I can do it all in one trip which makes sound sense to me. As good things come to those who wait is the old saying.
Just one of those things I'm not interested in, since I know I won't be driving on every foot of the road in each direction. Just trying to get to every state and as many National Parks as I can get to.
I don't go bat-crazy trying to clinch routes or counties, although if I'm driving along and I have the opportunity to do so, I will.
Or...I'll 'clinch' a route that many don't have the opportunity to clinch. I've driven NJ 324, a closed, mostly abandoned roadway that used to be US 322 for the Ferry to Chester, PA. And many have heard about the Road to Hana in Maui. There's a southern route to/from Hana (Rts 330/31/37) that is prohibited to use by the car rental companies because of some unpaved portions, but I drove it anyway. It may be paved now though...that was back in 2000 when I drove it.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on June 12, 2014, 12:33:00 PM
I don't go bat-crazy trying to clinch routes or counties, although if I'm driving along and I have the opportunity to do so, I will.
Or...I'll 'clinch' a route that many don't have the opportunity to clinch. I've driven NJ 324, a closed, mostly abandoned roadway that used to be US 322 for the Ferry to Chester, PA. And many have heard about the Road to Hana in Maui. There's a southern route to/from Hana (Rts 330/31/37) that is prohibited to use by the car rental companies because of some unpaved portions, but I drove it anyway. It may be paved now though...that was back in 2000 when I drove it.
I think I got about halfway down NJ 324 awhile back, but it was pretty overgrown if I recall. I looked at it on street view, and the Google car got almost to the end (maybe Google bike cam?)
A friend at work drove the Road to Hana on his honeymoon maybe about 5 years ago, and drove the northern route in and the southern route out in a rented Jeep (against the rental agreement, of course). We were just looking at it on GSV about a week ago. Looks like still a mix of paved and unpaved sections. If I ever get over there, I'm driving that.
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on June 12, 2014, 08:01:56 PM
A friend at work drove the Road to Hana on his honeymoon maybe about 5 years ago, and drove the northern route in and the southern route out in a rented Jeep (against the rental agreement, of course). We were just looking at it on GSV about a week ago. Looks like still a mix of paved and unpaved sections. If I ever get over there, I'm driving that.
Go for it! But if you want to clinch HI 360 (north half of the loop through east Maui), you'll need to turn east in Hana at the "End State Highway" sign in "downtown" Hana, since the highway technically ends a few blocks downhill at the Hana Bay wharf.
That highlights one of the less alluring parts of clinching, which is figuring out exactly what you need to cover if you want to clinch a route. That's not always obvious from the signs, especially in states like Hawaii with uneven and sometimes confusing "end" signage. The Clinched Highway Mapping project's route maps can help on that (except for the state and provincial route systems still being worked on), even if you're not using CHM to track your travels.
Quote from: briantroutman on June 11, 2014, 10:38:59 PM
I think roadgeekery lends itself to a certain degree of obsession and compulsion (witness all of the renumbering proposals), and "clinching" is a natural fit with that profile.
Beyond that, unless you've driven the whole thing, you don't know what sights you've missed.
Second this exact statement.
I started keeping a log of the Interstates I clinched when I was 13 or so and the allure with it grew through high school. I was also into sports stats quite a bit, which really got me into baseball back then. When looking at the sports page in downtime during 9th grade (1988), I was enamored with the concept of a sports team clinching a division or a playoff birth. It was sometime after that that I decided to reference seeing an Interstate from end to end as having clinched it. Having met a like minded friend into roads in 12th grade, we discussed clinched routes and embarked on roadtrips all the time after finishing high school. The obsession just stuck with me and is one I never grew out of, where as being into MLB stats went by the wayside two decades ago.
The county collecting bug came about after a roadtrip with Froggie in 1999 where we took several detours to nab counties for him. The concept seemed pointless to me at first but then a few years later I started a lines atlas (after seeing Adam Prince's) where I highlighted every road I had seen. Seeing where I had been got me curious about what counties I had clinched, and with some friendly competition with Justin Cozart, I made it a point to start going out of my way to collect them.
As some of the others wrote above, the concept gets you to places you otherwise would never see or think of. Sometimes the places suck, but other times it was well worth it.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on June 11, 2014, 10:35:30 PM
There's a lot of direct or indirect mention on this and other road sites of "clinching," checking a road or place off one's list.
Why is clinching important to you (if it is)? Is it having some complete knowledge or experience of something? Or is it just the satisfaction of filling out the bingo card, so to speak -- checking off everything on the list?
What's your story? Do you go out of your way to clinch, or is it just something that happens?
This is a sincere interest, because I've been reading mentions of this for years. I have a real nagging curiosity to know more about why this idea matters to people, and I think it's an interesting subject to explore.
