Age 6-7 for me.
Probably about the same. I drew road signs in the car as far back as I can remember drawing.
I don't know who old I was when I became a signgeek.
I do know I got into signs (and road construction) sometime when I was 15-16 years old.
Before I was even old enough to go to school.
Before many of y'all were even a twinkle in your daddy's eye.
When I was little kid, I loved cars and had some weird affinity with The Lodge Freeway in Detroit. I used to build below surface level freeways in my sandbox for my Matchbox cars even though it required tossing most of the sand into the yard to get the depth I wanted. I distinctly remember asking my Dad why we weren't taking a freeway to Chicago (US 12) from Detroit and got a less about what US Routes...I want to say I was maybe 4 or 5? I even got briefed on the Interstate Highway System and how everything used to be different. My Dad really enjoyed a lot of the same things I do with like travel, back roads, and cars...funny how things like that can possibly influence you.
I remember noticing road stuff before I was even 3. I was about 4 when I drew a very sketchy map of a local neighborhood on a paper grocery bag.
Probably 4 or 5.
Define "became". I've had a thing for maps as long as I can remember. I freaked my mother out at age 3 because I recognized that we were going to the grocery store based purely on which roads we were driving on. By age 5 I had the configuration of every traffic signal in the town I lived in memorized.
I didn't know there were other people like me until I was in middle school, though, and I didn't start actively interacting with any of them until I was in college. Getting into "roadgeeking" as a thing to go out and do in a car as opposed to in front of a computer didn't happen until I was finishing up college... since I did not own a car prior to that.
For as long as I can remember. Probably like 4 or 5
4 or 5 was when I became obsessed with roads. I had some weird interest in Interstate 55, and would look around in the atlas, and sometimes draw new areas.
First real sign (pun not intended) was when I'd invented my own word for orange construction cones/barrels: "orangies." I would even make my mom drive through construction zones just so I could enjoy the scenery. I was probably five or six at the time, and obviously, it's only grown from there.
When I was 2 or 3, and could remember the entire Chicago road network like the back of my hand!
Very young. Started reading stop and one way signs when I was about 2 or 3 (Sesame Street had a road sign song where they sang the words on them), according to my mother. She would be driving and I would be in the back seat and she would hear "one way" or "2-way stop" from me as we passed the signs.
Back in the 1980s, there was actually some concern about kids that were able to read "too early" on. I don't think that amounted to anything in the end, but got hauled into some specialist every now and then.
Also, I was a roadgeek from the first time my father laid a road atlas in front of me -- same age.
For me, it would be at about age three. I could read, albeit at a basic level, before I could walk. The two family stories are that I taught myself to read by reading highway signs (this was in the mid-1960s, when graphic signs were unheard of), and that one of the first phrases I regularly spoke was "stop sign".
My roadgeek tendencies were further reinforced when, starting at age seven, we would travel from Massachusetts to Annapolis, and later to Williamsburg, to visit older brothers and sisters in college. After the first or second trip, I became the only family member my father (who was always looking for faster or better routes) would trust with the road maps.
I would say, around 7 for me!
I was reading maps and giving rudimentary directions at 2-3 years old according to my mother.
Quote from: Duke87 on April 27, 2017, 11:40:03 PM
I freaked my mother out at age 3 because I recognized that we were going to the grocery store based purely on which roads we were driving on.
This is pretty common, in my experience. Our youngest son, in fact, just did it for the first time Wednesday evening. He is 2½ years old and can barely make a sentence but, as soon as we pulled up to the stoplight three blocks from home, he said "hey, look, mama!," and pointed in the direction we needed to turn to get home to mama. Kids notice landmarks more than we might think.
About the same age as everyone else stated - maybe 2-5 years old. I perused NYC subway maps, a PA atlas that we still have, and some NC maps (such as a RMcN map of Charlotte). At about 7 years old I was able to self guide my dad from our house to Shady Grove Metro Station (when we go to DC, we enter DC via this station and take Metro in). And, at 10 years old, I found this forum.
At the least, 5 or 6, maybe? I remember my parents buying me an Interstate "Mickey" 4 sign when we went to Disney in 2006. I actually still have it in my room somewhere. I do remember me telling my dad the exits to take to get to our grandparents' house (he already knew it by heart, obviously) when I was still in a car seat. On another note, I think roadgeek-dom is nature, not really nurture...what do you guys think about that? :spin:
Probably very young. I always loved family vacations, and I would draw highways and such.
I was 4. 1974 when my Uncle gave me his copy of New York State Manual of Traffic Control Devices (1956) from N Y State Traffic Commission.
Not sure when exactly, but at age 10 I was navigating part of the family vacation. Must've been around then that we got our first Delorme Atlas of Wisconsin. A few years later we got a new Delorme atlas and I started my first fictional musings in the old one. I think that's where I graduated from just a kid that liked maps and geography to a full fledged roadgeek.
Quote from: route17fan on April 28, 2017, 06:54:19 PM
I was 4. 1974 when my Uncle gave me his copy of New York State Manual of Traffic Control Devices (1956) from N Y State Traffic Commission.
Sounds like quite the collector's item.
To be honest, I'm not sure if I was 2 or 3, but I liked reading maps and being on the road a lot. Thankfully, that was quite often.
Quote from: cjk374 on April 27, 2017, 10:02:03 PM
Before many of y'all were even a twinkle in your daddy's eye.
Ditto.
I have vague memories of building highways and highway signs with colored blocks, even before I could read.
Surprisingly, 12 or 13.
At age 2 or 3, I was living in Detroit, and I noticed how when riding on (what turned out to be, after Google Maps investigations some 4 decades later) 8-Mile Rd., we went over a road (Greenfield Rd.) and then over a freeway (M-10, or Lodge Fwy) without breaking stride. I also noticed a unique set of towers along the road (high-voltage power lines, in a now-rare lattice-pole configuration). I really thought I figured something out when riding on the Southfield Fwy. and I spotted an overpass with those same power lines -- I thought that was the same bridge we went over a different time! All this was done non-verbally, and with few nouns in my vocabulary to describe what I observed.
Roadgeeking only escalated from there. For an example, I had a dream at about age 5 where I had a chance to look inside the tunnel in which the trolley disappeared after passing through the Neighborhood of Make Believe on Mr. Rogers' TV show. Apart from a huge, dark cavernous space, the only obvious feature was a detailed, freeway-style sign bridge with two full-sized BGSs, but viewed from the back -- complete with the signature ribbed backing, fluorescent lighting, maybe even an exit tab, etc.
I was probably about 5 or 6. Used to enjoy drawing my own maps. First map I can remember having was a 1980 era or so CT map complete with the following unbuilt portions of routes labeled as proposed: I-291 beltway, I-284 along the east bank of the CT river, I-84 through eastern CT toward Providence, a completed CT 11 and CT 78, the piece of CT 9 between I-91 and the Berlin Turnpike, and a completed US 7 expressway from Norwalk to New Milford. The Whitehead Highway in Hartford was labeled as I-484
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 28, 2017, 09:29:39 PM
Not sure when exactly, but at age 10 I was navigating part of the family vacation.
I remember that my dad let me plan our 1983 family vacation. It was the greatest thing in the world. I was 14 at the time.
Quote from: inkyatari on May 01, 2017, 08:52:52 AM
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 28, 2017, 09:29:39 PM
Not sure when exactly, but at age 10 I was navigating part of the family vacation.
I remember that my dad let me plan our 1983 family vacation. It was the greatest thing in the world. I was 14 at the time.
I wish I could do that.
At age 6 or 7, I picked up a map of Riverside county, since I'm able to read then and capable to understand it's a map of a general region I live in. My parents helped me figure out directions and where I'm located, so I'm not really lost reading the map. I'm good in drawing maps from good memory and sense of direction.
I've been a road geek for as long as I can remember. I think by age 5, I would have my road atlas with me on my family road trips. I remember spending a lot of my childhood just looking at that atlas :).
My mom also remembers when I was pretty young and we were looking for the Cincinatti Zoo, and from the backseat, should could hear me saying "zoo!" since I saw the sign. Even then I was helping out with directions :-D
Since I could read (between 2-3 yrs.). My dad put a U.S. map on one wall of my bedroom and a world map on the adjacent wall. When I was about 4 he'd start quizzing me about things on the maps before bedtime (and I'd agonize over any errors -- although my dad never criticized or castigated me about such things, just requested that I try not to make the same error again). Collected gas station maps at about age 5-6, which is about the time my grandfather gave me my first road atlas (a RmcN "glovebox"-size US atlas, black and white, with only the major arterials showing). First full Gousha atlas, IIRC, was the 1959 edition. Made my first cross-country trip with my parents in 1960; they fortified me with both current Gousha & McNally atlases prior to the trip, as I became the de facto navigator. The experience of seeing what was on the map translated to actual roads, landmarks, and communities was always fascinating to me -- "roadgeekery" has been forever ingrained!
One of my first memories of anything geographic was when my mom showed me some drawing in a newspaper or magazine of someone looking at a map where all the states were mislabeled. I think it was an editorial cartoon. It had to have been around 1976 or 1977.
Quote from: route17fan on April 28, 2017, 06:54:19 PM
I was 4. 1974 when my Uncle gave me his copy of New York State Manual of Traffic Control Devices (1956) from N Y State Traffic Commission.
When I was 4, my father gave me a set of posters with signs from the 1961 MUTCD that he got from the US Government Printing Office. Over time, we eventually cut the signs out and mounted them on wood posts for use with my cars and trucks.
To be honest, I'm not really sure what age I started being a "roadgeek". I know it was sometime before first grade, because I remember drawing a map for my first grade teacher on how to get someplace (I forgot where) and she was super impressed. I always loved reading the Rand McNally atlas from as far back as I can remember.
One thing is for sure, I know I got my roadgeek hobby from my mom's side of the family, as my Uncle also loves roads. We usually have a conversation or two about them at family gatherings (he actually has an account on here, but has never posted. I won't identify him for privacy reasons).
Like many here, I began as a small child to pay attention to how roads were laid out, signage, signals, lighting, reflectors and such. Cars also interested me completely. Transportation seemed like such a miracle at the time! It still has plenty of magic to keep me interested in all things of that nature.
Rick
Quote from: bandit957 on April 27, 2017, 10:27:53 PM
I remember noticing road stuff before I was even 3. I was about 4 when I drew a very sketchy map of a local neighborhood on a paper grocery bag.
3 or 4 for me, when I watched the Circumferential Highway (now I-495, Capital Beltway) being constructed in Maryland (some short sections were open when I was old enough to pay attention, but even several of those (in Maryland) were being widened from four to six lanes).
EDIT:
My most vivid memory of the Circumferential Highway was the part of the "roller coaster" section of the freeway being built between present-day MD-97 and MD-185 in Montgomery County. Apparently a lot of dirt had to be moved, and there was a large number of scrapers/earthmovers/bulldozers operating (even well after sunset) to get the job done with no ambient light at all. It was an impressive sight to see phalanxes of such machines in operation in the dark, with headlights blazing.
Earliest roadgeeking memory for me was sitting at after-school daycare and running my fingers along the lines on the tables (the grains made patterns like roads). I sometimes got accused of drawing on them, even though I never did.
Quote from: nexus73 on May 02, 2017, 11:40:38 PM
Like many here, I began as a small child to pay attention to how roads were laid out, signage, signals, lighting, reflectors and such. Cars also interested me completely. Transportation seemed like such a miracle at the time! It still has plenty of magic to keep me interested in all things of that nature.
