I swear to Og, we have a huge number of DWHUA drivers (Driving With Head Up Ass) in this city. Nobody seems to think that red lights apply to them, so if you are stopped at a light and it turns green, you have to wait for anywhere from 1-7 cars to finish running the light so you can cross safely.
And just this morning, I had a dork in an SUV headed northbound on Post Oak at Richmond make a right turn onto Richmond from the frigging left turn lane!! He cut in front of 4 lanes and every one of us nearly hit him. I wish I had been in the far right lane and had had time to get in front of him. I need a new car. If he had managed to stop and not hit me, I might have been tempted to just sit for a moment and let him snarl up the traffic real good, then take off. Or not; he might have taken a potshot or two at me.
For my next car, I want a giant Hummer with oversize bumpers where I can just run over assholes like that. Or a Sherman tank.
I used to live in Dallas and it’s not any better. I think the motto in Dallas is “Death before yielding.” I have personally never driven in a more road-rage affected city.
My experience in Houston has only been with the highways. I love how people dart across about 5 lanes of traffic to make those left exits while going 90. Ugh.
Now I just live with all of the SUV dummies in the rockies. The funniest thing I have ever seen is in Denver. I was surrounded by a bunch of SUV who were all going 10 mph under the speed limit while it was raining. the rain turns to snow and they all sped up to 10 over the speed limit. What? “Oh, gee, it’s not raining anymore, no reason to worry about hydroplaning! Just crank on the 4x4 and floor it!”
A few strategically placed overturned white Jeeps should take care of that. Some Doper once posted (don’t know who or where, it’s not turning up in search) about being passed by a speeding white Jeep in snowy conditions only to encounter the same Jeep a bit further up. The driver had slowed down upon seeing an identical white Jeep overturned in the median.
I have unfortunately been passed by several SUVs–usually Tahoes and Suburbans or Expeditions–on I-70 by the Eisenhower Tunnel (in the Rockies) only to see them 20 min later upside down with the police pulling up to assist. I really hope they were OK.
But I will admit that it’s hard not to think that it’s the mountains, it snowing, and you’re going 70 downhill. What do you expect?
I would like to use this thread to announce that one inch of snow this afternoon in the DC area caused drivers to stick their heads completely up their asses. I just got home a few minutes ago. I came from Fairfax, VA back into the city, a drive of about fifteen miles. It is now 5:00.
What’s that? When did I leave work? 12:30. I fucking hate commuting.
I grew up in Houston, and learned to drive there. There’s nothing like learning to drive on the 610 Loop and the Gulf Freeway to instill a healthy dose of highway paranoia in a body, if you ask me. Ever since then, I view every other driver on the road as someone who actively wants me to die. It’s kinda like combat training.
Amen!
Think of all the stupid things you do while driving. Realize that everybody else probably does the same stupid things, or stupider (like my brother who reads behind the wheel). Drive defensively ever after.
Then I moved to Texas. Never in my life have I seen a place with so many clueless, dangerous drivers in all my life. Hardly a day goes by I don’t see at least one car exiting the highway from the middle lane. I’m also firmly convinced turn signals are an option in Texas cars. Yielding? HA!
Agreed. What the hell is with the exits on i-75? They exit onto the service road. The service road traffic has to yield to the exiting traffic. Well, I can kind of understand that - not to back up traffic onto the highway. But exiting at 90 mph onto a road going 50-60 without looking is just too freaking stupid.
I’ve lived in cities where there were more poorly-skilled drivers. But i’ve never lived in another city with a greater combination of poor driving skills and actively homicidal driving manners.
And red lights? What the fuck are they? In this city, they seem to be taken as a vague suggestion that maybe you should think about stopping sometime if you can be bothered.
Did they ever fix the entrance ramps on to central? last time i was there, the entrance ramps were about 25 ft long going into traffic doing 90. Oh, and then of course there’s the Dallas North Tollway-er… autobahn. I’ve had 3 people honk at me because I was in the center lane and only going about 80. I speed, an awful lot, but come on! There’s no need to ride someone ass because he’s only going 25mph over the speed limit.
Sheesh, this thread is starting to give the impression that Houston drivers are some of the worst in the country. Won’t someone from Boston chime in to stop the sullying of our reputation?
Near the end of this morning’s commute, I pulled into the exit only lane of the freeway. Right after I did so, a silver Altima going about 95 mph veered from the far left lane all the way over to the exit lane in front of me. In doing so he had to squeeze his way through a small space between me and the slow moving pickup in the freeway’s right hand lane. The Altima passed the pickup from the right, then swerved left through the solid white line of the rapidly diminishing exit lane to get back to the center of the freeway.
But I wasn’t angry or frightened. No, I was simply impressed. I’m pretty sure there must be something wrong with me, because I don’t think that’s a healthy reaction.
This made me snort out loud - AT WORK! I covered it with a coughing fit.
I don’t think people read those “Drive Friendly” signs any more… Come to think of it, I haven’t seen one in ages. I think the Grammar Police had them removed…
