The Spirit of 2005: Of Highways and Roadgeeks

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I would consider my brother and I roadgeeks. We both enjoy the unusual patterns of roads. Even though it was somewhat birthed with our love of SimCity 2000 and how cool big overpasses looked when we went to places like Houston, Austin, or Dallas, (and to a much lesser extent, Waco). Eventually, we got much less excited over the prospect of seeing a mega-overpass but we retained interest. During 2005, my brother explained to me that the highway signs were... different. Indeed, some of the "l"s were different, and had curls at the end of them. The tops of "t"s were now flat. It looked new and not out of the 1980s like the other type was, and I welcomed the newer ones. This first was noted on a 2005 trip to Galveston (which will be explored later).

But now, it seems like ALL the signs are the new type, and in some cases, it's kind of ugly. It seems like we're not even in America anymore. I could continue to rant on this and mourn the loss of other sign types (including the HOV lane signs like in Houston).

The fact remains that both of us like roads and enjoy the ways that even different states have roads set up. In Texas, nearly all highways have frontage lanes along them. The transition is usually incredibly smooth. Just take off, and you're in the frontage lane. No yielding necessary, no making sure the cars on the frontage lanes aren't pulling a fast one on you, and it all happens far off enough so you can be sure to change lanes if you're turning right.

We even have "Texas turnarounds", though officially a ""Texas U-turn". It's surprising how other states have yet to pick up on that fact. Of course, they have their own "fun" ways to do things.

One of my favorite intersections that I've had the chance to experience is the Continuous Flow Intersection. The fact is, it's slightly disconcerting and space-intensive, but it really works! Check it out!

Anyway, the first trip regarding the new signs was in Galveston...

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Comment Discussion: Do you consider yourself a roadgeek? Anything interesting in YOUR area?