Interstate Tracker

Why I built it

A habit of keeping score, and a long-standing fascination with the Interstate System.

I have an obsession with logging things — even if the log only exists in my head.

I also have a strange level of fascination with the U.S. Interstate Highway System.

For years, on road trips, I’ve gotten a small jolt of joy out of Interstate signs: thinking about the routes running across the country and which ones I’ve been on. And I keep the tally. Even a short jaunt across some city on a work trip counts — I just rode on I-55. Or I’m on I-95 in Florida, knowing my house sits a mile off that same road a thousand miles north in Maryland. Or I pass the end of I-70 on my commute, as I do constantly, and think back to the time I drove its entire length.

It’s the same instinct as thinking about which segments of the Appalachian Trail I’ve hiked.

So for a long time I’ve imagined an app that would tell me when I’m driving on an Interstate I haven’t been on before. Or what percentage of one I’ve completed. Or whether I’ve just finished a route end to end inside a single state. I’ve been a software developer almost my whole life. AI tools are what made me start building it.

That’s what this is.