Clinched state highways

[CentralCAroadgeek]

I barely even know where CA-233 is.

CA-233 is a short state route connecting CA-152 with CA-99 in Chowchilla. We took it going home on CA-152 from Yosemite because we didn't know how get to CA-59.

[kphoger]

Dude, I don't keep track of which person was behind the wheel on which sections of which highways.  If my wife and I drive long-distance, and she drives part of the route, are you saying that doesn't count?

I don't have a problem with other people saying that, but yeah, I don't count if I'm not driving, because generally you don't pay as much attention as a passenger- if you were physically on the road but sleeping the entire time, then your body may have been on the road, but your mind certainly wasn't. You have to be there in body and mind, in my mind, to have clinched the route. If you're just there in body, you don't remember, and if you're just there in mind, you weren't physically there (if I think about US-11 all day, I can't say I've clinched it).

I would have no problem saying that if you're riding on a route and you're awake and astute and aware of your surroundings you've clinched it, but for me that leaves gray areas open- easiest for me just to exclude if I wasn't driving.

I find that I'm better able to examine the route as a passenger, since I'm not as obligated to keep my eyes on traffic.  It's certainly much easier to take pictures!

[kkt]

If you get off a highway for gas and reenter at the next entrance a few hundred yards or a mile down the road, does it still count as a clinch?

[hobsini2]

If you get off a highway for gas and reenter at the next entrance a few hundred yards or a mile down the road, does it still count as a clinch?

I would say it still counts because you pulled off the highway for a service on that highway and re-entered said highway immediately after you were done with the service.

[hobsini2]

My clinched state highways off the top of my head are:
Illinois:
7, 19, 21, 25, 31, 41, 43, 47, 53, 56, 58, 59, 62, 68, 71, 83, 102, 113, 114, 120, 126, 131, 134, 137, 171, 394

Indiana:
53, 130, 152, 212, 249, 312, 912, 930

Wisconsin:
20, 24, 26, 30, 31, 36, 44, 50, Former 62, 67, 83, 89, 91, 100, 106, 113, 114, 116, 119, 120, 140, 142, 145, 146, 175, 188, 213, 241, 341, Former 351, 441, 794

[Takumi]

Dude, I don't keep track of which person was behind the wheel on which sections of which highways.  If my wife and I drive long-distance, and she drives part of the route, are you saying that doesn't count?

I don't have a problem with other people saying that, but yeah, I don't count if I'm not driving, because generally you don't pay as much attention as a passenger- if you were physically on the road but sleeping the entire time, then your body may have been on the road, but your mind certainly wasn't. You have to be there in body and mind, in my mind, to have clinched the route. If you're just there in body, you don't remember, and if you're just there in mind, you weren't physically there (if I think about US-11 all day, I can't say I've clinched it).

I would have no problem saying that if you're riding on a route and you're awake and astute and aware of your surroundings you've clinched it, but for me that leaves gray areas open- easiest for me just to exclude if I wasn't driving.

That's my reasoning behind it as well. I have no problem whatsoever if anyone's definition of clinching is different.

[triplemultiplex]

My clinching criteria:

I must be driving; being a passenger doesn't count.  If being a passenger counts now, then logically, every car trip in your life all the way back to infancy counts.  "Hey mom and dad, remember that vacation we took when I was 1?  What way did you go?"

I keep track of state highways and above, but indicate all driving on maps regardless of classification or whether or not the road shows up on the map I'm keeping for that state.

There are no day/night or seasonal restrictions.

I must be operating a street-legal motor vehicle.  Walking, biking, etc. doesn't count.  ATV's, snowmobiles, tractors, etc. also don't count.

Interchanges are treated the same as any other intersection; a route is considered clinched even if the actual path I drive doesn't cover the distance between ramp terminals or ramp merges.

Driving one side of a one-way pair is sufficient to clinch a route.

It hasn't come up for me, but I think I would count Texas-style frontage roads as part of the highway they front provided we're only dealing with short distances.

Gaps between driveway entrances for private property are ignored.

