For me it is great plain avenue in Needham center.
Well since I don't remember being driven home from the hospital ...
I'm sure it had to be the street we lived on. Not sure when awareness hit my young psyche, but whenever it happened, it must have been when we got in the car to leave home and go somewhere.
Now the first freeway, that I do remember. We only had 1 car when I was young, so once in a while my mom had to drive my dad to work, and the kids had to pile in. US-131 was open southbound only from Pearl Street. So we crossed the Grand River (on the old Ann Street Bridge) and took Turner down to the entrance to 131. Then got right off again at Market St.
I remember being lectured by my parents when I was 2 because I walked up the sidewalk along our street when I wasn't allowed to. This had to be 1975 or 1976.
I remember being in the car on US 27. I guess I was 2.
I'm trying to remember the first time I heard various types of geographic features mentioned. I guess I was about 4 when my brother told me Campbell County was unusual because it has 2 county seats. I didn't really understand yet why this was important.
Another of my earliest memories of local roads is seeing a pile of human feces on the sidewalk in my neighborhood.
I seem to have a flash of me being about a year or 2 old in a car seat in the back of my mom's car on CT 364 taking the back roads to get to Meriden Square Westfield Meriden.
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on May 03, 2017, 08:33:05 PM
I seem to have a flash of me being about a year or 2 old in a car seat in the back of my mom's car on CT 364 taking the back roads to get to Meriden Square Westfield Meriden.
Everyone has so much of a better memory than I do!
IN 45/IN 46 in Bloomington, IN, probably when I was around 3.
I have a decent memory back to age 3, so it's almost a certainty -- if we're talking about numbered routes, that the first one of these that I encountered/traveled upon was a multiplexed US 6 & 99/SSR 134 on San Fernando Road in Glendale, CA (where I was born/raised). It was only about 5 blocks from my first home, and my folks' closest friends only lived a block off the highway. The Division of Highways was pretty diligent about signage in those days, so a 3-shield "sign salad" was posted on SF Road after every signalized intersection. The 134 multiplex ran about 4 miles between Colorado St. in Glendale and Alameda Ave., right over the Burbank city line -- and was posted until the Golden State (I-5) freeway was opened in late 1957.
Hard to say. I remember trips to New York via I-95, the Jersey Turnpike, and what later became I-895 as a very little kid. But I think my earliest memories are probably of some combination of Tobin Road and Woodburn Road in Fairfax County, Virginia (I have no idea what the route numbers are and I don't much care because nobody uses them as to those roads). The neighborhood we lived in was such that we had to use Woodburn Road whenever we went anywhere. Tobin Road is the most direct route from Woodburn to that neighborhood, although often my father used a different street to connect if we were headed to Mass on Sunday.
M153/Ford Road in Canton, MI which was where the first house I lived in was located.
Other than neighborhood streets immediately near my house, the first I remember is getting on eastbound I-80 from Lincoln Highway in New Lenox, IL. I think we were going to Orland Square Mall, but my memory of that part is fuzzy. I also have an early memory of taking Sauk Trail across the south suburbs towards Park Forest to visit my sister's friend, near the same timeframe.
The first I remember? Probably I-55 when I was 2.
Local - Probably my short little cul-de-sac in Forest Hill, Maryland (about 25-30 miles north of Baltimore)
State - Maryland Route 24 in the area of Forest Hill
U.S. - U.S. Route 1 just north of Bel Air, Maryland
Interstate - Interstate 95 between Joppa and Baltimore, Maryland
Quote from: epzik8 on May 04, 2017, 03:42:46 PM
Local - Probably my short little cul-de-sac in Forest Hill, Maryland (about 25-30 miles north of Baltimore)
State - Maryland Route 24 in the area of Forest Hill
U.S. - U.S. Route 1 just north of Bel Air, Maryland
Interstate - Interstate 95 between Joppa and Baltimore, Maryland
you remember all the details! For me it is just a blur.
One of my first roads I remember riding on, at about the age of four, was Route 128 (before it became part of I-95) through Lynnfield. It was just after dusk, and my father turned to me and said "Watch me make this sign blink." He then turned the high beams on and off a couple of times, and the sign - a ground-mounted panel with button copy on a non-reflective background - appeared to blink.
Another early road memory, at about the same age, was riding up the Northeast Expressway through Chelsea and Revere. I was fascinated by both the "Barricade XXXX Feet" signs approaching the end of the highway at Copeland Circle (now MA 60), and how the road took a sharp left hand turn at the large barricade arrows blocking the bridge that was supposed to carry I-95 north onto the embankment across the Rumney (Great Lynn) Marsh.
