View source for Roadgeek

{{Short description|Person with an interest in roads}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Roads scholar|Rhodes Scholarship|Road Scholar|Road Scholars}}

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[[File:Alaska tok cutoff.jpg|thumb|right|[[Driving]] south on The [[Tok Cut-Off|Alaska Tok Cutoff Highway]].]]
[[File:OldalignIL.jpg|thumb|An abandoned early [[U.S. Route 66]] alignment in southern [[Illinois]] in 2006.]]

A '''roadgeek''' (from ''road'' + ''[[geek]]'') is a person involved in "roadgeeking" or "road enthusiasm", an [[enthusiasm]] for [[road]]s, fond of [[road trip]]s as a [[hobby]]. One may also be called a '''road enthusiast''', '''road buff''', '''roadfan''' or '''Roads Scholar''', the latter a play on "[[Rhodes Scholarship|Rhodes Scholar]]".<ref>{{cite news|last=Wear |first=Ben |url=http://www.houstonfreeways.com/statesman_2004-12-12.htm |title=Road to Future or a Dead End |work=[[Austin American-Statesman]] |date=December 12, 2004 |access-date=January 20, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905172529/http://www.houstonfreeways.com/statesman_2004-12-12.htm |archive-date=September 5, 2006 }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=January 2014}}

==Interest==
Roadgeeks view their interest as an appreciation of engineering and planning feats:
{{cquote|We're interested in all the effort that goes into making roads. The railways in this country get an awful lot of press as great engineering achievements. Roads aren't seen in that way, but it wasn't always so. In the 1950s and 1960s they were part of a brave new era. Back then it was something to get excited about. They actually put people on buses and drove up and down them to have a look...|author=Steven Jukes<ref name=Gupta>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2732679/Never-mind-the-trainspotters.html |title=Never Mind the Trainspotters |last=Gupta |first=Lila Das |date= January 17, 2005 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |access-date= April 9, 2009}}</ref>}}
[[File:United Kingdom A road zones.svg|thumb|200px|The numbering zones for A-roads in Great Britain]]
[[File:Highway Gothic sample.svg|thumb|right|200px|[[FHWA Series fonts]]—also known as Highway Gothic or the Interstate typeface]]

Roadgeeks are not necessarily interested in motor vehicles;<ref name=Gupta/> there may also be an interest in [[cartography]] and map design. Enthusiasts may focus on a single activity related to roads, such as [[driving]] the full length of a highway (known as 'clinching') or researching the history, planning and quirks of a particular road or national highway system. Sometimes, road geeks are called "highway historians" for the knowledge and interests.<ref name=LSJ>{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Matthew |title=Looking Back: I-496 Construction, a Complicated Legacy |work=[[Lansing State Journal]] |date=February 22, 2009 |pages=1A, 8A}}</ref>

Even the numbering system can be a subject of deep interest, as Joe Moran describes in his book "On Roads: A Hidden History": {{cquote|On the online discussion forum of SABRE, the Society for All British Road Enthusiasts (sic), the 1400-odd Sabristi often debate about where the M25 starts and whether it is correctly numbered, or why the motorway from Carlisle to Glasgow is called both the M74 and the A74(M). In road-numbering lore, the absence of pattern—the discovery that there are so many exceptions to rules that the rules might as well not exist—only seems to revivify the search for inner mysteries. Road buffs talk in reverential tones about "David Craig Numbers" - the elegant theory, named after the man who proposed it, that three digit numbers derive from the roads they connect.<ref>{{cite book |last= Moran |first= Joe |author-link= Joe Moran (social historian) |title= On Roads: A Hidden History |edition= Hardcover |page= 77 |year= 2009 |publisher= Profile Books |location = London |isbn= 978-1-84668-052-6}}</ref>}}

==Online==
In 2002, the ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]'' reported that road enthusiasm was an Internet phenomenon. There is a [[Usenet]] newsgroup, misc.transport.road, where participants discuss all facets of roads and road trips from "construction projects to quirks and inconsistencies in signage".<ref name=Lamb/> Those who await each  annual [[Rand McNally]] road atlas release found a community of others online who were also interested in roads as a hobby. These communities of people could share photos, swap their thoughts on the highways in their areas and "debate the finer points of interchange design".<ref name=Lamb>{{cite news |last=Lamb |first=William |date=September 22, 2002 |title='Road geeks' ramp up their hobby on the information superhighway |pages=C1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45824021/road-geeks-part-2/ C5] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45823957/road-geeks-ramp-up-their-hobby-on-the/ |work=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]] |access-date=February 28, 2020}} {{free access}}</ref>