It's just something that happens to me, even though there are some long routes (US 59, US 71, US 270, US 64) that I wouldn't mind driving the entire length of. But for the most part, I don't get the appeal of it. I don't care about clinching some 20 mile long state highway that is in the middle of nowhere and has no interesting features. I did go out of the way to clinch OK 63 from Kiowa to Hayleville because I grew up near the eastern terminus of the highway, and I'll never drive that section again because it is in TERRIBLE condition and has awful geometrics. I also want to clinch the Oklahoma turnpike system one day (I have all of it except for the Bailey turnpike, the Bailey spur, the Cimarron spur, and the Chickasaw.)
Quote from: briantroutman on June 11, 2014, 10:38:59 PM
I think roadgeekery lends itself to a certain degree of obsession and compulsion (witness all of the renumbering proposals), and "clinching" is a natural fit with that profile.
Beyond that, unless you've driven the whole thing, you don't know what sights you've missed.
Sometimes, you realize after clinching that there was nothing interesting or notable about the road whatsoever.
Quote from: corco on June 12, 2014, 12:39:46 AM
The downside being- okay, I've driven the entire Wyoming highway system. Now I have to dodge the entire state of Wyoming to hit new territory, which can be tricky when driving east.
There are always county roads...
Quote from: bugo on June 13, 2014, 10:46:05 AM
Quote from: briantroutman on June 11, 2014, 10:38:59 PM
I think roadgeekery lends itself to a certain degree of obsession and compulsion (witness all of the renumbering proposals), and "clinching" is a natural fit with that profile.
Beyond that, unless you've driven the whole thing, you don't know what sights you've missed.
Sometimes, you realize after clinching that there was nothing interesting or notable about the road whatsoever.
So you can check it off, as a road you want to never re-travel if you can help it, confident that you haven't missed anything worthwhile. That's useful information.
Quote from: bugo on June 13, 2014, 10:47:54 AM
Quote from: corco on June 12, 2014, 12:39:46 AM
The downside being- okay, I've driven the entire Wyoming highway system. Now I have to dodge the entire state of Wyoming to hit new territory, which can be tricky when driving east.
There are always county roads...
Hahaha, you haven't been to Wyoming much have you- there are very few paved highways outside city limits that are not state highways, and a county maintained often not well maintained dirt (not gravel) road that is indirect to being with just adds too much time. Wyoming's highway system is as dense as Texases, including FMs, there just aren't nearly as many roads.
I'll just add to what everyone else has said, with: "Because it's there."
A reason against: Highway clinching can become a quite expensive hobby. (gas, maintenance, food, etc.)
Echoing what has been said earlier, being a roadgeek (or having a vested interest in any topic, for that matter) definitely avails itself to wanting to quantify one's passion. Growing up, I'd always known that there was more than one way to get from point A to point B, but I only decided to keep track of clinched counties after I started driving and realized that "how many ways?" was a wonderful follow-up question. The goal wasn't necessarily to keep track of the counties themselves at the beginning, but as I got more interested in that, I saw that it does provide some tangible context in helping me to find new routes.
As an example, I've driven from San Antonio to Amarillo on numerous occasions, which does avail itself to multiple routes that are of similar length. While the routes may be indistinguishable in many aspects, knowing that I'm using a new route (and, consequently, going through a different set of counties) not only has the simple psychological effect of making the drive less monotonous, but also gives me the opportunity to experience something new, even if it something as simple as seeing a interesting historical marker or eating at a local diner. As a result, some of my most enjoyable drives have come out of that desire to want to explore other paths, and being able to say "I've been to X county, so next time I'm going through Y county" helps fuel that expectation that the next drive could provide something new at, quite literally, the next turn.
Quote from: oscar on June 12, 2014, 08:31:59 PM
That highlights one of the less alluring parts of clinching, which is figuring out exactly what you need to cover if you want to clinch a route.
I generally don't care about the exact, tedious details. I claim to have clinched US-6 even though there are certain current segments, like the bypass of Brooklyn, IA, that I've never done, instead having done the old road.
I don't go out of my way to "clinch" counties but I do have a mob-rule.com account just so I can see where I've been on a map.
I haven't clinched any major highways out of practicality (perhaps just the 400-series highways in Ontario but compared to some interstates they don't compare in length).
For me what's more alluring is coming across a piece of road you've previously driven on but in a totally separate location. For instance, driving most of I-70 in Colorado and Utah and several years later driving a stretch of it in Pennsylvania felt pretty neat knowing I was so far away yet on the same highway.
It's the best way to find all of the small-town speed traps in a state.
I personally don't go out of my way to "clinch" things when driving, but I totally get the allure, given that I do have some OCD tendencies with other hobbies (as the stack of baseball scorebooks in my closet which contain records of just about every professional game I've attended since I was about 10 can attest to). There are some long-distance single routes that I would like to some day drive end-to-end, but those ideally would be in-one-sitting endeavors, and not something I'd actively try to achieve by accumulating chunks at a time. In general, when it comes to travel and driving, I just prefer to be more flexible in my itinerary-making. I guess I could say I fear letting something like clinching becoming the tail that wags the dog of my road tripping.
