When Being A Roadgeek Has Been Helpful

[Michael]

I posted in the Incorrect Highways Marked On Google Maps thread about a trip I took with some of my friends on July 3rd (click here for a trip report), and the horrible directions that sent us literally zigzagging around Oneida County.  After my friend was confused (see the full story in the Google Maps thread link), I was the only one who knew where we were going without a map or directions.  My friends ended up ignoring Google's directions and following mine instead.  One of my friends who was in the car regularly gives me empty death threats (he thinks it's funny), and he stopped because he realized that I was the only person that could get us home.

These points inspired me to add to the "You Know You're A Roadgeek If..." thread as well, so here's a link to that post.

Going back to when I was a kid, I can remember two stories from when I was around 8 years old.

The first is when my mom and I wanted to go from the Carousel Center in Syracuse to Mattydale.  I knew we needed to get on I-81 north for about 2 miles.  My mom went south by mistake, and I told her she was going the wrong way, but she didn't realize it until we were somewhere between the I-81/I-690 and southern I-81/1-481 interchanges.

Another story was when we were trying to go from Corning to Elmira.  We'd stopped at a McDonalds to get directions, and the lady told us to stay on NY 352 and it would take us into Elmira.  I happened to see a Detour NY 352 sign coming up, and told my mom that she needed to turn to follow the detour.  She replied that the lady that gave us directions was from the area, so she had to be right.  We ended up in a dead end, and turned around and got on NY 17 eastbound.

More recently, I took a bus from Syracuse to Binghamton to visit my friends at college.  When we pulled off in Cortland, some people thought we were in Binghamton.  I was able to tell them where we were, and that we still had another 40 minutes to go.  Later in the trip, someone was on a cellphone trying to tell the other person when they were going to be in Binghamton.  I was able to say that we were about 20 minutes away.

Does anyone else have stories about how being a roadgeek has been helpful?

[Zmapper]

Not specifically related to roads, but close enough. Use this map for guidance if you are unfamiliar with the area.

I was on the very last RTD (Denver) EB 16L bus in history (which explains why I was on the bus, for anyone wondering). This route used to run from Central Denver to Central Golden along Colfax Ave. The W Light Rail line opened up just yesterday, and was very packed with customers riding for the novelty of it. Golden paid to run a minibus shuttle from their station to downtown Golden, which I had not known until I arrived in Golden on the 16L because it wasn't published on the RTD website.

I took the 16L west to Golden, and when the articulated bus was entering downtown Golden a straggler waved down the bus frantically nowhere near a bus stop. The driver reluctantly opened the doors, and the straggler asked if this was the shuttle to the light rail (it wasn't), and where the other bus was because he claimed to be waiting for an hour.

Okay, so maybe he was drunk or confused. But when we arrived at the terminus and the driver kicked me out to take his break, about 10 people came over to his bus to ask him where the shuttle was, because it hadn't shown up in over 40 minutes. He threw his hands up in the air, clueless, and told the group that this was an unrelated route. After the driver left to use the restroom, I made small talk with the passengers, figuring out that a family with four children wanted to go to Belmar, and another group wanted to go to SE Denver. I informed the passengers of the fare and how to use a transfer, and where the bus goes.

A group member waved to the others waiting at the shuttle stop to come over to the bus, and most did. After about 20 people boarded, with everyone paying cash, of course, the 16L departed Golden 10 minutes late. Around when we crossed under I-70 I took out my phone and figured out the 76 stops at Colfax at 7:21. I then left my seat and went up to the family, and told them when the bus departs, but incorrectly assuming that the EB trip stops at both sides of the intersection like the WB trip does, they can catch the bus by just walking around the corner. Furthermore, I walked to the front and asked the driver if he could radio ahead to the 76 to hold the bus for the 16L. He couldn't, because he was so late. Belmar did run a shuttle, but given that the Golden shuttle stopped running early, I was also skeptical if the Belmar shuttle from the closest station was also running. They told me the last trip was at 7:30 pm, so I went with it. They tipped me a dollar, but it was unfortunately in my pocket before I thought to refuse it out of generosity.

We arrived at Wadsworth at 7:21, just in time for the group to miss the on time departure of the 76. I saw them running down Wadsworth to the light rail station two blocks to the south, where they hopefully made their shuttle bus. I then repeated the process with the other group, but it was simpler as they already knew where the Auroria light rail station was.

I intentionally waited for everyone else to get off the bus at Civic Center before I did, and as I made a comment to the driver about being the last person off the route EVER, he pulled me aside and had me sign his timetable sheet for the honor. It is absurd that I live 60 miles away from Golden, yet I have memorized RTD bus routes better then the drivers and residents themselves!

[vtk]

It comes in handy in my job as a professional driver from time to time.  Sometimes I give directions to co-workers, and technically that's one of my supervisor's responsibilities.

[triplemultiplex]

As far back as high school, I was on hand to let a bus driver on a field trip know he had missed our turn off.

Another brilliant time was when a friend and I were being picked up from the MSP airport by his friend that I didn't know.  We needed to head east once we got to I-494, but she was in the wrong lane and we were stuck going west.  But I'm like, "No problem, we can easily turn around at one of the next interchange (MN 77) because it has loop ramps.  Then we don't have to get dicked around by Mall of America traffic just to turn around."  I'm not from The Cities, nor had I traveled there very much at this point.  It was my first time traveling via that airport (or any airport, actually.)  It's not like I was familiar with the area based on first hand experience.  But I knew the configuration of the MN 77/I-494 interchange would make reversing our direction very easy.  The driver was a bit flustered after missing the exit, but I guided her through the turnaround just fine.

Once we were going in the right direction, someone was like, "That was great, are you from here or something?"
My reply, "Nope."

[Alps]

While I was at college, tourists would randomly stop and ask me directions. There were plenty of students, but it was always me. 85%-90% of the time I knew how to get them where they were going.

[kphoger]

Knowing the exact verbiage of state laws comes in handy as far as knowing what is legal and what is not.  Being a map geek has come in handy several times, most notably when driving outside the United States–once even when I was the passenger in Germany and alerted our German driver that he'd missed his turn.  Knowing about route shields, numbering systems, and design characteristics has come in handy.....well, pretty much never.

[empirestate]

When I've worked on touring productions, I've more than once helped our drivers figure out how to get around the unfamiliar cities, and I tend to know more about the locations of our hotels, venues, and so on, than anybody else (unless they've been there before).