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Houston Drivers


Errestaurants

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Born and raised in Houston, live in Austin. I prefer Houston’s thunderdome style to Austin’s slow malaise. Austin people claim they have bad traffic, but it isn’t shit compared to Houston. Austin lacks the infrastructure and people just drive slower, but I would take Austin traffic over Houston traffic any day of the week. 

 

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On 9/7/2018 at 7:05 AM, 936horn said:

Co-sign. I will add, my main beef though is that you'll come up on a pack of semis and one guy is doing 53 and the others are doing 51 mph, so the guy going 53 will of course need to pass in the left lane. Doesn't matter that it takes 10 miles to over take the guy going 51, and totally fucks up traffic behind him, by God he has got to pass to keep going 53 mph.

I once got stuck behind 2 semi's going side by side for 30 miles between Waco and Temple late at night.   About 10 miles outside of Temple I called it into the local PD.   I don't know if they did anything about it, but I would like to think they did.   When I exited I could see there was a pack of about 40 cars stuck behind these assholes.

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I think someone has run the red light at every intersection I've been at this morning.

Yep.  Almost got blasted this morning. Going under 290 southbound on Mangum.  I was not waiting at the light and it was green from the time I turned left onto Mangum.  Some dipshit woman ran the red light on the inbound 290 access lane to turn right.  I locked em up to avoid getting crushed.  She never even flinched and then flipped me off.

All of this so she could go down to Frank's Diner.  I guess she was really hungry.

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13 minutes ago, deadshank said:

Yep.  Almost got blasted this morning. Going under 290 southbound on Mangum.  I was not waiting at the light and it was green from the time I turned left onto Mangum.  Some dipshit woman ran the red light on the inbound 290 access lane to turn right.  I locked em up to avoid getting crushed.  She never even flinched and then flipped me off.

All of this so she could go down to Frank's Diner.  I guess she was really hungry.

honey-boo-boo-gif-15.gif

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Real talk: houston traffic isnt that bad
 
in fact, id say its excellent for being the 4th largest city in the country. Im assuming everyone here has a 45 min - 1 hr commute  from the burbs each day, each way?
Running red lights is shitty driving and I see it all over the city at all times of the day.

Real talk: not everyone can afford a house in the city and all of the expenses that come with it. I know, stop being poor.
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I used to drive from The Woodlands to 529/Eldridge every day, and that was pre-Grand Parkway.  I am convinced that drive took a few years off of my life.  Our corporate office moved to 2920 in Spring, so now I drive 15 minutes on side streets rather than the highways. I may have gotten a few of those years back.  

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4 hours ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Real talk: houston traffic isnt that bad

 

in fact, id say its excellent for being the 4th largest city in the country. Im assuming everyone here has a 45 min - 1 hr commute  from the burbs each day, each way?

It's not just the traffic, its the road discipline and behavior.  I've lived in a few metros in the US and between them, Houston and Dallas are the worst.

 

OTOH, regarding people who hog the passing lane, equally egregious are the tailgating fuckers who act as if they're on the derestricted autobahn when, in fact, they are not.

 

Imagine there's a short string of cars on the right lane doing the 75mph limit, and you're passing them at 80-85mph (which literally takes 10-15sec or so to clear them all)...

 

...some fucker is barrelling down the left lane at 100mph flashing his lights frantically like he's a goddamn ambulance and then going bumper to bumper if you don't immediately squeeze into an imaginary gap on the convoy. 

 

Fuck you buddy im not kicking down into 3rd gear just so you can play out your Autobahn fantasies.  Chill the fuck out and wait your fucking ass.

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I love Houston drivers.  They are all crazy homicidal.  Which is nice, because it's predictable.  That guy over there is absolutely going to ride up my ass, or cut in front of me to exit, because he's an aggressive mofo, and we all know it.

MUCH better than Austin drivers, who still drive with their head all the way up their ass.  Is that guy going to drive slow in the left lane?  Or is he going to realize he's about to miss his exit and cut in front of me?  No way to tell.  "Stupid and clueless" is unpredictable, and unpredictable is dangerous.  Give me a road where I know everyone is TRYING to kill me vs. the road where that guy may or may not kill me, in any number of ways, all because he has no clue what he is going to do next.

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1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

Which part?  Cuz I'll tell you this is a weekly occurrence for me (when we do long weekend drives)

the part about cars driving on the right where they're supposed to and you being able to do 85 in the left lane without there being a ginormous line of cars all piled up in the left waiting for the guy at the front of the line to slowly creep past whoever he's been passing for the last 3 minutes, but he's not actually passing because he won't move to the right. and neither will 90% of the people in the lane behind him. 

Edited by elfenix
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4 hours ago, elfenix said:

the part about cars driving on the right where they're supposed to and you being able to do 85 in the left lane without there being a ginormous line of cars all piled up in the left waiting for the guy at the front of the line to slowly creep past whoever he's been passing for the last 3 minutes, but he's not actually passing because he won't move to the right. and neither will 90% of the people in the lane behind him. 