Quote from: corco on June 12, 2014, 12:39:46 AM
The downside being- okay, I've driven the entire Wyoming highway system. Now I have to dodge the entire state of Wyoming to hit new territory, which can be tricky when driving east.
I also love taking new routes whenever possible, but time doesn't always permit and I've started to run out of reasonable alternatives for a few of my regular O/D pairs, too. So the way I look at that is, I'm learning which routes are my favorites going forward, which have scenery that really helps me relax while driving, which pass through a town with a local place I like to stop and eat, etc. I'm the first one to claim I want to see everything at least once, but there is also something to be said for really getting to know a particular place/route in the process.
Quote from: Haeleus on June 13, 2014, 08:10:06 PM
For me what's more alluring is coming across a piece of road you've previously driven on but in a totally separate location. For instance, driving most of I-70 in Colorado and Utah and several years later driving a stretch of it in Pennsylvania felt pretty neat knowing I was so far away yet on the same highway.
I'll second that, this is something I get a kick out of as well. I've mentioned it a few times on this site before, but U.S. 62 is one in particular that has kept turning up in my travels over the years.
Quote from: Haeleus on June 13, 2014, 08:10:06 PMFor me what's more alluring is coming across a piece of road you've previously driven on but in a totally separate location. For instance, driving most of I-70 in Colorado and Utah and several years later driving a stretch of it in Pennsylvania felt pretty neat knowing I was so far away yet on the same highway.
This is one that I, and my passengers, can relate to. When I encounter a US or Interstate highway, I often think about other places where I've seen it or traveled it, or what far-away places it goes. I mention passengers because they sometimes get drawn in with questions like "do you remember where we saw that route last summer?" or "do you know where we would go if we followed that road to its end?". I've thought along these lines as long as I can remember - we would pass an exit on a summer trip when I was young and I'd reach for the Rand McNally to see where the roads off that exit could take us. On point of the thread, my highway clinching hobby has definitely enhanced my knowledge of where the roads go and my awareness of when and where I travel them.
It's a mild outlet for OCD.
It's a bit like mountain peak bagging that some people enjoy: climb the highest peak in all 50 states, or the highest peak of every continent, etc. That makes road clinching look like a cheap hobby!
I've had the desire for county-clinching ever since sometime back in the late 80s when I saw a news story about somebody who had visited all 3100+(whatever the exact number was back then) counties. Visiting every state is a goal that even some non roadgeeks have and is relatively easy-although I know few people who have actually done it, if it's a goal you really want to accomplish, it isn't that difficult to do. Visiting every town or city in every state would be virtually impossible-not only because of the incredible amount of time involved, but the definitions of localities differ from state to state. Visiting every place in a particular state is doable, particularly if you have some way of easily defining what places qualify-for instance I have a goal someday of visiting every town in my homestate of Nebraska that is listed on the state highway map. So to me, visiting every county is a good medium between those two-very difficult to accomplish and takes a lot of time to do so, but still doable if you have a real desire to do it.
The byproduct of that is that by trying to visit every county, it forces you to visit areas and experience places you wouldn't see otherwise. A person who has visited all 50 states may have missed large portions of some states and not really experienced the state, as one can see in the discussion in another thread about how quick one can visit all of the continental 48 states. But a person who has visited all counties has likely really experienced most of what each state has to offer, although in some western states with very large counties, one could even visit every county and still miss large portions of the state.
In addition to visiting every county(and every locality in Nebraska) I also have the non roadgeek-related "clinching" goals of visiting every presidential birthplace and burial site. I'd also like to visit every National Park and I'd also like to see a game at every major league ballpark. I'm not quite as in to the "highway clinching" thing as some roadgeeks are, although I would at least like to clinch every 2di at some point.
i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!
Quote from: texaskdog on June 17, 2014, 09:24:13 PM
i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!
Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.
Quote from: huskeroadgeek on June 17, 2014, 09:52:07 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 17, 2014, 09:24:13 PM
i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!
Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.
I actually had the goal of visiting every Nebraska historical marker when I lived there. I got maybe half of them
iPhone
I think clinching a highway is the road geek's equivalent of "collecting" something. Some people want to collect all the video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Some want to collect all the baseball cards for people who played for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. Others want to collect photographs of all types of birds native to a specific area. When you have that "completionist" bug, it's hard to satiate it unless you actually accomplish your goal.
And now, a philosophical question:
If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on June 18, 2014, 10:05:04 AM
I think clinching a highway is the road geek's equivalent of "collecting" something. Some people want to collect all the video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Some want to collect all the baseball cards for people who played for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. Others want to collect photographs of all types of birds native to a specific area. When you have that "completionist" bug, it's hard to satiate it unless you actually accomplish your goal.
And now, a philosophical question:
If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?
As long as the entry and exit point are at the same interchange, absolutely. You don't need to be in a car whose wheels are rolling across every inch of pavement. If that were the case, you'd never be permitted to leave a freeway to consider it clinched and that's just silly.
