Of course "Road Geeking" should be described as the activity of driving, clinching roads, taking pictures of signs-highways-traffic lights etc, acquiring signs or anything else like I just described.
An irk for me is getting the itch to go to a place for road pics and not being able to right away b/c of job, weather or other circumstances.
Or
Since I like to take pics in the sunlight, having a forecast call for sunny skies but it's cloudy when you get there.
and the worst for me:
The old sign you want is gone :awesomeface:
Not having a vehicle. :no:
Probably the most irksome experience I had was the time when I misplaced my camera's memory stick shortly after a trip to Boston in 2004, losing most of the pictures from the trip. I've learned, and now I'll download my pictures immediately as soon as I get home after going somewhere.
Running out of film.
State highways that end at or in restricted areas with no opportunity to U-turn, such that they cannot be clinched by the general public without fudging or risking getting in trouble. NJ 68, I'm looking at you.
Quote from: Duke87 on February 24, 2015, 08:39:05 PM
State highways that end at or in restricted areas with no opportunity to U-turn, such that they cannot be clinched by the general public without fudging or risking getting in trouble. NJ 68, I'm looking at you.
Is it
actually N.J. 68 if it runs through a military reservation's gate?
Quote from: Zeffy on February 24, 2015, 07:51:47 PM
Not having a vehicle. :no:
Having a vehicle, but no gas money.
Also, winter sun angles.
Quote from: Duke87 on February 24, 2015, 08:39:05 PM
State highways that end at or in restricted areas with no opportunity to U-turn, such that they cannot be clinched by the general public without fudging or risking getting in trouble. NJ 68, I'm looking at you.
What about MD 22? Runs through the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, past the gates that guard the entrance to the facility.
Getting looked at suspiciously by the locals on low-volume roads. Loose dogs.
Getting rid of the truck I had with cap on it helps some with the first, but with any truck people think you are a burglar.
My current financial situation.
- Bugs on the windshield.
- Rain on a day you'd like to photograph things.
- Having to take the same route twice.
- Lack of daylight before and after working hours.
- Massive windshield glare (you'd figure automakers might figure something out by now).
- Being completely oblivious to an old sign or something odd that disappears the next time you get around to it.
Yeah, they're first world problems. But they're the little things that tweak me.
Having to drive further and further to find new roads.
That the trips which afford me the best roadgeeking opportunities are those trips on which we're traveling in caravan with another vehicle and several people who have no interest in pulling over at random spots along the highway.
Not having enough time to get to the roads that I want to drive. When I need to spend nearly all of my off time traveling via roads that I've already clinched just to reach new roads/counties. Then once I reach said new territory, it's time to turn around and head back home.
This time of year is a great time to road geek since not as many folks are traveling. Unfortunately, bad weather often stands in my way of leaving my house or going where I planned to go because the weather is shitty there.
Fortunately for GSV I can road geek vicariously. I'd still rather actually drive the roads in question.
No one else "get's it". Other people can talk about their hobbies, their kids, their desires, etc, and it seems normal. If I were to talk about an interesting sign or road layout, if they even try to care, it would most like be with a blank stare as in "what are you talking about"?
Quote from: Zeffy on February 24, 2015, 09:05:59 PM
Quote from: Duke87 on February 24, 2015, 08:39:05 PM
State highways that end at or in restricted areas with no opportunity to U-turn, such that they cannot be clinched by the general public without fudging or risking getting in trouble. NJ 68, I'm looking at you.
What about MD 22? Runs through the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, past the gates that guard the entrance to the facility.
AIUI, that state highway ends at an intersection just before the entrance gate, so you can turn back there. But there are several other Maryland highways which end at or before military base gates with no intersection at the endpoint, where you'd need to make a U-turn rather than turn off. MD 246 is one such, though the gate was closed the weekend I was there so I could safely drive right up to the gate before turning back.
My own pet peeve relates to sign photos. Unlike doofy103, I usually prefer overcast days, so you don't have time your trip to avoid having the sun behind signs you want to photograph. I also hate driving toward the rising or setting sun, so a nice gray day helps there (but best to have low clouds or lots of trees to block the sun on otherwise clear days).
Pointless threads like this one.
I would like to add: being prevented from tracking old roads because they have now become private property. I've tracked El Camino Real de los Tejas (Old San Antonio Road), the Bankhead Highway, old US highway alignments up to private property, not to mention old bridges.
Make no mistake, I respect private property and do not trespass, but it does "irk" me.
Quote from: oscar on February 25, 2015, 06:26:10 AM
AIUI, that state highway ends at an intersection just before the entrance gate, so you can turn back there. But there are several other Maryland highways which end at or before military base gates with no intersection at the endpoint, where you'd need to make a U-turn rather than turn off. MD 246 is one such, though the gate was closed the weekend I was there so I could safely drive right up to the gate before turning back.
Yup, Google Maps is wrong - it shows it as extending into the actual base itself, while OSM and my maps show otherwise.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on February 25, 2015, 06:02:56 AM
No one else "get's it". Other people can talk about their hobbies, their kids, their desires, etc, and it seems normal. If I were to talk about an interesting sign or road layout, if they even try to care, it would most like be with a blank stare as in "what are you talking about"?
Precisely why I don't even try to have a conversation like that, especially in my family where no one knows how to get from point A to point B without using GPS...
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 24, 2015, 08:21:05 PM
Running out of film.
Absolutely!!! And as first-world-problems as this sounds, having 12 GB of storage on my phone is barely anything!! 90% of my storage is pictures
and videos in my camera roll (most of those road-related). The most irksome part of that is when you're in the middle of filming a beautiful stretch of road but you're halted by full storage. If I didn't have about 60 road videos I've taken in the past year or so stored on my YouTube channel (link is in my signature if anyone's interested) I'd be about 10 full storages in "debt" :-D
And due to that most of those videos are on my YouTube channel, and only 2 or 3 (shorter ones) are still on my camera roll, but all the road pictures (not to mention there are some pictures of other stuff too) still keep my storage near full on a daily basis. Also, on the note of storage, apparently for some very irksome reason, if I simply use the Google Maps app a lot, it'll build up cache and fill up my storage. To prevent a massive storage overflow, I have to delete and re-download my Google Maps app on a
weekly basis. Over the course of a week using my Google Maps app only a moderate amount when I cannot access it on my laptop, I cache up an annoying
several hundred mega-bytes. :banghead:
Quote from: jeffandnicole on February 25, 2015, 06:02:56 AM
No one else "get's it". Other people can talk about their hobbies, their kids, their desires, etc, and it seems normal. If I were to talk about an interesting sign or road layout, if they even try to care, it would most like be with a blank stare as in "what are you talking about"?
