Roadgeek Hot Takes

[Quillz]

I-5 between Redding, CA and Eugene, OR is a real gem. Fairly high elevation, passes by Shasta, follows the Shasta River Canyon, passes by Mt Ashland and then follows the Rogue River. Nothing like the boring drive through the Central Valley. 

[Max Rockatansky]

I-5 between Redding, CA and Eugene, OR is a real gem. Fairly high elevation, passes by Shasta, follows the Shasta River Canyon, passes by Mt Ashland and then follows the Rogue River. Nothing like the boring drive through the Central Valley.

I did the Sacramento River Canyon segment of I-5 as a stand-alone blog feature on my page.  Very scenic corridor, especially for an Interstate.

[pderocco]

I-5 between Redding, CA and Eugene, OR is a real gem. Fairly high elevation, passes by Shasta, follows the Shasta River Canyon, passes by Mt Ashland and then follows the Rogue River. Nothing like the boring drive through the Central Valley.

I did the Sacramento River Canyon segment of I-5 as a stand-alone blog feature on my page.  Very scenic corridor, especially for an Interstate.

I love the old road through Dunsmuir. Very cozy.

And Redding has a couple things I really like: the very long railroad trestle that crosses the river and a good chunk of the town:



and the Sundial Bridge:

[kphoger]

And Redding has a couple things I really like: the very long railroad trestle that crosses the river and a good chunk of the town

I must admit, this is one cool GSV shot:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/9npGPJJjszL6NvdEA

[formulanone]

Control City arguments are meaningless.

"Interstates should enter the {Control City}"

"This Interstate doesn't enter far enough into the {that City}"

"Interstates weren't designed to enter the cities, anyway"

"Why did it skip {small suburb} 5 miles from Control City"

"You can't have multiple control cities on the same BGS"

"We need control cites: not everyone has a phone, should use maps, because people shouldn't trust their GPS app"

"That {minor-ass control city} doesn't belong on the sign, nobody knows where that is"

"If you used a map, you'd know where {minor city posing as control city} is in relation to {other control city}"

"People are just distracted by phones and maps and should rely on signage."

"OMG, that tiny infinitesimal kerning error will cause so much confusion, we can't have nice things."

Repeat Arguments 1 through 10.

[Rothman]

Control City arguments are meaningless.

"Interstates should enter the {Control City}"

"This Interstate doesn't enter far enough into the {that City}"

"Interstates weren't designed to enter the cities, anyway"

"Why did it skip {small suburb} 5 miles from Control City"

"You can't have multiple control cities on the same BGS"

"We need control cites: not everyone has a phone, should use maps, because people shouldn't trust their GPS app"

"That {minor-ass control city} doesn't belong on the sign, nobody knows where that is"

"If you used a map, you'd know where {minor city posing as control city} is in relation to {other control city}"

"People are just distracted by phones and maps and should rely on signage."

"OMG, that tiny infinitesimal kerning error will cause so much confusion, we can't have nice things."

Repeat Arguments 1 through 10.

Not a hot take.  Control city discussions make me reach for my revolver.

[kphoger]

Control City arguments are meaningless.

Not a hot take.

Then why do we have so many arguments about them?

[formulanone]

Control City arguments are meaningless.

"Interstates should enter the {Control City}"

"This Interstate doesn't enter far enough into the {that City}"

"Interstates weren't designed to enter the cities, anyway"

"Why did it skip {small suburb} 5 miles from Control City"

"You can't have multiple control cities on the same BGS"

"We need control cites: not everyone has a phone, should use maps, because people shouldn't trust their GPS app"

"That {minor-ass control city} doesn't belong on the sign, nobody knows where that is"

"If you used a map, you'd know where {minor city posing as control city} is in relation to {other control city}"

"People are just distracted by phones and maps and should rely on signage."

"OMG, that tiny infinitesimal kerning error will cause so much confusion, we can't have nice things."

Repeat Arguments 1 through 10.

Not a hot take.  Control city discussions make me reach for my revolver.

Every third discussion lately seems to revolve(r) around control cities, and they're silly distractions.

The weight of a control city is a feather compared to nearly everything else from planning to ribbon-cutting, but many roadgeeks will scream that pound of feathers weighs more than the pound of asphalt, because "politics".