If you can see it, it counts.
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on June 18, 2014, 10:05:04 AM
If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?
I consider taking at least one ramp at an interchange as having 'taken' that interchange. So clinching becomes taking every stretch of road between interchanges. I'm sure I've done that a few times on the 401, and I still consider that clinched.
Personally, I'd like to clinch every interchange along a highway, including every ramp. There's only a few highways though I would care to do this for - those that I drive nearly every day anyway.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on June 18, 2014, 10:19:30 AM
Personally, I'd like to clinch every interchange along a highway, including every ramp. There's only a few highways though I would care to do this for - those that I drive nearly every day anyway.
I have entered and exited every interchange on MA 213. Not sure about every ramp, though.
Quote from: Alex on June 18, 2014, 10:11:50 AM
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on June 18, 2014, 10:05:04 AM
And now, a philosophical question:
If you are driving on an interstate you need to exit for food or gas and you get back on the interstate at the same exit, can you still technically say you clinched it even though you technically did not drive a part of the mainline, especially if the exit has a cloverleaf design?
As long as the entry and exit point are at the same interchange, absolutely. You don't need to be in a car whose wheels are rolling across every inch of pavement. If that were the case, you'd never be permitted to leave a freeway to consider it clinched and that's just silly.
If you can see it, it counts.
My preference is to count a freeway as clinched if I've gotten off and back on at the same interchange. But if it's a really large or complex interchange, if I have time I try to backtrack so I can drive the freeway completely through the interchange; and if that's not practical, next time (if ever) I re-drive the freeway, I'll make a point of driving completely through that interchange.
For freeways really far away from home, that you might never re-travel (like the Pacific Northwest Interstates I covered in summer 2008), you can't be too fussy.
FWIW, the Clinched Highway Mapping project makes no provision for the fussy. If you drive the freeway from its beginning to exit 48, then rejoin the freeway at exit 48 to its end, you get counted as traveling the whole freeway, unless you go out of your way not to claim any of the mileage between the previous and next interchanges.
AFAICS, there's not a huge amount of 'willy waving' "I've got more miles than you". It's not seen as a competition, or a way of keeping score over other people.
The last couple of times I've done a deliberate clinching run, its been merely walking on central London's roads for more than necessary. The most recent occasion (https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Marylebone+Rd%2FA501&daddr=51.5183284,-0.1384803+to:51.5336348,-0.1392759+to:51.53396,-0.138026+to:51.516042,-0.1194622+to:51.510128,-0.1044221+to:The+Cut%2FB300&hl=en&ll=51.519425,-0.121536&spn=0.06911,0.169086&sll=51.523057,-0.124798&sspn=0.034552,0.084543&geocode=FXYvEgMdAr79_w%3BFXgbEgMdEOP9_ynbsrNaKht2SDF_8b0G_Q78bQ%3BFUJXEgMd9d_9_ynZGTf0IBt2SDGdtFaSwt_4qQ%3BFYhYEgMd1uT9_ymzQDesIRt2SDGoYp2d2epzhA%3BFYoSEgMdWi3-_yl9Hho8NRt2SDF40d59-kq6Mg%3BFXD7EQMdGmj-_ylD8-PhrQR2SDGc7k-4ZnL5KA%3BFYLiEQMdeGf-_w&dirflg=w&mra=dpe&mrsp=2&sz=14&via=1,2,3,4,5&t=m&z=13) was quite a long route, but I fully-clinched two-mostly clinched roads and an unclinched one, and fleshed out their stubby SABRE Wiki articles off the back of that (which was part of the main justification the going out of my way, though filling in some gaps on this map (http://cmap.m-plex.com/maps/centermap.php?u=si404&sys=all&c=gbr&rg=ENG&mv=71583)). I like walking around Central London anyway, and this gave my walk some purpose.
I remember driving on I-20 in Georgia sometime last year when the highway was blocked because two tractor trailers crashed. So traffic had to be rerouted to US 278 for a few miles. I don't know if there were any casualties in the accident, but if I were trying to clinch I-20 through Georgia (200 miles), I would be mildly pissed, especially since the road is so boring there.
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on June 18, 2014, 12:28:10 PM
I remember driving on I-20 in Georgia sometime last year when the highway was blocked because two tractor trailers crashed. So traffic had to be rerouted to US 278 for a few miles. I don't know if there were any casualties in the accident, but if I were trying to clinch I-20 through Georgia (200 miles), I would be mildly pissed, especially since the road is so boring there.
I was trying to clinch I-88 in New York a few years ago, but it was closed in two separate places due to flooding. I was very upset, because I did not know if I would ever have a chance to clinch it again. The delays in getting around the flooding closures caused me to have to skip an attempt to visit a couple of counties in New York.
Fortunately, I did get another chance to drive the route, and to visit the missed counties.