Construction:
Detours do not count towards clinching a highway.
A highway is still considered to be clinched if it has been expanded on location since it was driven.
This includes changes to intersections and curves.
A highway previously driven that has been relocated to a new terrain alignment reverts back to unclinched until the new section is driven.
I count sections of new highway driven while under construction before they were opened towards a clinching.

A physical piece of road that has changed route numbers since it was last driven counts toward the new route number's clinched length.  So I drive through a town and later a bypass opens and the old route becomes a business route or something else, I count the part I drove previously toward the new designation.  But I make note a note of this in my official lists.

[formulanone]

In Florida, I only count these as clinched if connecting county route portions are included: 5, 5A, 7 (all), 9 (all), 9A, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18, 24, 24A, 26, 26A, 29, 31 (both), 39, 40, 44, 54, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, "90", "91", "93", "93A", 94 (both), 100, 112, 113, 120, 152, 200, 202, 206, 207, 222, 224, 226, 230, 231, 235, 238, 312, 316, 326, 327, 329*, 331, 345, 368, 388, 391, 400, 404, 406, 407, 408, 415, 421, 430, 483, 508, 513, 514, 518, 520, 524, 528, 535, 536, 540, 542, 544, 580, 582, 589, "592", "594", 598*, 614, 618, 656, 681, 700 (all), 704, 706, 707 (all), 708 (both), 710, 713, 714 (both), 715, 716, 717, 729, 732, 736, 739, 758, 780, 786, 789, 794, 798*, 800, 802, 804, "805", 806, 807, 808, 809, 810, 811 (both), 812 (both), 814, 816, 817, 818, 820, "821", 822, 823, 824, 825, 826, 828, 834, 836, 838, 842, 844, 845, 847, 848, 849, 850 (both), 852, 854*, 856, 858 (both), 860, "862", 869, 870, 874, 878, 882, 884 (both), 886 (both), 905, 907, 907A, 909, 913, 915, 916, 922, 924, 934, 944, 933, 934, 951, 953, 959, 968, 970, 972, 976, 986, 992, 994, 997, 5048, 9336

* = formerly SR at time of clinch, now entirely CR
"x" = secret number

Deprecated state (county) routes which fit the grid: 15A, 15B, 15C, 80A, 42, 74, 92, 172, 210, 214, 218, 227, 239, 314, 316, 318, 337, 368*, 419, 420, 516, 522, 523, 419, 606, 609, 619, 621, 623, 702, 709, 711, 712, 718, 720, 721, 724, 731, 733, 760, 769, 770, 782, 827 (all), 832, 833, 835, 837, 839, 841, 846, 851, 876, 880, 905A.

AL: 2, 24, 35, 40, 62, 65, 67, 71, 73, 89, 93, 93, 99, 119, 127, 135, 150, 151, 176, 179, 182, 187, 204, 205, 207, 208, 211, 219, 225, 227, 251, 255, 261, 271, 273, 277, 279, 287, 291, 297, 605, 759

GA: 48, 107, 159, 316, 313

LA: 21, 56, 57, 47, 78, 449, 661, 948, 3000, 3228

MS: 23, 30, 33, 172, 338, 442, 702, 714, 720, 726, 727, 728, 734, 760, 802, 804, 812, 817, 832, 889

NY: 987D, 987G

OH: 282, 768

PA: 43, 99, 981

TX: OSR, 135, 119, 202

WV: 527, 891

WA: 3

[kphoger]

My clinching criteria:

I must be driving; being a passenger doesn't count.  If being a passenger counts now, then logically, every car trip in your life all the way back to infancy counts.  "Hey mom and dad, remember that vacation we took when I was 1?  What way did you go?"

I don't count trips where I wasn't old enough to drive.  As a teenager, I pitched in on the driving for family vacations; since I was one of the drivers, I count those routes.

[Duke87]

I don't have a problem counting routes clinched as a young kid on family trips since I was reasonably paying attention to this sort of thing at a very young age. In every case I either completely remember or know enough to be able to logically reconstruct it. And it isn't a huge issue since the amount of mileage that I was on as a little kid but haven't been on since is very small compared to everything I've seen from high school onward. We didn't go on too many road trips when I was young and the ones we did weren't very ambitious.