[Rothman]

Control City arguments are meaningless.

Not a hot take.

Then why do we have so many arguments about them?

Control City arguments are meaningless.

Not a hot take.

Then why do we have so many arguments about them?

A pandemic of sillyness and wasting time.

[Roadgeekteen]

In recent years I think the YouTuber control city freak really made people interested in them.

[kphoger]

In recent years I think the YouTuber control city freak really made people interested in them.

I really think you're overestimating the influence on some YouTuber dude on the roadgeek control city argument.

[apeman33]

U.S. 400 is fine (but it should end where it meets U.S. 50 in Dodge City).

Probably not a hot take in 2025, but in 2000, it'd have been so it you could have fried eggs on it.

[CoreySamson]

The biggest numbering travesty when it comes to "the grid" is US 6, not I-99 or US 400 or something else.

[Max Rockatansky]

Little Tujunga Canyon Road is the best driver's highway now in Los Angeles County.  It is the one paved road in the San Gabriel Range not overrun by brosky types in their tuners or beat up LX cars. 

[vdeane]

In recent years I think the YouTuber control city freak really made people interested in them.

I really think you're overestimating the influence on some YouTuber dude on the roadgeek control city argument.

He certainly was popular here for a while.  I think Lord Carhorn even commented on it once.

[Max Rockatansky]

In recent years I think the YouTuber control city freak really made people interested in them.

I really think you're overestimating the influence on some YouTuber dude on the roadgeek control city argument.

He certainly was popular here for a while.  I think Lord Carhorn even commented on it once.

Watching videos of Google Street View images seemingly is beyond my comprehension to understand the appeal of. 

Then again, the guy has about 12,000 followers on YouTube.  Maybe I'm the one missing on some sort of untapped market on my own page?  I'm equally bewildered when Doug or Adam post gantry photos on our Facebook page and people go ape shit over it in the comments. 

[Roadgeekteen]

In recent years I think the YouTuber control city freak really made people interested in them.

I really think you're overestimating the influence on some YouTuber dude on the roadgeek control city argument.

He certainly was popular here for a while.  I think Lord Carhorn even commented on it once.

Watching videos of Google Street View images seemingly is beyond my comprehension to understand the appeal of. 

Then again, the guy has about 12,000 followers on YouTube.  Maybe I'm the one missing on some sort of untapped market on my own page?  I'm equally bewildered when Doug or Adam post gantry photos on our Facebook page and people go ape shit over it in the comments. 

To be completely honest, to normal people, 90% of roadgeeking seems completely insane. The fact that people care that I-376 is a loop makes most people go wtf. It also seems like you are more of a scenery/interesting roads roadgeek and less of a sign geek.

[Max Rockatansky]

In recent years I think the YouTuber control city freak really made people interested in them.

I really think you're overestimating the influence on some YouTuber dude on the roadgeek control city argument.

He certainly was popular here for a while.  I think Lord Carhorn even commented on it once.

Watching videos of Google Street View images seemingly is beyond my comprehension to understand the appeal of. 

Then again, the guy has about 12,000 followers on YouTube.  Maybe I'm the one missing on some sort of untapped market on my own page?  I'm equally bewildered when Doug or Adam post gantry photos on our Facebook page and people go ape shit over it in the comments. 

To be completely honest, to normal people, 90% of roadgeeking seems completely insane. The fact that people care that I-376 is a loop makes most people go wtf. It also seems like you are more of a scenery/interesting roads roadgeek and less of a sign geek.

I don't think pining over signage/signage standards comprises 90% of road enthusiasm over roads.  Perhaps it is hitting a lot of what "roadgeeking" but not necessarily general road enthusiasm.  This is what I gathered gets roadgeek interest:

-  Signage (especially gantry based)
-  MUTCD stuff
-  Freeway photos
-  Topics like control cities
-  A focus on numbered highway corridors
-  Safety stuff 

Right now there are four of us who admin Gribblenation.  To that end I think we have a fair amount of coverage for much of the country and really in general North America.  Out of the four admins I think I'm the one who hits on traditional roadgeek topics by far the least. 