Quote from: hbelkins on June 18, 2014, 01:08:18 PM
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on June 18, 2014, 12:28:10 PM
I remember driving on I-20 in Georgia sometime last year when the highway was blocked because two tractor trailers crashed. So traffic had to be rerouted to US 278 for a few miles. I don't know if there were any casualties in the accident, but if I were trying to clinch I-20 through Georgia (200 miles), I would be mildly pissed, especially since the road is so boring there.
I was trying to clinch I-88 in New York a few years ago, but it was closed in two separate places due to flooding. I was very upset, because I did not know if I would ever have a chance to clinch it again. The delays in getting around the flooding closures caused me to have to skip an attempt to visit a couple of counties in New York.
Fortunately, I did get another chance to drive the route, and to visit the missed counties.
This is a story that many of us can relate too. When I went to Saginaw, MI in 2009, a part of I-675 south was closed. I had to circle around to the south end and took the single lane north that was still open to clinch the missing portion. Yes it sucked, but being that Saginaw was ultra far away, I wanted to make sure I got it.
The beauty of clinching a highway is the many different landscapes you encounter along the way. I enjoy transitions from mountainous terrain to flat land, from wide open spaces to wooded areas, and such.
Quote from: Arkansastravelguy on June 17, 2014, 11:25:19 PM
Quote from: huskeroadgeek on June 17, 2014, 09:52:07 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 17, 2014, 09:24:13 PM
i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!
Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.
I actually had the goal of visiting every Nebraska historical marker when I lived there. I got maybe half of them
iPhone
I'd never even thought about doing that. I didn't know there was a list of all of them. Just found one online.
Quote from: Alex on June 18, 2014, 02:00:02 PM
This is a story that many of us can relate too. When I went to Saginaw, MI in 2009, a part of I-675 south was closed. I had to circle around to the south end and took the single lane north that was still open to clinch the missing portion. Yes it sucked, but being that Saginaw was ultra far away, I wanted to make sure I got it.
I was in Michigan a few years ago, and was attempting to clinch US 131. It was closed for a bridge replacement just north of the end of the freeway section at Cadillac. I drove all the way to the closure point southbound, detoured around the closure, then backtracked north to the closure point. So I consider it clinched.
Same with US 27 in Indiana between the Ohio state line and Richmond. Part of the road was closed for a total reconstruction, from the base up. I drove as far as I could north, detoured, then drove south to the point where the road was barricaded. So I consider it clinched as well.
Quote from: huskeroadgeek on June 18, 2014, 02:23:22 PM
Quote from: Arkansastravelguy on June 17, 2014, 11:25:19 PM
Quote from: huskeroadgeek on June 17, 2014, 09:52:07 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 17, 2014, 09:24:13 PM
i'd love to get to every national park but thanks to Alaska I don't think that will ever happen!
Yeah, Alaska does make that difficult. I'd at least like to make it to all the ones you can drive to.
I actually had the goal of visiting every Nebraska historical marker when I lived there. I got maybe half of them
iPhone
I'd never even thought about doing that. I didn't know there was a list of all of them. Just found one online.
Nebraska has nice historical markers. It ties in history and to road geeking
iPhone
It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job. It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions. Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp. And I mean every ramp. Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals. Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state. I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days. Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 21, 2014, 03:42:29 AM
It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job. It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions. Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp. And I mean every ramp. Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals. Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state. I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days. Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.
Now
that's a job.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 21, 2014, 03:42:29 AM
It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job. It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions. Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp. And I mean every ramp. Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals. Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state. I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days. Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.
Where do I sign up?
The pavement conditions inventory is actually part of my job too. Should be doing that part-time in the fall (my supervisor doesn't want me to drop everything else for two months to do sufficiency). Because Region 1 is short staffed, though, our program manager is looking to outsource the interesting counties (Essex, Warren, and Greene) to other regions.
Quote from: hbelkins on June 21, 2014, 01:14:33 PM
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 21, 2014, 03:42:29 AM
It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job. It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions. Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp. And I mean every ramp. Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals. Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state. I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days. Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.
Where do I sign up?
It's probably rolled in with traffic or inventory. It's in planning at NYSDOT Region 1, but we're a weird planning department with only one actual planner (and she's part time and currently on maternity, at that). I'm a mix of planning and traffic, my boss is modal (rail), and his boss was a designer.
And I REALLY with my appointment would just switch from provisional to permanent already so that I can PM the admins to add the "DOT employee" banner to my username!
The main reason why I clinch roads is because I like to see new and/or interesting things. The secondary reason is the same "futile" reason why some people grind on a video game to earn "achievements". Except I do it in real life. Note that the word "futile" is between quotation marks because on a purely practical point of view, all hobbies are futile. However, human beings are emotional and have passions for things that, while not strictly productive, keep them away from boredom. In that sense of things, clinching roads makes for a great hobby: it passes time and leads to very interesting discoveries (definitely not futile for the roadgeek himself). For example, I've started clinching city routes in Ottawa and I found some very old and interesting signage because of that, as well as some pretty damn cool bridges; and it kept me busy while my friend was at work.