I honestly don't give a crap if I am looked at weird for waking up for roads, but that is definitely irksome. My best friend (since 1rst grade) actually understands my avid love for roads (after knowing me so long), but he practically has to explain it to everyone who encounters me doodling a map or watching road videos during school (one time it took him 30 minutes to explain it to someone at Lunch) :rofl:
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 24, 2015, 08:21:05 PM
Running out of film.
Wow, somebody out there is actually still using a
film camera?!?
Getting stuck in rush-hour traffic!
Quote from: Henry on February 25, 2015, 10:57:43 AM
Getting stuck in rush-hour traffic!
If you plan it right, sometimes you can be going slow enough to really capture a photo of something.
Quote from: roadman on February 25, 2015, 10:25:38 AM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 24, 2015, 08:21:05 PM
Running out of film.
Wow, somebody out there is actually still using a film camera?!?
No. It was kind of a joke, but it was a much bigger problem than running out of flash memory is today. Film cost a lot of money and came in finite supply. Made me take better pictures. And there was no "delete your least favorite" to get the perfect shot. I missed at least one once-in-a-lifetime shot after using up the previous, and last, shot on basically nothing.
Quote from: Zeffy on February 25, 2015, 09:48:22 AMQuote from: jeffandnicole on February 25, 2015, 06:02:56 AM
No one else "get's it". Other people can talk about their hobbies, their kids, their desires, etc, and it seems normal. If I were to talk about an interesting sign or road layout, if they even try to care, it would most like be with a blank stare as in "what are you talking about"?
Precisely why I don't even try to have a conversation like that, especially in my family where no one knows how to get from point A to point B without using GPS...
Life's too short to worry about things like this. Some things more people "get," some things fewer people do. Keep your expectations reasonable as to what you expect to connect with people on, and try not to hold it against them that they don't get your favorite thing. Be thankful when people just appreciate that it's your thing that you're into.
Hell, in a world where there are meetups of people who keep bees (now
those are fanatical folks) and every other narrow-interest pursuit, this hobby fits right in.
Just a few years ago, there was pretty much no way to discuss this stuff with anyone else that wanted to. Relatively speaking, these are the good times.
Quote from: signalman on February 25, 2015, 03:53:37 AM
Not having enough time to get to the roads that I want to drive. When I need to spend nearly all of my off time traveling via roads that I've already clinched just to reach new roads/counties. Then once I reach said new territory, it's time to turn around and head back home.
This time of year is a great time to road geek since not as many folks are traveling. Unfortunately, bad weather often stands in my way of leaving my house or going where I planned to go because the weather is shitty there.
Fortunately for GSV I can road geek vicariously. I'd still rather actually drive the roads in question.
I'll check the forecast when I leave and it says sunny but when I get there clouds suddenly roll in.
and not being able to see the buttons on button copy.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:17:14 PM
Life's too short to worry about things like this. Some things more people "get," some things fewer people do. Keep your expectations reasonable as to what you expect to connect with people on, and try not to hold it against them that they don't get your favorite thing. Be thankful when people just appreciate that it's your thing that you're into.
Hell, in a world where there are meetups of people who keep bees (now those are fanatical folks) and every other narrow-interest pursuit, this hobby fits right in.
Just a few years ago, there was pretty much no way to discuss this stuff with anyone else that wanted to. Relatively speaking, these are the good times.
I'm very much so grateful for the existence of AARoads and the Internet. I just simply dislike how I'm mostly silent during social events because no one is interested in roads. Maybe that's why I'm an introvert... well, I just generally hate [large] social events anyway.
One thing that irks me is that I can draw better looking signs on the computer than real contractors can manufacture. Who needs GuidSIGN or SignCAD experience anyway??
Stumbling upon construction that I was unaware of.
When a huge tractor-trailer passes you at just the right speed and position to block your view of the one sign or other roadgeeking feature that you're trying to get a good look at or photo of. Or if someone else is doing the driving, you might be the one passing the semi!
Regarding it being a cloudy vs. sunny day, sometimes a light overcast can be an advantage for photos, as there is less glare and shadow to interfere. I actually find clouds to be an advantage when travelling west in the evening or east in the morning hours. Some traffic reporters use the phrase "sunshine delay", for spots where a highway's heading and slope are particularly troublesome with respect to a low sun.
I echo traffic jams. The last few times I've had reason to go north of the Ohio River, I have actively avoided Cincinnati because I didn't want to be stuck moving 5 mph on I-75. I had that happen to me once during rush hour and it frustrated me to the point that I swore I'd never do it again. For the last Dayton meet, I used KY 11, US 68 and OH 73 to get to the Dayton area because I didn't want to deal with rush hour Cincy traffic.
I've also been stuck in creeping traffic in a number of other places (Providence, RI and Albany, NY come to mind). It absolutely infuriates me.
Also, not being able to use planned routes because of weather conditions or road closures due to construction. My attempt to drive from Horseheads, NY to Watertown, NY via NY 17 and I-88 was maddening. High water had NY 17 closed east of Waverly/Sayre, and I had to take all kinds of detours just to be able to get to Binghamton. Then I-88 was under water and closed in two locations, meaning I couldn't get a clinch of I-88. Fortunately, I had another chance to drive the route in its entirety.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:17:14 PM
Quote from: Zeffy on February 25, 2015, 09:48:22 AMQuote from: jeffandnicole on February 25, 2015, 06:02:56 AM
No one else "get's it". Other people can talk about their hobbies, their kids, their desires, etc, and it seems normal. If I were to talk about an interesting sign or road layout, if they even try to care, it would most like be with a blank stare as in "what are you talking about"?
Precisely why I don't even try to have a conversation like that, especially in my family where no one knows how to get from point A to point B without using GPS...
Life's too short to worry about things like this. Some things more people "get," some things fewer people do. Keep your expectations reasonable as to what you expect to connect with people on, and try not to hold it against them that they don't get your favorite thing. Be thankful when people just appreciate that it's your thing that you're into.
Hell, in a world where there are meetups of people who keep bees (now those are fanatical folks) and every other narrow-interest pursuit, this hobby fits right in.