Web based forums are popular; one of the largest is AARoads Forum.<ref>{{cite news |last=Thomson |first=Robert |date=February 27, 2014 |title=Map rage: Navigating Google's revised way-finding system |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2014/02/27/map-rage-navigating-googles-revised-way-finding-system/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=February 28, 2020}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=September 2023}}

===SABRE===
Started in 1999, the '''Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts''' ('''SABRE'''), originally known as "Study and Appreciation of the British Roads Experience",<ref name=SABRE>{{cite web|url=http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/|title=Society: About Us |publisher=Society for All British Road Enthusiasts |access-date= June 21, 2011}}</ref> is one of the larger and most prominent communities of road enthusiasts online.<ref name=Milmo>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/round-the-bend-how-we-became-a-nation-of-roadies-755067.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424052018/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/round-the-bend-how-we-became-a-nation-of-roadies-755067.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 24, 2008 |title=Round the Bend? How We Became a Nation of Roadies |last=Milmo |first=Cahal |date=October 29, 2004 |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |access-date=April 9, 2009}}</ref> The organization hosts a large collection of articles and histories of particular roads and terminology, online photo galleries, discussion forums,<ref name=totalvauxhall>{{cite web|last=Greenacre |first=Simon |url=http://www.totalvauxhall.co.uk/2008/09/10/society_for_all_british_road_enthusiasts/ |title=Society for All British Road Enthusiasts |work=Total Vauxhall |date=September 10, 2008 |access-date=June 14, 2011 |location=Gloucester |publisher=A & S Publishing |issn=1474-1393 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110619010858/http://www.totalvauxhall.co.uk/2008/09/10/society_for_all_british_road_enthusiasts |archive-date=June 19, 2011 }}</ref> and an application to overlay and compare historical roadmaps.<ref name=SABRE/> Although SABRE is primarily an online group, members organize group tours to visit sites of interest.<ref name=Gupta/>

===Taiwan websites===
In 2006, a board called "Road" ({{lang-zh|公路板}}) in the [[PTT Bulletin Board System]], which is a Taiwanese forum, was established.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Road/M.1147757235.A.5C7.html|script-title=zh:公告 公路板開了~ |language= zh |publisher=Road board of [[PTT Bulletin Board System]] |access-date= September 30, 2011}}</ref> Because some Taiwanese road enthusiasts didn't know how to use a [[terminal emulator|terminal]] or [[bulletin board system|BBS]] reader to access it, the web forum ''Taiwan Highway Club'' ({{lang-zh|公路邦}}; literally, "Highway State") was started in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Road/M.1200406345.A.69F.html|script-title=zh:【公路邦】成立 |language= zh |publisher=Road board of [[PTT Bulletin Board System]] |access-date= September 30, 2011}}{{in lang|zh-tw}}</ref> It contains subforums where users discuss road policies and post highway news and images.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://road.club.pixnet.net/forum |title=公路邦 > 討論區首頁 |access-date=September 30, 2011 |publisher=公路邦 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904021116/http://road.club.pixnet.net/forum |archive-date=September 4, 2011 }}</ref>

==Relationship with governments==
In Taiwan, the [[Ministry of Transportation and Communications (Taiwan)|Ministry of Transportation and Communications]]' [[Directorate General of Highways]] ({{lang|zh|公路總局}}) has held occasional Road Fan Conferences ({{lang|zh|公路迷座談會}}) since 2011 where roadfans and highway transportation-related organizations made suggestions to the government.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://public.thb.gov.tw/epaper/Sites/Page/12?pgid=249|title=官民合作‧大道開闊 公路總局舉辦第二次公路迷座談會|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405094357/http://public.thb.gov.tw/epaper/Sites/Page/12?pgid=249|archive-date=April 5, 2016|df=mdy-all}}{{lang-zh}}</ref>

{{Portal|Roads
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==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last= Beresford |first= Kevin |title= Roundabouts of Great Britain |edition= Hardcover |year= 2004 |publisher= New Holland |location= London |isbn= 978-1-84330-854-6}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://www.aaroads.com/glossary.php AARoads Glossary]

[[Category:Hobbies]]
[[Category:Transport culture]]
[[Category:Road transport|Greek]]
[[Category:Transportation engineering]]
[[Category:Highways]]