I agree with a lot of the comments made in this thread. I first started keeping track of roads I'd travelled back in 1996 during my first year of law school when I had a roommate from France who had a map of the United States on which he highlighted all the major roads he'd driven here. I liked the idea and started using a road atlas to do that, without thinking in terms of what we now call "clinching." Naturally keeping track of roads in that manner led me to notice when I was close to finishing off particular routes in given states and the like, and then when I spent the summer of 1997 working in Montgomery, Alabama, I realized I'd driven the entirety of I-85 that year. So that sort of got me interested in what we have all come to call "clinching" (which is not a word I'd ever thought of in this context until I saw it somewhere on a road-related website some years back).
I find one benefit of using the Clinched Highway Mapping site and/or an atlas or map is that it helps with the conundrum most of us have experienced of trying to find new routes through very familiar territory. Sometimes it's just not practical for whatever reason and you have to re-tread the same old roads, but the idea of "clinching" can help you notice new routes you might not otherwise have considered, and sometimes those routes turn out to be good ways to go. To give an example in Virginia, we were coming home from a football game in Charlottesville and I'd never really paid attention to VA-22 on a map until I realized using that road on the way home would let me check off another route, and then we found the route we were using was a good alternate to our usual one because it let us avoid some annoying traffic lights near Fredericksburg. To give an example in Florida, someone on this forum recommended using the eastern side of I-295 around Jacksonville, which meant we went over the very nice Dames Point Bridge. Now we go that way every time we're driving in the Jacksonville area unless we're visiting a friend who lives southwest of the city. Never would have discovered the bridge had I not tried out that route.
The comment someone else, I think it was Oscar, made about how keeping track of clinched routes is a good way to determine what routes you DON'T want to use again is a good point too. I had just that situation arise last Thursday when we drove from the Miami area up to the Space Coast area. I had used Florida's Turnpike twice for that drive but had never used the portion of I-95 from the Golden Glades to Fort Pierce, so on this trip I used that I-95 route to make major progress towards a clinch (still need a segment in Massachusetts and another in northern Maine, plus New Brunswick Route 95). I'm glad I did it ONE time because I decided the Turnpike is a far more pleasant drive than the urban segment of I-95. Had I not driven it, I'd have always noted it on the map and wondered to myself whether I-95 might be a better route than the Turnpike. My curiosity is now satisfied.
On a personal-habit level, I also find a benefit to using unfamiliar roads in terms of how it keeps me more alert. That doesn't mean I don't pay attention to my driving. Of course I do. But on very familiar roads I tend to zone out a bit as to whatever scenery there may be and I tend not to pay as much attention to things like whether there might be cops ahead or the like (except, of course, when I approach an area I know to be a speedtrap). I think it's the "boredom" factor at work. On an unfamiliar road I don't encounter that, so I'm more alert to the road itself, the surrounding scenery, the sort of area I'm passing through, etc. I know some other people who have said they tend to drive faster on familiar roads because they have a better sense for where the cops are. I don't really think that applies to me these days since I don't drive as fast as I did even 10 years ago.
I used to be more interested in the concept of "clinching" than I think I am now. I track the roads that I drive loosely, because I like the experience of driving something new, rather than something that I have done before, but I no longer get too hung up on finishing everything, just because. Also, if I find a road that I really like to drive, I will still make a point of driving it even if it doesn't mean I am clinching new territory. An example is the Foothill Freeway in LA. i have driven it a bunch of times, but I still will go out of m way to drive it, simply because it is awesome.
When I was younger, I was really into the concept of driving all the roads in the Ontario. Now, having driven most of the roads, and certainly all of the interesting ones, my desire has waned considerably. (For example, Hwy 72, one of the only King's Highways i have left to drive is a 20 hour drive away from where I live).
I also used to be only concerned with clinching provincial or state highways, but as I have begun exhausting those types of roads in my general vicinity I now will drive county or municipal roads instead.
One of my principle interests when out roadgeeking is photography. For that, I tend to look for interesting and photogenic scenery, or interesting and photogenic bridges. I have gotten really interested in old bridges of late. Photographing bridges has also breathed some new life into driving roads that I may have driven before, but haven't really paid a lot of attention to.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 21, 2014, 03:42:29 AM
It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job. It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions. Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp. And I mean every ramp. Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals. Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state. I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days. Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.
WTF?! I need a job like this! I was actually going to start a thread about great jobs for roadgeeks other than trucking. Does this job have a title? You don't need to reveal your specific organization, but if I knew the job title, I'd look for a similar job locally! Wow! :sombrero:
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on June 23, 2014, 04:55:35 PM
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 21, 2014, 03:42:29 AM
It may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
It's a pretty solid roadgeeking job. It's very common to drive the entire length of a highway in both directions. Some projects require data be collected on every single freeway ramp. And I mean every ramp. Even the little right turn ramps at service interchange ramp terminals. Other projects require us to drive under every single bridge in a state. I get to see a lot of former alignments of things, there's always signing anomalies to enjoy and I'm clinching routes every few days. Getting paid to roadgeek; not a bad racket.