Just a few years ago, there was pretty much no way to discuss this stuff with anyone else that wanted to. Relatively speaking, these are the good times.
The aspect of my roadgeeking that non-roadqeeks seem to best understand is county-counting (not the details of that hobby, but people are impressed with how many I've been to, and how hard I work at getting new ones). They seem to treat that as one species of "extreme travel", which is how I characterize it.
I find it useful to mention (just at a surface level) that and other road exploits, as well as my hot springing hobby. That's not only so people aren't surprised to see me in unexpected places (I've been spotted on the NJ Turnpike, for example), but also to draw attention away from the
really weird stuff. :)
Having to travel to work - which takes energy away from the "real" trips. One can't roadgeek on a work trip - especially if:
* Your assigned a company car
* You don't get a car at all.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:17:14 PM
Quote from: Zeffy on February 25, 2015, 09:48:22 AMQuote from: jeffandnicole on February 25, 2015, 06:02:56 AM
No one else "get's it". Other people can talk about their hobbies, their kids, their desires, etc, and it seems normal. If I were to talk about an interesting sign or road layout, if they even try to care, it would most like be with a blank stare as in "what are you talking about"?
Precisely why I don't even try to have a conversation like that, especially in my family where no one knows how to get from point A to point B without using GPS...
Life's too short to worry about things like this. Some things more people "get," some things fewer people do. Keep your expectations reasonable as to what you expect to connect with people on, and try not to hold it against them that they don't get your favorite thing. Be thankful when people just appreciate that it's your thing that you're into.
It's like people getting pissed off when they find out you haven't seen a certain movie. I haven't seen the movie, deal with it.
Quote from: Zeffy on February 25, 2015, 12:39:16 PM
I'm very much so grateful for the existence of AARoads and the Internet. I just simply dislike how I'm mostly silent during social events because no one is interested in roads. Maybe that's why I'm an introvert... well, I just generally hate [large] social events anyway.
If you haven't been to a road meet, go to one. You'll be so excited that you can actually discuss roadgeek stuff with people in real life that you'll forget that you're being social. Or that's how it went for me anyway.
QuoteOne thing that irks me is that I can draw better looking signs on the computer than real contractors can manufacture. Who needs GuidSIGN or SignCAD experience anyway??
This is probably my irk. Oklahoma DOT and its contractors just don't try to do a good job. It's depressing knowing my government is staffed by these people.
Quote from: cpzilliacus on February 24, 2015, 08:50:27 PM
Quote from: Duke87 on February 24, 2015, 08:39:05 PM
State highways that end at or in restricted areas with no opportunity to U-turn, such that they cannot be clinched by the general public without fudging or risking getting in trouble. NJ 68, I'm looking at you.
Is it actually N.J. 68 if it runs through a military reservation's gate?
Yes, it is. NJ-68 begins at General's Circle inside of MDL Joint. There is a milepost 0 as well. I managed to clinch it legally when I had to drive someone to Dix on official business. That was an interesting experience. Whats odd is the base pass they gave me was good for a month! There were a few 600 series county routes inside of the base that were rerouted. CR-545 also passes directly through the base, but I don't think its actually county maintained anymore.
The closing of access there wasn't taken very well by the locals. To this day there are issues with getting on base for a local soccer competition that is held there. I'm surprised they haven't relocated it yet.
Quote from: Zeffy on February 25, 2015, 09:48:22 AM
Quote from: oscar on February 25, 2015, 06:26:10 AM
AIUI, that state highway ends at an intersection just before the entrance gate, so you can turn back there. But there are several other Maryland highways which end at or before military base gates with no intersection at the endpoint, where you'd need to make a U-turn rather than turn off. MD 246 is one such, though the gate was closed the weekend I was there so I could safely drive right up to the gate before turning back.
Yup, Google Maps is wrong - it shows it as extending into the actual base itself, while OSM and my maps show otherwise.
Fixed now.
Roads that are now at the bottoms of lakes. For example, Old NC 10 can never be clinched because five miles of it are sitting at the bottom of Fontana Lake
Quote from: SSOWorld on February 25, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
Having to travel to work - which takes energy away from the "real" trips. One can't roadgeek on a work trip - especially if:
* Your assigned a company car
* You don't get a car at all.
Well I clinched most of I-95 south of Dillon, SC, while going on band trips in high school to Orlando and Miami (where we actually played during the Orange Bowl in 2009), however, I do not have the 3 miles of I-95 south of I-395/FL 836 simply because the bus did not ever go that way.
Quote from: thephantomcheese on February 26, 2015, 09:39:26 AM
Roads that are now at the bottoms of lakes. For example, Old NC 10 can never be clinched because five miles of it are sitting at the bottom of Fontana Lake
Michael Scott would be willing to attempt to clinch it if the GPS told him to drive straight into the lake. :-D
Quote from: SSOWorld on February 25, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
Having to travel to work - which takes energy away from the "real" trips. One can't roadgeek on a work trip - especially if:
* Your assigned a company car
That's how I get most of my travelling done; I'm fortunate enough for the company to fly me to random places via air, they pay for the rental and gas, so that relieves a financial burden. Would I like to drive a real coast-to-coast trip? Yes...but it's not practical with a family, and they're not terribly interested in spending that many days in a car for vacation.
Quote* You don't get a car at all.
One reason I'm not 100% thrilled about my future travels to the Caribbean, but I'll get some shots, anyhow.
When you're travelling with your spouse who doesn't tolerate stopping for things I would like to see. I can justify a lot of things like bridges and national park entrance signs but when I see some strange sign and want to stop she'll say no
Quote from: GCrites80s on February 25, 2015, 10:11:39 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:17:14 PM
Quote from: Zeffy on February 25, 2015, 09:48:22 AMQuote from: jeffandnicole on February 25, 2015, 06:02:56 AM
No one else "get's it". Other people can talk about their hobbies, their kids, their desires, etc, and it seems normal. If I were to talk about an interesting sign or road layout, if they even try to care, it would most like be with a blank stare as in "what are you talking about"?
Precisely why I don't even try to have a conversation like that, especially in my family where no one knows how to get from point A to point B without using GPS...
Life's too short to worry about things like this. Some things more people "get," some things fewer people do. Keep your expectations reasonable as to what you expect to connect with people on, and try not to hold it against them that they don't get your favorite thing. Be thankful when people just appreciate that it's your thing that you're into.