To that end I've been running a little social experiment on our Facebook page.  I've been doing my usual posts (mountain roads) but also including a lot more traditional roadgeek topics.  Those roadgeek items aren't really hitting for California but have working for Washington State and British Columbia.  Locally in Northern California a lot of the followers seem to comprise of normal people who like to drive or are history enthusiasts.  I'll have some Los Angeles are roadgeek stuff coming up and I'll guess we will see how that does. 

[webny99]

I'm reviving this thread and not the more recently-active "Unpopular Anything Road-Related Opinions" because I do think each thread has its place and it is worth distinguishing between the two.

My "hot take": After experiencing the driving culture in Europe (specifically the UK and Italy), I think drivers in the US tend to be sloppy. Three of the most common areas in which this sloppiness manifests are failure to KRETP, failure to use acceleration lanes for their intended purpose, and failure to turn into the proper lane. I've always been a stickler for the first two, but I've recently started to pay more attention to turning into the proper lane too. For example, when turning right here and in other similar locations where the right lane ends shortly after the intersection, I've made a habit of turning into the right lane first and then merging left as a separate, independent movement. Similarly, when making a left or right turn closely followed by a turn in the opposite direction, I'll turn into the closest lane first before immediately switching blinkers and switching lanes as a separate, independent movement.

I also think there is a sloppiness in the interpretation of KRETP in the US. Except To Pass means "except when actively passing", but many drivers seem to drift (both mentally and physically) into "except when I might need to pass", or even worse, "only when faster traffic approaches". I have concluded that "cruise control culture" has left many drivers psychologically unprepared for the level of attentiveness required to operate at peak efficiency.

[Scott5114]

My "hot take": After experiencing the driving culture in Europe (specifically the UK and Italy), I think drivers in the US tend to be sloppy.

That's a hot take? Europe has much stricter driver licensing requirements and traffic law enforcement and their driver competence is correspondingly higher. Nobody does KRETP in the United States because cops here don't enforce it, and nobody cares about efficiency here unless it's enforced.

[webny99]

My "hot take": After experiencing the driving culture in Europe (specifically the UK and Italy), I think drivers in the US tend to be sloppy.

That's a hot take? Europe has much stricter driver licensing requirements and traffic law enforcement and their driver competence is correspondingly higher. Nobody does KRETP in the United States because cops here don't enforce it, and nobody cares about efficiency here unless it's enforced.

Not really as written, but the underlying hot take is that the effects are exactly the opposite of what you'd expect: You'd think stringent training would make UK/EU drivers more arrogant, inflexible, and intolerant of non-conformance and US drivers more humble, adaptable, and accommodating of others. But instead, the reverse is true: US drivers are incompetent and proud, while UK/EU drivers are competent and modest.

"Nobody cares about efficiency unless it's enforced" is, IMO, a huge problem and I was just trying to put it in understandable terms by calling it "sloppy", but I guess YMMV on the heat level of that take.

[kphoger]

You'd think stringent training would make UK/EU drivers more arrogant, inflexible, and intolerant of non-conformance

Only if you don't assume that defensive driving and risk minimization are key components of their training.

[webny99]

Here's a more traditional "hot take": It is completely unacceptable and a major faux pas not to turn left on a yellow light when there's a line behind you.

[1995hoo]

Here's a more traditional "hot take": It is completely unacceptable and a major faux pas not to turn left on a yellow light when there's a line behind you.

That's certainly not the case in the area where I live, and the main reason for that is because of red-light runners. It's pretty much a given that you're likely to see at least one car per lane go through after the light changes, so if you try to turn on a yellow, you stand a good chance of being in a collision, and if you wait until the red-light runners have gone through, you'll be out in the intersection for too long obstructing traffic on the other street that wants to turn.

I think this is an issue where views may reasonably vary based on the driving environment and the design of local roads, of course. In urban areas where you don't have left-turn lanes or green arrows (I'm envisioning the area of Brooklyn where my grandparents lived, for example), not trying to force your way through on a yellow can certainly lead to your being stuck there for a whole lot longer than is typically the case in the sort of suburban area where I do most of my driving.

[kphoger]

Here's a more traditional "hot take": It is completely unacceptable and a major faux pas not to turn left on a yellow light when there's a line behind you.

If I recall correctly, there are some states where it is illegal to go on a yellow light.  I think Minnesota may be one such state.