A roadgeek (from ''road'' + ''

geek The word ''geek'' is a slang term originally used to describe Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric or non-mainstream people; in current use, the word typically connotes an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. In th ...

'') is a person involved in "roadgeeking" or "road enthusiasm", an

enthusiasm In modern usage, enthusiasm refers to intense enjoyment, interest, or approval expressed by a person. The term is related to playfulness, inventiveness, optimism, zest, verve, and high energy. The word was originally used to refer to a person ...

for

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s, fond of

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...

s as a

hobby A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing other ...

. One may also be called a road enthusiast, road buff, roadfan or Roads Scholar, the latter a play on "

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

Interest

Roadgeeks view their interest as an appreciation of engineering and planning feats: United Kingdom A road zones

Roadgeeks are not necessarily interested in motor vehicles; there may also be an interest in

cartography Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

and map design. Enthusiasts may focus on a single activity related to roads, such as

driving Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a land vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. A driver's permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met, and drivers are required to ...

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. Even the numbering system can be a subject of deep interest, as Joe Moran describes in his book "On Roads: A Hidden History":

Online

In 2002, the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...

'' reported that road enthusiasm was an Internet phenomenon. There is a

Usenet Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...

newsgroup, misc.transport.road, where participants discuss all facets of roads and road trips from "construction projects to quirks and inconsistencies in signage". Those who await each annual

Rand McNally Rand McNally is an American technology and publishing company that provides mapping software and hardware for consumer electronics, commercial transportation, and education markets. The company is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois with a di ...

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". Web based forums are popular; one of the largest is AARoads Forum.

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", is one of the larger and most prominent communities of road enthusiasts online. The organization hosts a large collection of articles and histories of particular roads and terminology, online photo galleries, discussion forums, and an application to overlay and compare historical roadmaps. Although SABRE is primarily an online group, members organize group tours to visit sites of interest.

Taiwan websites

In 2006, a board called "Road" ( zh, 公路板) in the

PTT Bulletin Board System PTT Bulletin Board System (PTT, ) is the largest terminal-based bulletin board system (BBS) based in Taiwan. It was founded by Yi-Chin Tu and other students from the National Taiwan University in 1995 as Professional Technology Temple, and it i ...

, which is a Taiwanese forum, was established. Because some Taiwanese road enthusiasts didn't know how to use a

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devices for a computer * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together ** Battery terminal, electrical contact used to ...

or BBS reader to access it, the web forum ''Taiwan Highway Club'' ( zh, 公路邦; literally, "Highway State") was started in 2008. It contains subforums where users discuss road policies and post highway news and images.

Relationship with governments

In Taiwan, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications'

Directorate General of Highways The Highway Bureau () is the government agency under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of the Republic of China (Taiwan) responsible for highway transportation management. History The agency was originally established as Directo ...

() has held occasional Road Fan Conferences () since 2011 where roadfans and highway transportation-related organizations made suggestions to the government. zh

References

External links

AARoads Glossary
Hobbies Transport culture

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Transportation engineering Highways