At any rate, my CMap is here. Though, as of this writing it hasn't yet been updated to reflect a trip through MA and RI from a couple weekends ago. Or the crazy cross-country trip I'm about to embark on in a few days. As for systems that aren't online yet, I still put a line in my list file and they can be viewed in my log.

[national highway 1]

NSW (as a passenger):
Italics are decommissioned routes

Metroads
2
3
4
5
7 (pre 2005)
10
State Routes
12
27
28
29
30
31
33
53
76
77
111
122

Queensland
2 (pre-2009)
10 (Gold Coast)
20 (Gold Coast)
24 (Gold Coast)
50 (Gold Coast)

[agentsteel53]

I count detours.  My first clinch of I-10 was down US-61 in Louisiana when ice had closed the freeway.  that was the alignment at the time, fully signed and everything, so in my world it counts.

[Alps]

I don't count detours. What I do count is when a bridge is out or short section of road is closed, I drive to one end, U-turn, follow the detour to the other end and U-turn. As long as I can see the same point from both closed ends (even if a curve gets in the way of actually seeing the other closed end), I consider it clinched. CR 501 and 503 in NJ were both closed due to police activity, and I count them as clinched. There are many, many other routes I've done in that way.

I also count any road I'm on regardless of driving. I tend to pay attention, and have done so even since I was 5, so I hardly consider it cheating. Would you only count a county if you drove in it, or just happened to be in it by some other means?

I don't count ferries, but I do try to take them whenever I can just for completeness (and cause ferries are cool). If a highway changes, I don't erase my clinch, but I do note that I need to return to it. If a highway extends, I note my clinch as historic (such as "I-69 as of 2010" which would not include the new KY section [yet] or IN section).

[oscar]

I don't have a problem counting routes clinched as a young kid on family trips since I was reasonably paying attention to this sort of thing at a very young age. In every case I either completely remember or know enough to be able to logically reconstruct it.

Neither do I, though my recollections weren't as good as yours, and my family's memories on specific routes driven had faded by the time I started caring about this stuff.  I count much of US 52 between Fergus Falls MN and the Twin Cities, even though I was only three or four years old, since I know my family often made the trek to visit one of my aunts, and before I-94 was built, US 52 was the only reasonable way to make the trip.  Also, I know we took old US 66 (west of Oklahoma City, where I remember our unpleasant stay while waiting for an engine overhaul) when we moved from North Carolina to California, and so I counted as clinched the parts of route 66 west of OKC that were later absorbed into business Interstates along I-40. 

[hbelkins]

What I do count is when a bridge is out or short section of road is closed, I drive to one end, U-turn, follow the detour to the other end and U-turn. As long as I can see the same point from both closed ends (even if a curve gets in the way of actually seeing the other closed end), I consider it clinched.

So do I. I wouldn't consider myself to have clinched US 131 in Michigan or US 27 in Indiana otherwise. When I drove both those roads, they had closures. So I did exactly what you described. So I consider them clinched.

For me, if I was a passenger in a motor vehicle and I traveled the road, it counts. Awake, asleep, doesn't matter. I was on the road so it counts. A memory of the road is not necessary for me to count it because I can't remember some of the roads I drove last year.

[NE2]

For me, if I was a passenger in a motor vehicle and I traveled the road, it counts. Awake, asleep, doesn't matter. I was on the road so it counts. A memory of the road is not necessary for me to count it because I can't remember some of the roads I drove last year.

Does clinching begin at conception?

[Darkchylde]

My criteria is as follows:

* Must be physically present on the route - driving, passenger, doesn't matter - awake, asleep, doesn't matter
* When the clinch occurred is irrelevant
* Clinches in pieces count so long as portions overlap or meet
* Off- and on-ramps count towards clinching
* Any method of ground-based transit counts including but not limited to walking, bicycling or driving (I clinched LA 1087 (when it existed) on a skateboard, for example)
* Detours do not count unless part of the route that used to physically exist no longer exists at that time (tearing up an entire carriageway, for example) and the detour is signed as the main route or as a detour of the main route
* Route counts if all of it is walked/bicycled/driven/whatever except for portions that for whatever reason cannot be legally accessed (MS 607 through Stennis, for example)
* Route counts in the bridge scenario HBE and Steve brought up if I went through that effort.