WTF?! I need a job like this! I was actually going to start a thread about great jobs for roadgeeks other than trucking. Does this job have a title? You don't need to reveal your specific organization, but if I knew the job title, I'd look for a similar job locally! Wow! :sombrero:
A thread on that was started in 2010 (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=2531).
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on June 23, 2014, 04:55:35 PM
WTF?! I need a job like this! I was actually going to start a thread about great jobs for roadgeeks other than trucking. Does this job have a title? You don't need to reveal your specific organization, but if I knew the job title, I'd look for a similar job locally! Wow! :sombrero:
The actual job title could be just about anything; "Field Systems Operator".
There are only a small handful of companies that specialize in collecting pavement data like this. The one I work for contracts with states to do the actual data collection or they also trick out vehicles for states that want to do it themselves. As an example, they built one for WisDOT, but in Illinois, we do the collection for IDOT.
The amount of travel is a barrier to many people. I've been on the road over 10 months in the last year. So anybody with a family or even a semi-serious relationship might be dissuaded from doing it. But you do get to go all over the place and see every little nook and cranny of a state you are working in. If you're good at navigating, this is a great way to use that skill as part of the job is being efficient going between different segments of road that need collection.
(I do recall that old "roadgeeking jobs" thread. If a mod wants to chop off this discussion and merge it into that old thread, that would be okay.)
Quote from: corco on June 12, 2014, 12:39:46 AM
I enjoy taking roadtrips, so this provides a sort of method to the madness, I guess.
I follow along with a lot of others here. But, I wanted to note corco's post, this line particularly, as my basis for 'clinching', or at least how I started.
When I was a kid, my family went on several trips to North Dakota to visit family stationed in Grand Forks. So, that really got my travel bug going early on. I would stare out the windows the whole way up (18 hours of driving). I loved it. Because of that, we also got a lot of maps, including eventually a Rand McNally atlas (1995 I believe). I started taking a highlighter to it showing which roads I had ridden on. And then started adding other roads from other trips. I really liked experiencing new roads.
When I started driving at 16, I realized that the old map just wasn't sufficient. I got a new one, and started marking off only roads _I_ had driven on. This made my map fairly tame. But, with time, I slowly added trips to it (New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Grand Rapids MI, West Virginia, Philadelphia, etc).
After moving out on my own, and taking smaller trips, and one giant trip around the country ( http://www.sykotyk.com/supertrip/ ) I started working for myself, and would travel extensively. My map was beginning to be a burden. Previously, I would update my routes to a new map every year. But, the last time I did that, it took me two days to match it up entirely. So, I'm still updating a 2009 map that has since lost its cover and many of the first few pages (front and back).
It was sometimes in 2008 that I stumbled upon County Counting. Being that I've driven quite a few places, I thought for sure I had been to a lot of counties. So, I took an old Rand McNally atlas and began marking off counties (I use an outline/circle approach, I'll explain in a minute). I realized I wasn't anywhere close to clinching even the 48. In fact, the only state I had clinched was Delaware, all three of them.
// My map method //
Take a county you've been in, and draw the outline of it in pen. Then at each major corner or intersecting county border, put a partial circle INSIDE the county you've been in, so that the count you haven't been in lacks the rest of the circle. When you've been to all counties at that intersection, it forms a perfect circle and you now have new semicircles elsewhere with new outlines. I also then circle the name of the county once clinched.
Once I get down to just a few counties in a state, I start underlining the county name so I can note more easily which counties I haven't been to. Then, when I will highlight the name above the underline mark when I'm down to 2 or 3 usually. And lastly, if I have one stubborn county that will take a while, I don't want to forget about it, and will highlight the entire county so I can easily spot it.
About a year later, I downloaded all the state outline maps on Wikipedia that are used to show counties, and use Paint to fill in the counties I've driven in blue and ones I've been in red. It's rudimentary, but it works.
// End //
Anyways, once I realized there was so much out there that I haven't seen, I made it a point to see it. I'd be somewhere, and rent a car, and go driving. Did that in WA/OR/ID/MT, CO/NM, CA, FL, and then on my travels would always try to take different routes if time allowed. Though that sometimes left obscure 'blank spots' in my map, which really annoy me.
I've enjoyed it, because it gives me an excuse to see someplace different. I try to find something to see.
Then, I stumbled upon clinching highways. I would like to clinch all Interstate and US routes, but that will probably just be a guide, and less a real goal. I do like driving some US routes out west, though. Next prime target is US2 from Shelby, MT to Grand Forks, ND.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 21, 2014, 03:42:29 AMIt may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
Mandli?