Local suburban streets - in front of my childhood home (we lived on a corner lot) in Maryland;
Local urban streets - 16th Street, N.W. and Georgia Avenue, N.W. in the District of Columbia;
State routes - MD-193 (University Boulevard) and MD-192 (Forest Glen Road);
U.S. route - U.S. 29 (Colesville Road) and U.S. 50 (John Hanson Highway);
Toll road - probably Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Thruway (decades before it was signed as I-895), Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-95 Northeast Expressway (JFK Highway now); and
Interstates - I-495 (Capital Beltway); I-70S (then called Washington National Pike, now I-270); I-83; I-66 (when it only ran from U.S. 29 at Gainesville to I-495, though the westbound control city was always Front Royal) and I-95 (JFK Highway and Shirley Highway).
I cannot remember what road, but on the way to Plymouth, MA I remember seeing an endless viaduct (or at least appeared endless from the eyes of a toddler) as I looked to left of the forward motion of the car while passing under what appeared to be a freeway then.
The first I really remember was US 61 southeast of St. Paul, as I remember seeing my youngest brother after being born at a hospital in St. Paul. One thing I remember is Kellogg Blvd. being MN 5.
It was Riverdale Avenue and Tyndall Avenue in the Bronx.
First signed/numbered routes I remember were US 202 and Taconic Parkway in Westchester County, NY.
My earliest definitive memory of a road was when I was being taken to a hospital along I-35W. I remember the road and seeing the hospital on the left side of the freeway.
For years I had an occasional dream about an unknown piece of road, at an intersection. I even knew that the terminating leg of the T-intersection was the way home, and it was about 400 miles. I never knew what it meant or even whether it was real. Years later I realized I knew exactly where that was, based on the characteristics of the intersection, because I'd been there recently. Before then, I hadn't been there since before I was a year old. Back in those days it wasn't uncommon to hold a baby while riding in a car. I don't remember traveling on the road, but I seemed to have an unconscious memory of a little piece of it. In my childhood dream, I was on a bicycle, the mode of transportation I was accustomed to that I could do alone.
I would be very surprised if my mom and dad didn't take me on 95th Street/US 12 and 20 the first minute I got out of the hospital after being born. Naturally, though, I don't remember any of that. The first I do remember are the side streets of Westhaven (which was renamed Orland Hills sometime after my family and I moved out). For major roads, I'm certain US 6/159th Street was frequently used by anyone that drove me.
From Russia, I remember only the streets I lived on and maybe two others near where I lived the longest. No numbered routes. This despite living there until I was 11. Honestly, I can name more subway stations. We used public transit most of the time.
Now, here in the US, I certainly remember the first street I lived on, the two major nearby cross streets in each direction, and the minor cross streets in between. Otherwise, I certainly remember features of and landmarks on certain roads from which I can tell you *today* what they are, but didn't necessarily know their names or numbers back then. If we count those, then NJ 38 is the first numbered road I remember features of (Yes, Cherry Hill Mall). The first freeway I remember in this way is the NJ Turnpike, and thus I-95. I'm not going to count county numbers because I only found out what they were years later when they were posted on traffic light blades.
I can also guess the route we took from the Philadelphia Airport to that first home, I-95 was almost certainly involved, but that's not really remembering.
The first numbered routes I remember for real were on the school bus route once I started to go to school in Philadelphia two years later (there were no major numbered routes on the local public school's bus route before that), NJ 38, NJ 70, US 30, US 1, I-76, and I-676. Outside of this route it's the NJ Turnpike and I-95 again from our trip to Boston.
I think for me it's MN 100 between MN 62 and Benton Avenue in Edina.
I can really remember the stretch of Chicago Drive (back then it was M-21, now M-121) between 12th Ave in Jenison MI and I-196. We moved to Jenison from Kalamazoo in December of 1971 when I was barely 2 years old and I remember the snow being really really deep. The drifts along side the highway between the westbound lanes and the RR tracks that parallel the highway were so tall that I can remember being only able to see the tops of the locomotives and boxcars and the cupola of a caboose as a train went by in the opposite direction. Of course I had no idea what a locomotive, box car or caboose was, it was all LOOK MA, TRAAAAAIIIINNN to me back then.