It's like people getting pissed off when they find out you haven't seen a certain movie. I haven't seen the movie, deal with it.
I do this to my wife all the time. No I haven't seen ET!!!
Quote from: Zeffy on February 25, 2015, 12:39:16 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:17:14 PM
Life's too short to worry about things like this. Some things more people "get," some things fewer people do. Keep your expectations reasonable as to what you expect to connect with people on, and try not to hold it against them that they don't get your favorite thing. Be thankful when people just appreciate that it's your thing that you're into.
Hell, in a world where there are meetups of people who keep bees (now those are fanatical folks) and every other narrow-interest pursuit, this hobby fits right in.
Just a few years ago, there was pretty much no way to discuss this stuff with anyone else that wanted to. Relatively speaking, these are the good times.
I'm very much so grateful for the existence of AARoads and the Internet. I just simply dislike how I'm mostly silent during social events because no one is interested in roads. Maybe that's why I'm an introvert... well, I just generally hate [large] social events anyway.
I'm not sure this would be any different if you required that your social participation depend on any other single subject of conversation, even if it were weather or sports or politics or anything else people generally have something to say about. Besides, half of socializing is being interested in what other people add to the experience. Broad horizons are a good thing.
One that occurred to me last night:
My wife does not share my willingness to drive for a long trip. We had been talking about going to Rome this year but had to scrap that, so instead we've considered going west to visit her brother in Phoenix. Earlier this week, we received a card from a friend who just relocated to St. Louis suggesting we ought to come and visit.
I measured out the distance to St. Louis and found it's only about 870 miles (depending on which route we use, of course; it'd be 50 miles shorter via I-70). That's only 10 miles further than the distance to my sister-in-law's house in Florida, and we make that drive twice a year most years. (In fairness, we only drive it one-way and use the Auto Train the other. That's not an option to or from St. Louis.) So I was all for the idea of driving to St. Louis. I could clinch I-64 in the process. My wife thinks I'm nuts and she said she has no desire to drive out there. I did not mention the idea of clinching I-64 because I know what the response would be.
Then I suggested combining the two trips: Drive to St. Louis, visit for two days, then drive to Phoenix. That idea did NOT go over well. I suppose, to be fair, we'd still have the extremely long drive back home afterwards, such that the driving time would eat up too much of the time we have available for the trip. Driving to Phoenix is probably unrealistic for us at the present time.
But to me 870 miles to St. Louis seems like a relatively short trip that gives plenty of flexibility to use different routes each way to keep it interesting. (I-70 to Dayton is mind-numbing for my wife since she grew up there and has made that drive hundreds of times. All the more reason to take I-64!)
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:11:42 PM
Quote from: roadman on February 25, 2015, 10:25:38 AM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 24, 2015, 08:21:05 PM
Running out of film.
Wow, somebody out there is actually still using a film camera?!?
No. It was kind of a joke, but it was a much bigger problem than running out of flash memory is today. Film cost a lot of money and came in finite supply. Made me take better pictures. And there was no "delete your least favorite" to get the perfect shot. I missed at least one once-in-a-lifetime shot after using up the previous, and last, shot on basically nothing.
My reply was meant as a joke. Many of my close friends are railfans (as I am, in addition to being a roadgeek), and there isn't one of them who still uses a film camera. But your observations about the limitations of film media are well taken.
Quote from: texaskdog on February 26, 2015, 10:50:37 AM
When you're travelling with your spouse who doesn't tolerate stopping for things I would like to see. I can justify a lot of things like bridges and national park entrance signs but when I see some strange sign and want to stop she'll say no
Grow a set of balls and tell her that you're going to stop and if she gripes, don't stop when she needs to go to the bathroom or something. Don't ever let a woman push you around.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:11:42 PM
Quote from: roadman on February 25, 2015, 10:25:38 AM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 24, 2015, 08:21:05 PM
Running out of film.
Wow, somebody out there is actually still using a film camera?!?
No. It was kind of a joke, but it was a much bigger problem than running out of flash memory is today. Film cost a lot of money and came in finite supply. Made me take better pictures. And there was no "delete your least favorite" to get the perfect shot. I missed at least one once-in-a-lifetime shot after using up the previous, and last, shot on basically nothing.
And I remember the days when Kmart would lose or ruin half my photos when I took them in to be developed.
Quote from: bugo on February 26, 2015, 07:05:26 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on February 26, 2015, 10:50:37 AM
When you're travelling with your spouse who doesn't tolerate stopping for things I would like to see. I can justify a lot of things like bridges and national park entrance signs but when I see some strange sign and want to stop she'll say no
Grow a set of balls and tell her that you're going to stop and if she gripes, don't stop when she needs to go to the bathroom or something. Don't ever let a woman push you around.
Congratulations on being single into your 40s!
Quote from: 1995hoo on February 26, 2015, 02:46:05 PM
One that occurred to me last night:
My wife does not share my willingness to drive for a long trip. We had been talking about going to Rome this year but had to scrap that, so instead we've considered going west to visit her brother in Phoenix. Earlier this week, we received a card from a friend who just relocated to St. Louis suggesting we ought to come and visit.
I measured out the distance to St. Louis and found it's only about 870 miles (depending on which route we use, of course; it'd be 50 miles shorter via I-70). That's only 10 miles further than the distance to my sister-in-law's house in Florida, and we make that drive twice a year most years. (In fairness, we only drive it one-way and use the Auto Train the other. That's not an option to or from St. Louis.) So I was all for the idea of driving to St. Louis. I could clinch I-64 in the process. My wife thinks I'm nuts and she said she has no desire to drive out there. I did not mention the idea of clinching I-64 because I know what the response would be.
I-70 from its eastern terminus in Woodlawn, Maryland to St. Louis can definitely be done in one day (you probably know most of this already).
Only bad parts are:
(1) Pennsylvania (excessive PSP speed limit enforcement between the Maryland border and Breezewood);
(2) the atrocious section west of New Stanton; and
(3)
terribly mismanaged work zones in Indiana around Terre Haute leading to long (an hour each way of stopped traffic) and unnecessary delays (would not be tolerated in Virginia or in Maryland).
There were some long work zones in Illinois, but traffic moved through those pretty well.