That's pretty much the only restrictions I put on myself.

[Takumi]

When I clinched VA 156, there were 2 detours; one had been in place for nearly 2 years, and both had the road completely torn up, so I count it for now. When they open again (if they're not already) I'll go back and complete them.

[vdeane]

I started keeping track when I was around 12.  For older stuff I handle on a case-by-case basis based on how well I remember it and how much I was able to see.  For example, portions of ON 401 I was last on before I was 10 count because I have a reasonable memory of the drive; the portions of PA 147 (coach bus at night when I was nowhere near the front) and CA 1 (from when I was nine months old) don't.

I don't require being physically present on a section of road to count it as long as I can reasonably see it from a portion I was physically on, but I generally don't use this fudging unless it fills in a gap or I don't have a choice (such as US 11 at the Canadian border); I did make an even greater exception for NY 374 though, as the road curves within 1/4 mile of customs.

Detours don't count with the exception of a carriageway being shifted onto another and similar stuff.  Never had to worry about bridges being out when I clinched a road though.

I go by CHM, so truncation and extensions change the clinging.  Re-alignments are a gray area I haven't fully addressed yet; I generally count them if I could reasonably see most of it from the old alignment and/or have watched a video of the new one (this is how I count Parksville and Iway).  The next major test of this will be US 15 south of Presho, NY.

[hbelkins]

* Route counts if all of it is walked/bicycled/driven/whatever except for portions that for whatever reason cannot be legally accessed (MS 607 through Stennis, for example)

This is why I will count I-81 as being clinched in New York and in total once I get the stretch between NY 79 at Lisle and I-90 at Syracuse driven. I turned around at the northernmost US exit in the Thousand Islands region because I could not legally drive the rest of it, since I don't have a passport and thus could not enter Canada.

[NE2]

* Route counts if all of it is walked/bicycled/driven/whatever except for portions that for whatever reason cannot be legally accessed (MS 607 through Stennis, for example)

This is why I will count I-81 as being clinched in New York and in total once I get the stretch between NY 79 at Lisle and I-90 at Syracuse driven. I turned around at the northernmost US exit in the Thousand Islands region because I could not legally drive the rest of it, since I don't have a passport and thus could not enter Canada.

So anyone without a driver's license has clinched most eastern Interstates

[oscar]

* Route counts if all of it is walked/bicycled/driven/whatever except for portions that for whatever reason cannot be legally accessed (MS 607 through Stennis, for example)

This is why I will count I-81 as being clinched in New York and in total once I get the stretch between NY 79 at Lisle and I-90 at Syracuse driven. I turned around at the northernmost US exit in the Thousand Islands region because I could not legally drive the rest of it, since I don't have a passport and thus could not enter Canada.

Actually, you can enter Canada from the U.S. without a passport.  http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/security-securite/admiss-eng.html  Getting back into the U.S. is the hard part.

[ftballfan]

Clinched state highways in Michigan: 6, 11, 45, 104, Former 108, Former 110, 113, 115, 116, 121, 137, 143, Former 168, 185
Been on, but not clinched: 1, 10, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 32, 37, 40, 42*, 43, 44, 46, 50, 55, 57, 59, 60, 61, 66, 72, 82, 89, 93, 99, 109, 120
Clinched county highways in Michigan: A-37, C-42

[adt1982]

IL 1
IL 16
IL 35
IL 49
IL 108
IL 127
IL 130
IL 133
IL 138
IL 242

IN 154
IN 163
IN 340

[Duke87]

As far as I am concerned, legal restriction of access is no excuse for fudging a clinch. Any route which crosses the border cannot be clinched without going through customs unless there is a way to make a U-turn basically right at the physical location of the border (example: I-5 at San Ysidro). The same goes for state highways which end at military bases. Clinching the highway may require actually entering the base, and if I can't legally do that, then tough, I can't clinch the highway.