I do find it wierd that I have actual memories of moving into the new house in Jenison, but I have zero memory of leaving the old house in Kalamazoo or what it even looked like. I don't remember anything about the drive between Kalamazoo and Jenison that day, other than the snow drifts along Chicago Drive, and seeing the top of the train. But I do remember getting to the new house, the bright red carpet, the big moving truck (American Vanlines 18 wheeler) my mom fussing about this and that, the big dark basement downstairs and all of the yet to be unpacked boxes.
During my very formative early years, my family lived a couple blocks off MN-120 (Century Ave), and I will always distinctly remember the many times I rode over that sudden dip (https://i.imgur.com/iptmLb4.jpg) that exists just after you cross Stillwater Rd/Blvd going northbound (picture is taken looking south). It's going to be an emotional time (well, kinda ;-)) when the MN-120 signs finally come down, not just because I'm going to really, really want one, but also because that road is a part of my childhood. To me, that road will always be Highway 120, not Century Ave.
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on May 09, 2017, 04:27:29 AM
During my very formative early years, my family lived a couple blocks off Century Ave (MN-120), and I will always distinctly remember the many times I rode over that sudden dip (https://i.imgur.com/iptmLb4.jpg) that exists just after you cross Stillwater Rd/Blvd going northbound (picture is taken looking south). It's going to be an emotional time (well, kinda ;-)) when the MN-120 signs finally come down, not just because I'm going to really, really want one, but also because that road is a part of my childhood.
I can relate. I would give body parts to have an M-21 sign (all my non-roadgeek friends here in NC would be scratching their heads wondering what the M over the 21 stands for).
Quote from: slorydn1 on May 09, 2017, 04:32:05 AM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on May 09, 2017, 04:27:29 AM
During my very formative early years, my family lived a couple blocks off MN-120 (Century Ave), and I will always distinctly remember the many times I rode over that sudden dip (https://i.imgur.com/iptmLb4.jpg) that exists just after you cross Stillwater Rd/Blvd going northbound (picture is taken looking south). It's going to be an emotional time (well, kinda ;-)) when the MN-120 signs finally come down, not just because I'm going to really, really want one, but also because that road is a part of my childhood.
I can relate. I would give body parts to have an M-21 sign (all my non-roadgeek friends here in NC would be scratching their heads wondering what the M over the 21 stands for).
I'd give my left limbs and my firstborn to acquire a MN-293 sign. Although I lived near MN-120 for a few (albeit important) years, during my teenage years my house was
actually on MN-293 (Dellwood St). I moved out of Cambridge shortly before the signs came down and never got a chance to try to get one. I imagine that they have all since been destroyed (there weren't many—it was ~1.5 miles long). I really should've done what stupid teenagers do and steal one, but I never had enough lack of character (or perhaps put another way, I never had the balls) to do that.
When I was little, every year my family and I would travel to my grandparents' house in Florida from Chicago for Easter. We would get up at about 4:30 in the morning (which I didn't like even then), and hit the road until 5 pm or so, making it just shy of Atlanta, where we would spend the night in a motel. The next day, we would get up a little bit later and make the rest of the distance.
There are a lot of little things I remember about these trips, tracing the routes on the atlas (65-24-75), my sister throwing up at least once each day, stopping at the Nickajack rest area on I-24, the signs for Rock City, and so on, but what I remember most is the big green signs, especially the ones at the beginning of the trip, which I now know were on I-294, since they were lit up (because we left before it was light out). Most trips I took as a boy were not on the interstate, so seeing them was a reminder that these trips were something different than normal trips across town.
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on May 10, 2017, 04:23:57 PM
When I was little, every year my family and I would travel to my grandparents' house in Florida from Chicago for Easter. We would get up at about 4:30 in the morning (which I didn't like even then), and hit the road until 5 pm or so, making it just shy of Atlanta, where we would spend the night in a motel. The next day, we would get up a little bit later and make the rest of the distance.
There are a lot of little things I remember about these trips, tracing the routes on the atlas (65-24-75), my sister throwing up at least once each day, stopping at the Nickajack rest area on I-24, the signs for Rock City, and so on, but what I remember most is the big green signs, especially the ones at the beginning of the trip, which I now know were on I-294, since they were lit up (because we left before it was light out). Most trips I took as a boy were not on the interstate, so seeing them was a reminder that these trips were something different than normal trips across town.
My little brother and I would make a game of counting the number of "See Ruby Falls" or "See Rock City" signs between southern Indiana on I-65 and the western end of Chattanooga on I-24.