Quote from: J N Winkler on June 28, 2014, 03:06:26 PM
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 21, 2014, 03:42:29 AMIt may interest you all to know that I sort of get paid to clinch routes. I work for a company that collects data about roadways for state DOT's. Pavement condition, signage, vertical/horizontal clearances, status of vegetation in the right of way, GPS traces... we get it all. There's a vehicle with all sorts of camera and laser equipment that I operate along with another guy. The goal is to drive all the roads the DOT wants this information about while the equipment scans everything. That usually involves collecting the entirety of most highways in that state.
Mandli?
That's the one.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on June 28, 2014, 08:48:36 PMQuote from: J N Winkler on June 28, 2014, 03:06:26 PMMandli?
That's the one.
Thanks--I figured it was the likeliest candidate since it seems to have the biggest market share among the state DOTs that have full or partial photologs online where I can identify a vendor. I have seen Mandli photologging for UT, NV, KS, KY, and WI, while OR, WA, and CO seem to have gone with different photologging platforms. I have even run across Mandli photologging for Sweden.
Apropos the thread topic, I think online photologging is a fantastic way to clinch highways, without committing the time, money, and fuel to drive them, or get into position to drive them. I have used it to preview possible driving routes. Unfortunately, we are nowhere near full fifty-states online availability--just WA, OR, CO, UT, KY, FL, PA, CA, and CT that I am aware of (the last two are actually videologs, CA being severely out of date).
Quote from: J N Winkler on June 29, 2014, 12:18:24 AM
Thanks--I figured it was the likeliest candidate since it seems to have the biggest market share among the state DOTs that have full or partial photologs online where I can identify a vendor. I have seen Mandli photologging for UT, NV, KS, KY, and WI, while OR, WA, and CO seem to have gone with different photologging platforms. I have even run across Mandli photologging for Sweden.
I was working on the latest round for Utah this spring. Eventually, you'll be able to see some of my handiwork; especially in northern Utah. UDOT is one of the most forward-looking DOT's in the country and were early adapters of this type of data collection. I'm told they've done some cool shit with the LIDAR data the company gathered for them.
I'm currently rocking southeast Alaska and all its isolated pockets of roads served by the Marine Highway. Nothing like getting paid to "tour" one of the most amazing places on the planet.
Quote from: J N Winkler on June 29, 2014, 12:18:24 AM
Apropos the thread topic, I think online photologging is a fantastic way to clinch highways, without committing the time, money, and fuel to drive them, or get into position to drive them. I have used it to preview possible driving routes. Unfortunately, we are nowhere near full fifty-states online availability--just WA, OR, CO, UT, KY, FL, PA, CA, and CT that I am aware of (the last two are actually videologs, CA being severely out of date).
Virginia used to have this feature, but it's either been removed or made more difficult to find.
Of course, Google Street View also helps in this regard.
Quote from: Sykotyk on June 28, 2014, 02:38:15 PM
When I started driving at 16, I realized that the old map just wasn't sufficient. I got a new one, and started marking off only roads _I_ had driven on. This made my map fairly tame. But, with time, I slowly added trips to it (New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Grand Rapids MI, West Virginia, Philadelphia, etc).
After moving out on my own, and taking smaller trips, and one giant trip around the country ( http://www.sykotyk.com/supertrip/ ) I started working for myself, and would travel extensively. My map was beginning to be a burden. Previously, I would update my routes to a new map every year. But, the last time I did that, it took me two days to match it up entirely. So, I'm still updating a 2009 map that has since lost its cover and many of the first few pages (front and back).
...
I've enjoyed it, because it gives me an excuse to see someplace different. I try to find something to see.
Then, I stumbled upon clinching highways. I would like to clinch all Interstate and US routes, but that will probably just be a guide, and less a real goal. I do like driving some US routes out west, though. Next prime target is US2 from Shelby, MT to Grand Forks, ND.
I started out pretty much the same. I've got a very special Rand McNally that I replace every 10 years that records my travels. Since I didn't want the headache of redoing it this year, I started with a blank atlas. It made the first few months of daily driving fun to record like it was all fresh. I replace the atlas on years ending in 4 since I started with a 1994 atlas when I was in college. I've always considered it a journal of sorts, but with starting completely fresh, it will be even more so.
Clinching? I'll 'fess up to some, but I'm not obsessive about it. It's more of an excuse to drive a new road.
I do it with Interstates. I've clinched I-85, I-4, I-87, I-24, I-16, etc. It's good to keep track and it's just a fun challenge. I try to see where I've been on a road. Take I-40 for example. I've been on it from Winston-Salem to Raleigh, Asheville to the split with I-75 in Loudon County, Tennessee (exit 366), Exit 238/ US 231/Lebanon, Tenn. to Little Rock, Ark. I-30 (Exit 153), Oklahoma City out to Kingman, Arizona (exit 53). So now I know what I need to do in order to have the entire highway clinched, if that makes sense. If I only have a little measly section of an interstate left, then there's another roadtrip for me in the near future.
It's a fun achievement list :biggrin: