Roadgeek
Template:Short description Template:Redirect-distinguish
A roadgeek (from road + geek) is a person involved in "roadgeeking" or "road enthusiasm", an enthusiasm for roads, fond of road trips as a hobby. One may also be called a road enthusiast, road buff, roadfan or Roads Scholar, the latter a play on "Rhodes Scholar".[1]Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Interest
Roadgeeks view their interest as an appreciation of engineering and planning feats: Template:Main other
Roadgeeks are not necessarily interested in motor vehicles;[2] 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.[3]
Even the numbering system can be a subject of deep interest, as Joe Moran describes in his book "On Roads: A Hidden History": Template:Main other
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".[4] 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".[4]
Web based forums are popular; one of the largest is AARoads Forum.[5]Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
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",[6] is one of the larger and most prominent communities of road enthusiasts online.[7] The organization hosts a large collection of articles and histories of particular roads and terminology, online photo galleries, discussion forums,[8] and an application to overlay and compare historical roadmaps.[6] Although SABRE is primarily an online group, members organize group tours to visit sites of interest.[2]
Taiwan websites
In 2006, a board called "Road" (Template:Lang-zh) in the PTT Bulletin Board System, which is a Taiwanese forum, was established.[9] Because some Taiwanese road enthusiasts didn't know how to use a terminal or BBS reader to access it, the web forum Taiwan Highway Club (Template:Lang-zh; literally, "Highway State") was started in 2008.[10] It contains subforums where users discuss road policies and post highway news and images.[11]
Relationship with governments
In Taiwan, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' Directorate General of Highways (Script error: No such module "Lang".) has held occasional Road Fan Conferences (Script error: No such module "Lang".) since 2011 where roadfans and highway transportation-related organizations made suggestions to the government.[12]
Script error: No such module "Portal".
References
Further reading
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
External links
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedGupta - ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Template:Free access
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:In lang
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Lang-zh