At one point in the mid 1980's there were more than a hundred of these, but by the late 80's they began to thin out.
The Garden State Pkwy & New Jersey Turnpike
As best I can recall, the Munich-Augsburg Autobahn in the early 50s.
US 66
SM-G930V
My oldest road memory is from mid 80's. I recall us waiting to turn left in Winchester, WI (Winnebago Co) where WI 110 and WI 150 used to meet right in town. This was before all the freeways were built and before WI 110 was moved to the two-lane 'bypass' of Winchester that predated the freeway by about 15 years (the part that is now the NB US 45 carriageway.)
It was night and there were thunderstorms in the area, so as young as I was, I was probably a little spooked by that. As we approached the junction, there were those rumble strips indicating you were approaching a stop sign. Ordinarily a source of entertainment for my brothers and I as we would react to the noise as if someone farted; as kids are want to do. But that night, the rumble strip farts only added to the apprehension about traveling at night with lightning in the distance and the car slowly rolling up to an ominous flashing red light (the one atop the STOP sign). Very memorable.
Quote from: bmorrill on May 14, 2017, 09:36:24 AM
As best I can recall, the Munich-Augsburg Autobahn in the early 50s.
That's when you know someone is old.
The Skyway in 1962? The steel mills were crankin on the south side, lots of fire and the air was barely breathable, but dad had to go to Phil Schmidts in Hammond for steaks. Our window was right next to RRs, so trains going right by were amazing.
Quote from: dzlsabe on May 20, 2017, 01:53:36 AM
The Skyway in 1962? The steel mills were crankin on the south side, lots of fire and the air was barely breathable, but dad had to go to Phil Schmidts in Hammond for steaks. Our window was right next to RRs, so trains going right by were amazing.
How would the air be barely breathable if you were in the car?
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 15, 2017, 09:21:07 PM
Quote from: bmorrill on May 14, 2017, 09:36:24 AM
As best I can recall, the Munich-Augsburg Autobahn in the early 50s.
That's when you know someone is old.
You''l be old, too, someday.
I'm surprised people feel confident in saying what road is the first they remember driving on. I would assume the street I lived on would be a good guess, but for all I know, it could be from a road trip or something. I can't keep track of the chronological order of my early memories :-/
Quote from: 7/8 on May 21, 2017, 03:30:04 PM
I'm surprised people feel confident in saying what road is the first they remember driving on. I would assume the street I lived on would be a good guess, but for all I know, it could be from a road trip or something. I can't keep track of the chronological order of my early memories :-/
I don't really know, I just took a guess.
Probably the little alleyway behind my house.
US 60 in Neosho, MO
Either that or the boulevard (Business 60)...
Not sure.
Quote from: 7/8 on May 21, 2017, 03:30:04 PM
I'm surprised people feel confident in saying what road is the first they remember driving on. I would assume the street I lived on would be a good guess, but for all I know, it could be from a road trip or something. I can't keep track of the chronological order of my early memories :-/
Well that's why it says first road you
remember . I'm sure they first highway I traveled on was US 6, but I have no memory since I was only a few days old ;)
Quote from: US71 on May 21, 2017, 11:05:36 PM
Quote from: 7/8 on May 21, 2017, 03:30:04 PM
I'm surprised people feel confident in saying what road is the first they remember driving on. I would assume the street I lived on would be a good guess, but for all I know, it could be from a road trip or something. I can't keep track of the chronological order of my early memories :-/
Well that's why it says first road you remember . I'm sure they first highway I traveled on was US 6, but I have no memory since I was only a few days old ;)
I understand that. I just find it hard to keep track of the order of my memories. For example, I remember driving around Brampton, and some of my family road trips, but it's hard for me to identify which of these memories would be the earliest. I'm just impressed by how specific some the answers have been.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 03, 2017, 04:38:35 PM
For me it is great plain avenue in Needham center.
Not sure about the first road, but the first freeway was the Chicago Skyway, this was before we moved from the Chicago area to Florida in 1959, so the Skyway was brand new having opened in 1958. I would have been 5 years old.
I also remember my mother driving to the end of the skyway and going off onto streets in a huge construction area in Indiana.
Quote from: Beltway on May 21, 2017, 11:57:25 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 03, 2017, 04:38:35 PM
For me it is great plain avenue in Needham center.
Not sure about the first road, but the first freeway was the Chicago Skyway, this was before we moved from the Chicago area to Florida in 1959, so the Skyway was brand new having opened in 1958. I would have been 5 years old.
I also remember my mother driving to the end of the skyway and going off onto streets in a huge construction area in Indiana.
Everyone is so old here.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 22, 2017, 09:43:44 AM
Quote from: Beltway on May 21, 2017, 11:57:25 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 03, 2017, 04:38:35 PM
For me it is great plain avenue in Needham center.
Not sure about the first road, but the first freeway was the Chicago Skyway, this was before we moved from the Chicago area to Florida in 1959, so the Skyway was brand new having opened in 1958. I would have been 5 years old.
I also remember my mother driving to the end of the skyway and going off onto streets in a huge construction area in Indiana.
Everyone is so old here.
There are a number of teenagers in the roads online forums.
Tyndall Avenue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, going back and forth between my grandparents and my family's home at the time.
CT 14 is where I lived my whole life at this point and my first road I can remember going on, even though I mostly likely first went on CT 2 after I was born.
Ohio State Route 74 later renamed Ohio State Route 32.
US 50 would be the first US route.
First interstate would be I-44 before it was I-44, Turner Turnpike and Will Rogers Turnpike in Oklahoma.
My oldest road memory is from Dec. 1990. We went up to Wakefield to see my grandfather. I remember us getting lunch at Henry's Sandwich Shop on Steamboat Wharf in Nantucket. We took the boat to Hyannis (I barfed on the boat), and sauntered through downtown. Next was the Mid Cape to the Canal Road, and then up 25 to the 495/195 junction. We stopped to get a Christmas tree in Fairhaven along Huttleston Ave (US6), then we went up 195 to 495 and went to Edaville Railroad to see the lights. I was awake the whole time much to my mother's chagrin. I recall us going up 495 to 24 to 93 and we took that all the way to 128 and exited off the highway at the MA 129 rotary on the Reading Line. My father hates, HATES 128, as those going the speed limit get shit on (you have to go at least 5-10 above to make it anywhere on that road.)
When was 25 taken off of 495? IIRC, wasn't 25 signed all the way to 24 in Raynham?
Quote from: 7/8 on May 21, 2017, 03:30:04 PM
I'm surprised people feel confident in saying what road is the first they remember driving on.
The first road I drove on after I got my driver's license is the street in my town that has the same name as myself. I know this because my father drove me there immediately after I got it, and I drove down the street for a couple of blocks and then home.
Quote from: 7/8 on May 21, 2017, 03:30:04 PM
I'm surprised people feel confident in saying what road is the first they remember driving on. I would assume the street I lived on would be a good guess, but for all I know, it could be from a road trip or something. I can't keep track of the chronological order of my early memories :-/
The original question was the first road on which you remember
travelling, which is a different question from the first road on which you
drove.
I definitely remember the first road on which I drove: Pickett Road in Fairfax, Virginia, south of VA-236 where it stub-ends at Robert Frost Intermediate School, which is around the corner from Woodson High. The day I got my learner's permit, my mom took me to Woodson to drive her Volvo around the car park, and she let me drive up to Frost and back and then she insisted on driving home. Compare to my father, who took me out the following weekend to start learning a five-speed and had me on the Beltway and I-395 within 24 hours.
Quote from: 1995hoo on July 02, 2017, 06:14:56 PM
Quote from: 7/8 on May 21, 2017, 03:30:04 PM
I'm surprised people feel confident in saying what road is the first they remember driving on. I would assume the street I lived on would be a good guess, but for all I know, it could be from a road trip or something. I can't keep track of the chronological order of my early memories :-/
The original question was the first road on which you remember travelling, which is a different question from the first road on which you drove.
I should have said "travelling" instead of "driving". It's a habit from when I was too young to drive (i.e. saying that I "drove" to Orlando when I was actually just a passenger). I also remember where I first drove (as a driver :sombrero:), though it was only 6 years ago, so it's not that hard to remember.
I distinctly remember a long string of streetlamps on I-20 in Mississippi. Pretty much the only thing I remember from our move from Texas back in '87. I think I remember some of San Antonio back then, but I've been back since and don't know if my mind is just filling in information.
US 90 in Pascagoula, Miss.
US 89 in Bountiful, UT. I remember my parents filling up at the Chevron there. Presumably, it was after a long road trip, since I think there were suitcases in the trunk.
However, it could also be Foothill Dr or Wakara Way near the U in Salt Lake City. I'm not sure which came first.