Quote from: 1995hoo on February 26, 2015, 02:46:05 PM
Then I suggested combining the two trips: Drive to St. Louis, visit for two days, then drive to Phoenix. That idea did NOT go over well. I suppose, to be fair, we'd still have the extremely long drive back home afterwards, such that the driving time would eat up too much of the time we have available for the trip. Driving to Phoenix is probably unrealistic for us at the present time.
But to me 870 miles to St. Louis seems like a relatively short trip that gives plenty of flexibility to use different routes each way to keep it interesting. (I-70 to Dayton is mind-numbing for my wife since she grew up there and has made that drive hundreds of times. All the more reason to take I-64!)
I did not think I-70 across Ohio was all that bad. Some congestion in Columbus, but still, not terrible, and I actually liked the drive.
I-70 west of St. Louis is mostly mediocre in Missouri, but really nice (but really long, 410+ miles, thank goodness for the 75 MPH posted limit most of the way) in Kansas and varies from nice to
spectacular in Colorado and Utah (if you do get out there, try to drive it eastbound from Salina, Utah to Green River as dusk is approaching).
Quote from: roadman on February 26, 2015, 03:11:45 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 25, 2015, 12:11:42 PM
Quote from: roadman on February 25, 2015, 10:25:38 AM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 24, 2015, 08:21:05 PM
Running out of film.
Wow, somebody out there is actually still using a film camera?!?
No. It was kind of a joke, but it was a much bigger problem than running out of flash memory is today. Film cost a lot of money and came in finite supply. Made me take better pictures. And there was no "delete your least favorite" to get the perfect shot. I missed at least one once-in-a-lifetime shot after using up the previous, and last, shot on basically nothing.
My reply was meant as a joke. Many of my close friends are railfans (as I am, in addition to being a roadgeek), and there isn't one of them who still uses a film camera. But your observations about the limitations of film media are well taken.
My equivalent today is camera batteries. Phone pics are not as good, but the camera battery languishes from lack of attention/shorter life, plus it charges much slower on vehicle power.
Quote from: thephantomcheese on February 26, 2015, 09:39:26 AM
Roads that are now at the bottoms of lakes. For example, Old NC 10 can never be clinched because five miles of it are sitting at the bottom of Fontana Lake
A true roadgeek would be renting scuba gear to clinch.
Quote from: US81 on February 25, 2015, 09:18:38 AM
I would like to add: being prevented from tracking old roads because they have now become private property. I've tracked El Camino Real de los Tejas (Old San Antonio Road), the Bankhead Highway, old US highway alignments up to private property, not to mention old bridges.
Make no mistake, I respect private property and do not trespass, but it does "irk" me.
This is also my irk! I love micro micro road geeking and hate how some old historic roads in the area have turned into private access. They aren't really "important" roads per se, but I would love to explore them for the fact that they've been used as trails for centuries.
My other major irk is when I have to rush to and from somewhere that I don't get to visit often due to time constraints. For instance, I wanted to take the whole weekend of the upcoming Scranton meet to explore roads in northeast PA, but I'm going to need Friday and Sunday to work on grad school work, so I'm only going to get to drive Saturday. To add insult to injury, it means that I'm going to have to take I-81 and I-83 home because it'll be dark after the meet.
iPhone
There's still tons of information I haven't yet read that's not online, and available only in a library open 9-5 weekdays, by appointment, in the basement of a DOT building 3,000 miles away.
Quote from: bandit957 on February 26, 2015, 09:53:53 PM
And I remember the days when Kmart would lose or ruin half my photos when I took them in to be developed.
I think I found your problem.
Another irksome thing when it comes to taking road photos and videos is when your phone (or camera) won't focus in. My phone does this quite often and it is so very irksome. Sometimes holding my phone as completely still and smooth as possible won't even do anything (then sometimes it focuses in). Another method that sometimes works (if far away enough from the sign or whatever you're aiming to get a snap of) is to quickly exit out of the camera app then go back in and briefly wait, but sometimes even that fails to work. I can't tell you how many pictures have ended up blurrier than hoped (though thankfully many of those are at least decent, though not as good and HD as they could be), and sometimes horrifically blurry. Sometimes even videos will fail to focus in (just check out my GA 316 Westbound in Winder video on my YT channel; permanently like that, but better than nothing), and that's even more irksome. :ded:
Whenever my phone decides to do this, my family probably has no idea what the fuss is about when I say very fast "FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS." :-D
A tripod will help with that when you're not in motion.
Quote from: cpzilliacus on February 24, 2015, 08:50:27 PM
Is it actually N.J. 68 if it runs through a military reservation's gate?
It is, yes. The official end of NJ 68 is at the traffic circle about 500 feet beyond the gate. The last opportunity to U-turn without having to explain yourself to the gate guards is another 500 feet further back.
This situation exists because pre-9/11 Fort Dix was not gated and the public was allowed to drive through unimpeded. NJ 68 ended at a traffic circle with County Route 616 and it was a perfectly logical endpoint. But, post-9/11 gates were added to keep the public out of the base, and it was decided the easiest way to do so here was to add a gate on NJ 68 upstream of the traffic circle and reroute the public section of CR 616 away from it so it intersected with NJ 68 outside the gate. The current layout is seen here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0175002,-74.6358918,736m/data=!3m1!1e3
You can clearly see the old pre-9/11 alignment of CR 616 heading southwest out of the traffic circle.
But, despite the US army having installed a gate, NJDOT has never changed their logbook to modify the endpoint of NJ 68 so it still ends at the traffic circle and probably will forever since NJDOT is not known to bother pruning route definitions to reflect realignments. This is why NJ 53 ends a block north of US 46 - it ends at old US 46 despite US 46 having been realigned more than half a century ago.
Quote from: SSOWorld on February 25, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
One can't roadgeek on a work trip
Says who? I do it all the time. If I'm in my own car I just don't expense the extra miles. If I'm in a rental I pay for the extra gas on my own dime and corporate rentals are unlimited mileage so nobody asks questions about the odometer so long as I return it with a full tank. And of course in either case the added time is my own and is not billed. My direct management is aware that I do this and they think I'm a little crazy that I want to drive MORE than necessary but they are perfectly fine with it.
Quote from: bugo on February 26, 2015, 07:05:26 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on February 26, 2015, 10:50:37 AM
When you're travelling with your spouse who doesn't tolerate stopping for things I would like to see. I can justify a lot of things like bridges and national park entrance signs but when I see some strange sign and want to stop she'll say no
Grow a set of balls and tell her that you're going to stop and if she gripes, don't stop when she needs to go to the bathroom or something. Don't ever let a woman push you around.