You too, huh? Family road trips really did it for me. Whether it was being driven to relatives in NYC, or shopping trips nearby, or even dog show-related stuff upstate, I used to get a big kick out of them. Once I finally got to school, I suddenly remembered being taken on the Sprain Brook Parkway before it was finished and the Saw Mill River Parkway, and I started crying because I feared I'd never see those roads again. In fact, until I was on another road trip a few years later, I completely forgot there was anything in New York north of the Bronx!
Quote from: I-39 on May 02, 2017, 09:54:57 PM
One thing is for sure, I know I got my roadgeek hobby from my mom's side of the family, as my Uncle also loves roads. We usually have a conversation or two about them at family gatherings.
Unfortunately, I'm the only member of my family who has such a hobby. The road trips didn't have the same effect on my siblings (or even my parents) that they had on me.
Well, my mother remembers driving me around in the middle of the night when I couldn't go to sleep when I was very young. As I grew older, I had plenty of atlases and drew a lot. As in having an entire basket of notebooks filled with drawings. Also, this was around the time when I drew up an entire county called Ambaria. (Just ask if you want info about it. Also, I am kind of worried that this might turn into Alanland v2) Then, I began to draw maps. Maps of interchanges, towns, you name it. I have an entire slew of folders on Google Drive dedicated to maps.
Quote from: roadgeek01 on May 06, 2017, 01:28:20 PM
Well, my mother remembers driving me around in the middle of the night when I couldn't go to sleep when I was very young. As I grew older, I had plenty of atlases and drew a lot. As in having an entire basket of notebooks filled with drawings. Also, this was around the time when I drew up an entire county called Ambaria. (Just ask if you want info about it. Also, I am kind of worried that this might turn into Alanland v2) Then, I began to draw maps. Maps of interchanges, towns, you name it. I have an entire slew of folders on Google Drive dedicated to maps.
You're ideas aren't outlandish enough for the realm of Alanland. :-D
Somewhere between the ages of 3 and 5. Somewhere in that time frame, I started looking at maps. I also became intrigued by highway signs and the sounds of the road.
Like most of us, ever since I was small.
I was about 7 or 8 when I mostly rode on Interstate 77 when I lived in Ohio.
Sometime around 6-8.
When I was about 10 years old I'd ride with my dad from Jackson to Vicksburg, Mississippi and back every day during summer and on weekends during the school year. We were helping his brother build a house. During that period Interstate 20 was being constructed across Mississippi, and I noticed how the highway was a mixture of two-lane and four-lane segments, and I could see the construction progressing on the two-lane parts. When some of the newly four-laned segments would open, I seem to remember what is now Frontage Road carried the (I think) west-bound traffic, while what is now the west-bound lanes carried east-bound traffic. The current east-bound lanes were under construction at the time. And so for probably a year or two you had one direction with no limited access at all, while in the other direction you had limited access but with the ramps on the wrong side. I can't remember whether those ramps were available for use; it may have been that temporary ramps on the proper side of the road were also built. Whatever the case, as the changes were taking place I noticed them.
So I guess that was the start, then my interest was really cemented about a year or so later when we moved to Baton Rouge. The cloverleaf interchanges on Airline Highway fascinated me for some reason, and I soon noticed how interchanges were marked on highway maps, and so became even more fascinated by the maps. I used to have a collection that included most of the eastern states. I still love looking at highway maps.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on April 27, 2017, 08:38:34 PM
Age 6-7 for me.
16, coinciding with when I started driving. That is when I started noticing Interstate highways on maps, much of which were still proposed, that was 1969. Noticed I-95 being built near Melbourne, FL. Read about proposals to build new 4-lane causeway bridges. That year we moved to Alexandria, VA, and I noticed the Shirley Highway (I-95 then, I-95 and I-395 today) reconstruction projects. Drove around the Capital Beltway with interest. The Metro rapid rail system also was of interest as the construction in the downtown of D.C. was starting then.