We settle the question of how to compute the entry and leaving arcs for turnpikes in autonomous variational problems, in the one-dimensional case using the phase space of the vector field associated to the Euler equation, and the initial/final and/or the transversality condition. The results hinge on the realization that extremals are the contours of a well-known function and that that the transversality condition is (generically) a curve. An approximation algorithm is presented and an example included for completeness.