What's funny is that with me and my girlfriend it is exactly the opposite. I will want to just drivedrivedrivedrivedrive all day stopping as briefly and infrequently as possible. She can't deal with that, she needs to stop and do stuff/see things along the way, and pulling over for a minute to quickly take a picture or two of a sign or a bridge doesn't count.
This doesn't cause fights, though. When I start yelling profanities at a horribly butchered sign assembly and circling around to get a picture of it, she finds it entertaining and is more than happy to let me do so. And if she wants to do something and we plan to stop there ahead of time, I'm more than willing to fit it into the schedule so long as it is something I would also find interesting.
Meanwhile when we go on trips together I do all the driving and we both prefer it that way, so there are no arguments over that.
That my current shift doesn't really allow me to road geek without messing up my sleep schedule. I'm a vampire.
Sometimes I prefer nighttime Scholaring, especially on certain side roads through wooded areas. But nighttime photography is much trickier.
Quote from: bandit957 on March 01, 2015, 01:34:29 PM
Sometimes I prefer nighttime Scholaring, especially on certain side roads through wooded areas. But nighttime photography is much trickier.
That is, unless your camera/cellphone has a very bright light.
Quote from: Henry on March 03, 2015, 12:08:49 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on March 01, 2015, 01:34:29 PM
Sometimes I prefer nighttime Scholaring, especially on certain side roads through wooded areas. But nighttime photography is much trickier.
That is, unless your camera/cellphone has a very bright light.
Or, in addition to or instead of a good flash, a digital camera that can be set to a super-high ISO like 25600, perhaps combined with a very fast (and cheap) lens like a 50mm f/1.4, and also helped by a tripod to allow long exposures without camera shake. Cameras with high ISOs might be too pricey, and you lose image quality pushing it to 25600 (or beyond). But I've gotten usable and sometimes interesting nighttime shots, even without a flash (your car's headlights or a streetlight can help), a tripod, or ridiculously high ISOs.
In Florida, it is always raining in the area between Tallahassee and Gainesville, every time I go through, and there are a lot of old signs to photograph in that area.
Quote from: SSOWorld on February 25, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
Having to travel to work - which takes energy away from the "real" trips. One can't roadgeek on a work trip - especially if:
* Your assigned a company car
* You don't get a car at all.
I clinched ME188 and ME183 on business trips. One the way back from the ME183 trip, I clinched ME185 and just pretended that that time/mileage never happened.
Quote from: thephantomcheese on February 26, 2015, 09:39:26 AM
Roads that are now at the bottoms of lakes. For example, Old NC 10 can never be clinched because five miles of it are sitting at the bottom of Fontana Lake
I may or may not have clinched the second, ~1932-1949, incarnation of ME149 (http://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/me/r?149), in a canoe.
Quote from: yakra on March 07, 2015, 02:31:17 AM
Quote from: SSOWorld on February 25, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
Having to travel to work - which takes energy away from the "real" trips. One can't roadgeek on a work trip - especially if:
* Your assigned a company car
* You don't get a car at all.
I clinched ME188 and ME183 on business trips. One the way back from the ME183 trip, I clinched ME185 and just pretended that that time/mileage never happened.
Companies will catch on to the habit for sure in terms of time and miles on the car - eventually. It really depends if you have "uncharted territory" and time in between you and your destination. In these days of "cutting costs" (a term I consider an oxymoron because salary is paid to the decision makers), they're going to whistle blow.
Quote from: SSOWorld on March 07, 2015, 07:55:16 AM
Quote from: yakra on March 07, 2015, 02:31:17 AM
Quote from: SSOWorld on February 25, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
Having to travel to work - which takes energy away from the "real" trips. One can't roadgeek on a work trip - especially if:
* Your assigned a company car
* You don't get a car at all.
I clinched ME188 and ME183 on business trips. One the way back from the ME183 trip, I clinched ME185 and just pretended that that time/mileage never happened.
Companies will catch on to the habit for sure in terms of time and miles on the car - eventually. It really depends if you have "uncharted territory" and time in between you and your destination. In these days of "cutting costs" (a term I consider an oxymoron because salary is paid to the decision makers), they're going to whistle blow.
It also depends how your company reimburses you, too.
When school paid for me to go to TRB in January, while they didn't require gas receipts, I was only allowed to calculate the miles between school and the destination. Since I used the train, I submitted the mileage between school and the train station each day (24 miles total). My guess is that they do it this way so that they don't get suckered into paying for a full tank of gas when I used much less. I did have to submit my receipt for the train, though. I could have driven to the moon and back and there would have been no issues because I wouldn't have been allowed to calculate those miles into the total.
Four years ago, I went on business to New Jersey to deliver books. In that case, I was given a gas card. Had I done a bunch of extra road geeking, I would have just purchased additional gas with my personal card and obviously wouldn't have submitted those receipts. However, if they had me tracking every single mile, I wouldn't have been able to do that even if I wanted to.
iPhone
1. Not being able to see road signs on interstates (especially unfamiliar ones) because I'm in the passing lane and a truck in the slower lane is blocking the view.
2. I second the person who mentioned unanticipated road construction--especially on roads I've never been on before. What a way to spoil the new experience!
3. Deer on roads in rural areas!!! I've had a few close calls that have turned me off from a lot of US highways and state routes in rural areas!
4. Being unable to pass a slow vehicle on a two-lane road because of double solid lines or because there's too much oncoming traffic.
5. Speed traps are a problem because I admittedly have a......uhhhhh "heavy" foot.
Quote from: SSOWorld on February 25, 2015, 09:56:09 PM
.One can't roadgeek on a work trip - especially if:
* Your assigned a company car
* You don't get a car at all.
On the rare occasions when I traveled for work (and wasn't working on a trial or other project consuming all my time), I was usually able to work in some roadgeeking. The keys were (1) to need a rental car for my work assignment, with no PITA geographic restrictions (I had to get one modified, which interfered with my work assignment as well as my planned personal travel -- that rental agency tried to limit me to Louisiana, but the quickest route between my day 1 and day 2 assignments cut through Mississippi), (2) to travel by myself, or be able to drop a colleague off at the airport before I did my roadgeeking, and (3) to have the work assignment end on a Friday afternoon, so I couldn't fly back to work that day, and could use as much of the weekend as possible for my exploring. It helped that we made our own travel arrangements, on a computer system that didn't object to weekend travel so long as it didn't cost extra (even though the official preference was for travel entirely within the work week); and we were also on our own for extra hotel nights which we couldn't expense in any case.
