You know you're a roadgeek when...

[Dr Frankenstein]

J N Winkler: Thanks for the links. I'm fluent in French so that'll make some interesting reading.

[Michael]

. . . when, in high school, you use the "middle tile" of the hallway as a center left turn lane.

YES!!!  I started that in elementary school.  One of our wider hallways had enough tiles to make two lanes in each direction, a center turn lane and shoulders.  Even now, I find myself "passing" in the left "lane" and "changing lanes" to turn.  I even find myself doing this in Wal-Mart.  At my college, most people keep to the right when walking.

This blog entry from Ben Jones of MIT explains "driving" in hallways pretty good.

[cu2010]

This blog entry from Ben Jones of MIT explains "driving" in hallways pretty good.

Now that's freakin' hilarious.

[burgess87]

. . . when, in high school, you use the "middle tile" of the hallway as a center left turn lane.

YES!!!  I started that in elementary school.  One of our wider hallways had enough tiles to make two lanes in each direction, a center turn lane and shoulders.  Even now, I find myself "passing" in the left "lane" and "changing lanes" to turn.  I even find myslf doing this in Wal-Mart.  At my college, most people keep to the right when walking.

This blog entry from Ben Jones of MIT explains "driving" in hallways pretty good.

[Borat] High five!  Very nice . . . . great success! [/Borat]

[Michael]

@burgess87: Should I be glad that I'm not the only one that does that, or are you some weirdo and I just joined the club?    

[njroadhorse]

. . . when, in high school, you use the "middle tile" of the hallway as a center left turn lane.

Hah! Did that once, except my high school only has 3 tiles across, so it was like the center lane.

Also, if you treated passing slow people in the hallways like passing in your car.

[tollboothrob]

I thought of internal road networks for houses and parks from time to time when I was younger.  Once I took a couple of tomato stakes and put up street signs 1) where our driveway met the road (calling the driveway "Reeves Court" - our street was Reeves Road), and 2) where the front walk met the driveway.

I did similar things as a kid. I grew up on 80 acres in rural West Virginia, and our property was (is) full of old logging and gas well roads. I had names for them, complete with town (!) names for different portions of the land.

I'm also guilty of drawing complete roadway systems on schoolwork, with detailed interchanges and everything.

Wow, what a validating thread, haha. I bet most of us felt like the only ones.

[thenetwork]

I did line & lane markings on the sidewalk & driveway when I was a kid....In CRAYON! (Chalk was a waste!).   Usually had separate left, right and thru lanes.

Problem with crayons is that they are only good for a couple of feet of markings, due to the texture of the sidewalk -- I must have gone through 4-5 boxes of Crayola 64 count crayons in 2 years.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I drew markings on the street I used to live on (which lacked them), including speed limits on the pavement. IIRC, it was 60 km/h. (Actual speed limit was 50).

[ftballfan]

I can identify cities from an airplanne based on the road pattern.   My wife was amazed I could tell her we were over Amarillo, TX from the roads when we went to her Grandmothers in California

Definitely guilty there.

[Eth]

I can identify cities from an airplanne based on the road pattern.   My wife was amazed I could tell her we were over Amarillo, TX from the roads when we went to her Grandmothers in California

Definitely guilty there.

I can sometimes also pick out things that aren't cities this way.  For instance, on my flight from Atlanta to Baltimore last weekend, I had a very nice view from my window of the rest area on I-85 in NC where the carraigeways cross over one another.

[Brandon]

I can identify cities from an airplanne based on the road pattern.   My wife was amazed I could tell her we were over Amarillo, TX from the roads when we went to her Grandmothers in California

Definitely guilty there.

I can sometimes also pick out things that aren't cities this way.  For instance, on my flight from Atlanta to Baltimore last weekend, I had a very nice view from my window of the rest area on I-85 in NC where the carraigeways cross over one another.

Likewise.  It's also fun to pick out certain railroads and geologic/geographic features.

[agentsteel53]

I'm okay at that, but not amazing, so I've always wished my GPS worked at such altitudes.  Alas, it cannot get a signal from the satellites - likely due to the plane's metal skin.

[OracleUsr]

 You memorize ZIP codes (similar to someone else in the thread) by thinking stuff like "well, 95945...let's see, I-95's old exit to connect to 9 in Bangor was Exit 45A....(course now that wouldn't work because it's 182A now)

You trace "highways" in wood grain or tile floors.

[ATLRedSoxFan]

I can identify cities from an airplanne based on the road pattern.   My wife was amazed I could tell her we were over Amarillo, TX from the roads when we went to her Grandmothers in California

Definitely guilty there.

I can sometimes also pick out things that aren't cities this way.  For instance, on my flight from Atlanta to Baltimore last weekend, I had a very nice view from my window of the rest area on I-85 in NC where the carraigeways cross over one another.

I drove that last month on my move to Boston and you almost don't notice it. I just knew to be on the lookout for it, because I had seen it from the air a couple of times and thought it was in VA, before I was corrected.

[Dr Frankenstein]

You know you're a roadgeek when you go to bed a 3 AM because you were busy fixing things on OpenStreetMaps and weren't watching the time. (...or Google Map Maker).

[yakra]

Or Clinched Highway Mapping!
And heck, make that 5am. ;P

[rickmastfan67]

Or Clinched Highway Mapping!
And heck, make that 5am. ;P

Try 6am sometimes.

[Ian]

...when you take a trip somewhere, there has to be road photography squeezed in there somehow.

[yakra]

I'd swear it's been 8am sometimes, but it gets awfully hard to keep things straight at that point...

When you take a trip somewhere, it must be done on the greatest amount of new unclinched roadway as possible.

[agentsteel53]

You know you're a roadgeek when you go to bed a 3 AM because you were busy fixing things on OpenStreetMaps and weren't watching the time. (...or Google Map Maker).

or, alternately, you get up at 1am because you need to photograph a highway in dawn lighting and the road happens to be 400 miles away.

[1995hoo]

....when you are in school, and draw various shields around the numbers on your math homework...

My second-grade teacher got mad at me for putting "little badges" on the numbers. (Interstate only, though. I never liked the way the US shield looked when I drew it.)


Moving to a more recent time in my life:

You tell the manager of a grocery store that he ought to put up roundabouts at all the corners of the aisles and perhaps install jersey walls in some of them to try to keep the sightseers out of the way of those of us who are actually there trying to do our grocery shopping. (This would be the Wegmans in Fairfax. Cart traffic in there is sometimes anarchic in terms of people wandering around aimlessly.)

[Michael]

This would be the Wegmans in Fairfax. Cart traffic in there is sometimes anarchic in terms of people wandering around aimlessly.

Yay for Wegmans!

[Brandon]

You tell the manager of a grocery store that he ought to put up roundabouts at all the corners of the aisles and perhaps install jersey walls in some of them to try to keep the sightseers out of the way of those of us who are actually there trying to do our grocery shopping. (This would be the Wegmans in Fairfax. Cart traffic in there is sometimes anarchic in terms of people wandering around aimlessly.)

I often find that people tend to push their cart in the same manner as they drive.

[hm insulators]

You tell the manager of a grocery store that he ought to put up roundabouts at all the corners of the aisles and perhaps install jersey walls in some of them to try to keep the sightseers out of the way of those of us who are actually there trying to do our grocery shopping. (This would be the Wegmans in Fairfax. Cart traffic in there is sometimes anarchic in terms of people wandering around aimlessly.)

I often find that people tend to push their cart in the same manner as they drive.

That's scary!