Such roadgeeking tacked on to several work trips was helpful to snagging a few dozen counties in several southern states that were off my usual road-trip travel patterns.
Quote from: Duke87 on March 01, 2015, 01:27:05 AM
I do it all the time. If I'm in my own car I just don't expense the extra miles. ... the added time is my own and is not billed.
BOOM.
Quote from: Zzonkmiles on March 07, 2015, 10:17:03 AM
3. Deer on roads in rural areas!!! I've had a few close calls that have turned me off from a lot of US highways and state routes in rural areas!
3A. Deer in Suburban areas. *COUGH*MerrittParkway*COUGH*
3B. ($%&( M00SE!
Lucky people that get to travel for work.
I've been in the office for 16 years, with 3 occasions to take the train up to NYC. When I do my plow work for NJDOT, I'm on a stretch of road no more than 10 miles in length for upwards of 12 hours at a time. I can tell you every little nuisance of those roads, especially the manholes and drainage inlets set 1/4 inch too high that no car driver would ever feel, but that'll bust a blade. These are roads I've travelled all my life near my home. The biggest difference is I sit up higher, so I can see over the construction barriers easier.
Back in '98 when I did work for a CPA firm, I did some travelling not too far from home - the most I did was to Dover & Reading. The one thing I learned in Dover was that if there's a No Left Turn restriction at an intersection from 8am to 5pm, and it's 7:55am, people still get pissed at you for turning left!
Quote from: yakra on March 07, 2015, 10:53:59 AM
Quote from: Duke87 on March 01, 2015, 01:27:05 AM
I do it all the time. If I'm in my own car I just don't expense the extra miles. ... the added time is my own and is not billed.
BOOM.
....
As someone who is self-employed, I've thought about this issue several times in conjunction with recording business miles for tax purposes. I'll either use the most direct route in one direction, note that mileage, and then simply record that as the roundtrip number, or if I don't use the most direct route, I'll measure it out in Google Maps or the like and record that. (The car has two trip meters, so I use trip meter "B" for this sort of thing. I usually just take a picture of the trip meter reading with my iPhone as an easy way of keeping track.) It's in my own interest not to record too many business miles because if I use the car more than 50% for business I will not be able to deduct the state car tax on my federal tax return.
If, of course, I use a longer route for a reason other than exploring–say, there's a wreck that closes the highway or creates a big backup–then I'll use whatever route I deem appropriate and record the full distance.
Quote from: SSOWorld on March 07, 2015, 07:55:16 AM
Companies will catch on to the habit for sure in terms of time and miles on the car - eventually. It really depends if you have "uncharted territory" and time in between you and your destination.
Pick another airport, drive the extra 1-3 hours to destination. Sometimes saves money, at the expense of catching the 5:30am flight.
I have to keep a mileage log for work trips, but only for the drives to and from my destination. I print out a Google Maps with the desired route, which usually winds up 1-2 miles short due to fill-ups, meals, and rest stops. I get reimbursed per mile, if I choose not to let them pay for my fuel (the latter option exists for those who have vehicles with bad gas mileage). If I average 30-32mpg in my car, I usually come out quite ahead even after figuring in insurance, maintenance, tags, non-work usage, and other upkeep. (I don't consider depreciation into play, since that's a variable amount on the whim of a car salesman's need to sell a car; it's a lower-end B-segment car, anyhow.) I'll have plenty of leftover cash to use the side trips as a "personal expense", which means I eat the extra mileage for the sake of county-collecting, scenic-route-taking, or clinching.
Speed limits in rural areas under 75, although in most places 85 would be more logical.
Truck Speed Limits.
Quote from: yakra on March 07, 2015, 10:53:59 AM
3B. ($%&( M00SE!
Not just a rural problem. I nearly hit one in Scarborough, ME.
When nobody in the group understands the difference between route shields.
Quote from: kurumi on February 27, 2015, 11:36:59 AMThere's still tons of information I haven't yet read that's not online, and available only in a library open 9-5 weekdays, by appointment, in the basement of a DOT building 3,000 miles away.
I expect this situation to improve as digital storage costs continue to drop, though the process is still frustratingly slow.
Quote from: J N Winkler on March 08, 2015, 01:04:38 PM
Quote from: kurumi on February 27, 2015, 11:36:59 AMThere's still tons of information I haven't yet read that's not online, and available only in a library open 9-5 weekdays, by appointment, in the basement of a DOT building 3,000 miles away.
I expect this situation to improve as digital storage costs continue to drop, though the process is still frustratingly slow.
The labor cost of the people needed to do the digitizing isn't dropping, though.
Quote from: bing101 on March 08, 2015, 10:24:39 AM
When nobody in the group understands the difference between route shields.
It's all in the shape ;)
Quote from: Pete from Boston on March 08, 2015, 01:22:29 PMQuote from: J N Winkler on March 08, 2015, 01:04:38 PMI expect this situation to improve as digital storage costs continue to drop, though the process is still frustratingly slow.
The labor cost of the people needed to do the digitizing isn't dropping, though.
Some of it is amenable to office automation, and this proportion will increase in time. In any case, I was thinking of a different aspect of the problem. There are some classes of documents (such as highway construction plans) that are already digitized, partly because they are consulted on a regular basis, so electronic availability produces labor savings that offset the cost of digitization. What usually happens, however, is that they sit on disk in state DOT offices, rather than being made available over the public Web.
In the case of plans for past projects, a very small number of state DOTs (MnDOT and GDOT among them) now have Web access. I expect implementation of this among state DOTs in general to follow a logistic curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvi_Griliches)--a brief period of no expansion (I think this is where we are now), followed by a radical ramping-up, and then a leveling-off once the only state DOTs who don't do it are those who have deliberately decided to hold out.
Quote from: J N Winkler on March 08, 2015, 08:52:48 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on March 08, 2015, 01:22:29 PMQuote from: J N Winkler on March 08, 2015, 01:04:38 PMI expect this situation to improve as digital storage costs continue to drop, though the process is still frustratingly slow.
The labor cost of the people needed to do the digitizing isn't dropping, though.
Some of it is amenable to office automation, and this proportion will increase in time. In any case, I was thinking of a different aspect of the problem. There are some classes of documents (such as highway construction plans) that are already digitized, partly because they are consulted on a regular basis, so electronic availability produces labor savings that offset the cost of digitization. What usually happens, however, is that they sit on disk in state DOT offices, rather than being made available over the public Web.
In the case of plans for past projects, a very small number of state DOTs (MnDOT and GDOT among them) now have Web access. I expect implementation of this among state DOTs in general to follow a logistic curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvi_Griliches)--a brief period of no expansion (I think this is where we are now), followed by a radical ramping-up, and then a leveling-off once the only state DOTs who don't do it are those who have deliberately decided to hold out.
I'm interested in this concept, and yet still have to ask, what motivation will spur that ramping up?
Quote from: Pete from Boston on March 09, 2015, 12:54:49 AM
Quote from: J N Winkler on March 08, 2015, 08:52:48 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on March 08, 2015, 01:22:29 PMQuote from: J N Winkler on March 08, 2015, 01:04:38 PMI expect this situation to improve as digital storage costs continue to drop, though the process is still frustratingly slow.
The labor cost of the people needed to do the digitizing isn't dropping, though.
Some of it is amenable to office automation, and this proportion will increase in time. In any case, I was thinking of a different aspect of the problem. There are some classes of documents (such as highway construction plans) that are already digitized, partly because they are consulted on a regular basis, so electronic availability produces labor savings that offset the cost of digitization. What usually happens, however, is that they sit on disk in state DOT offices, rather than being made available over the public Web.
In the case of plans for past projects, a very small number of state DOTs (MnDOT and GDOT among them) now have Web access. I expect implementation of this among state DOTs in general to follow a logistic curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvi_Griliches)--a brief period of no expansion (I think this is where we are now), followed by a radical ramping-up, and then a leveling-off once the only state DOTs who don't do it are those who have deliberately decided to hold out.
I'm interested in this concept, and yet still have to ask, what motivation will spur that ramping up?
Like anything government related, heavy lobbying by the Plan Scanners Manufacturers Association and several fact finding trips to Las Vegas for key state decision makers will greatly speed this up.
Quote from: Laura on February 27, 2015, 10:58:30 AM
Quote from: US81 on February 25, 2015, 09:18:38 AM
I would like to add: being prevented from tracking old roads because they have now become private property. I've tracked El Camino Real de los Tejas (Old San Antonio Road), the Bankhead Highway, old US highway alignments up to private property, not to mention old bridges.
Make no mistake, I respect private property and do not trespass, but it does "irk" me.
This is also my irk! I love micro micro road geeking and hate how some old historic roads in the area have turned into private access. They aren't really "important" roads per se, but I would love to explore them for the fact that they've been used as trails for centuries.
Yeah. There's an old section of Highway 61 along Lake Superior that I'd really like to drive just once but because of how aggressively the no-trespass signs are posted at both entrances to the segment I know there's no way I could say "I didn't see them, sorry" if I got caught.
Just so everyone knows, saying "I got lost" or "I made a wrong turn" at a military base gate is no big deal. It happens regularly and they're set up to turn people back safely and efficiently. You won't be interrogated, quizzed, or detained.
Quote from: realjd on March 18, 2015, 09:56:43 PM
Just so everyone knows, saying "I got lost" or "I made a wrong turn" at a military base gate is no big deal. It happens regularly and they're set up to turn people back safely and efficiently. You won't be interrogated, quizzed, or detained.
There are no Middle Eastern roadgeeks.
Quote from: dmr37 on March 18, 2015, 05:28:04 PMQuote from: Pete from Boston on March 09, 2015, 12:54:49 AMQuote from: J N Winkler on March 08, 2015, 08:52:48 PMIn the case of plans for past projects, a very small number of state DOTs (MnDOT and GDOT among them) now have Web access. I expect implementation of this among state DOTs in general to follow a logistic curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvi_Griliches)--a brief period of no expansion (I think this is where we are now), followed by a radical ramping-up, and then a leveling-off once the only state DOTs who don't do it are those who have deliberately decided to hold out.
I'm interested in this concept, and yet still have to ask, what motivation will spur that ramping up?
Like anything government related, heavy lobbying by the Plan Scanners Manufacturers Association and several fact finding trips to Las Vegas for key state decision makers will greatly speed this up.
There are already several well-established vendors of electronic document management solutions. Falcon is the EDMS that has probably the largest market share among state DOTs. VDOT and SCDOT have Web-based, public-facing Falcon databases (VDOT for distribution of letting plans and proposals, and SCDOT for a subscription-only as-builts service for which they charge $60 annually), though some state DOTs have Falcon for access to as-builts on their intranets. If you file a request with Caltrans District 3 for as-builts by specifying beginning and ending postmiles for a length of state route that is under their jurisdiction, the first step in the process of getting those plans to you is to send you a PDF printout of a Falcon listing and ask you to choose the items you want.
Dmr was being tongue-in-cheek, I am sure, but state DOTs have mechanisms by which they discuss this and related technological innovations among themselves. One of these is the Highway Engineering Exchange Program (http://www.heepweb.org/heep_reports_twiki.html) (HEEP). Information exchange has a dual purpose: it spreads knowledge of ways and means, and it breeds FOMO in laggard DOTs.
As for why state DOTs like to have database access to their as-builts, there are several reasons. One of the first steps in designing a project in-house, or having a consultant design it in their offices, is to find and study all the as-builts for the affected section of road to develop a full understanding of the existing conditions. These documents have to be handled by multiple pairs of hands--clerical staff in the plan file room, engineers and technicians reviewing them, and the designers--so it is convenient and saves paid office time to have them in a compact form that can be copied endlessly at next to no cost, which implies a digital format of some kind. Having them externally accessible (over the public Web, not just the intranet) is an additional layer of convenience, since it gives external users self-service capability, which ensures that clerical backlogs in the plan file room do not translate to costly delays in the design process and also reduces the transaction costs associated with handling requests from the general public. (Some types of requests are basically intractable without database access. For example, if you want all the signing contracts a state DOT and its predecessor agencies have done from 1950 to the present, it is a lot easier to write a spidering hack to interact with a database front end and extract the desired plans than to tax an overworked state DOT employee to do manual retrieval. MnDOT alone has done over 800 signing contracts on Interstates, other freeways, and rural expressways since the first signing contract on I-35W in Minneapolis in 1959.)