Yeah not in Houston this ain't happening

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houston drivers drive like shit because any place you want to go is 20-40 miles away.  houstonians spend so much fucking time behind the wheel so they drive like maniacs to lessen the time.  you go 10 over the speed limit and people are passing you like you're standing still.

 

austin drivers drive like shit because everything is 5-10 miles away.  outside of rush hour, our time in traffic is minimal.  as such there's no urgency to drive like a bat out of hell to save 30 seconds.  frustrating as shit to those us want who general drive fast.  you go 10 over the speed limit and people look at you like you're a fucking maniac.

Edited by crash_davis
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7 hours ago, crash_davis said:

houston drivers drive like shit because any place you want to go is 20-40 miles away.  houstonians spend so much fucking time behind the wheel so they drive like maniacs to lessen the time.  you go 10 over the speed limit and people are passing you like you're standing still.

 

austin drivers drive like shit because everything is 5-10 miles away.  outside of rush hour, our time in traffic is minimal.  as such there's no urgency to drive like a bat out of hell to save 30 seconds.  frustrating as shit to those us want who general drive fast.  you go 10 over the speed limit and people look at you like you're a fucking maniac.

Depends where you live.  I grew up and Sugar Land.  And that was the case.  I’ve lived inside the loop for 15 years now.  99 percent of my driving trips are within 5 miles of my house and never on freeways.  

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This has been my major bitch about living here. There are asshole drivers in California but everyone seems to at least know which lane they should be in. That is not the case here.

I see three main causes for Houston road insanity. 1) Industry. The country's 2nd largest port and all the industry in town needs to be connected with the rest of the state and country somehow. Enter the fleet of semis on the city's highways and the armada of smaller trucks carrying God-knows-what with hardly a bungee cord to strap it all down. 

2) Decentralization. People don't just have to get downtown. They're also heading to the Med center, the Energy Corridor, the Galeria, or the Port. I guess it's good that everyone isn't converging onto only one location in the morning, but that probably means that many people have to literally drive all the way across town to get to work.

I haven't decided if the feeder roads make things better or worse compared to areas that don't have them.

3) People. A good explanation for the driving behavior in the GH area doesn't exist. I think a significant number of new/recent drivers could be an explanation. Lots of people who move here are forced to drive a lot more than they used to, and some may have never driven before.

There are also a number of absolute beaters on the roads out here, unsurprisingly being driven at 50 mph. I think Texas cities would benefit from a vehicle replacement incentive program. AirCheck Texas only gives money in exchange for vehicles less than 5 years old that fail smog checks. Those cars aren't the problem.

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/8/2018 at 11:04 AM, Bill Brasky said:

I once got stuck behind 2 semi's going side by side for 30 miles between Waco and Temple late at night.   About 10 miles outside of Temple I called it into the local PD.   I don't know if they did anything about it, but I would like to think they did.   When I exited I could see there was a pack of about 40 cars stuck behind these assholes.

I can't remember the exact time period, although I want to say it was in the mid to late 90's that all the speed limits were going up, with the exception of semis etc.  I was having to drive back and forth between San Antonio and Dallas nearly every week and couldn't believe how often I would encounter that situation.

A couple of months later was talking to an uncle who was a truck driver.  He informed me it was no accident or coincidence that it was truckers doing that on purpose as a form of protest of not increasing large truck speed limits.   He said they all figured that if they couldn't go faster, no one would.

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Truckers do this all over.  My guess is that they are trying to conserve fuel and don't want to floor it.  They really get pissed when they have to slow down unexpectedly or when they get stuck behind a slower truck in front of them and the cars in the left lane prevent them from passing.

I was told by a driver several years ago that two of the big trucking companies set their upper limit governor on the engine about 2 mph apart.


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The north 610 loop I-45 splits are amazing. It’s actually faster to drive the right lane and merge over at the last second because that is what fucks up the center lanes. Annoying as shit and they need to fix this stupid 3-way split.

I got sideswiped by an 18wheeler and rear ended by the same idiot trucker a few years ago. Been run off the road by a city bus.

Really need to change driving licenses from minimal skills to socialized behaviors.

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Stay out of large vehicle blindspots...

 

just maybe.

 

I do agree, Houstonians cannot merge in traffic properly, nor can they exit from the freeway at the right speed.

Edited by slorch
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On 10/27/2018 at 10:57 AM, slorch said:

Stay out of large vehicle blindspots...

 

just maybe.

 

I do agree, Houstonians cannot merge in traffic properly, nor can they exit from the freeway at the right speed.

I know you like to be contrarian and you don't know what you are talking about.   I was in the middle of where the bus was and I was in the right lane.  He switched into my lane forcing me off the road.   The 18wheeler incident happened on the overpass from i10 West to 610North where there are only 2 lanes and railing.  I was again around the middle when he cut over, I sped up to try to avoid the collision and couldn't.  Slowing down would have caused him to crunch me with his trailer.  He hit me with the cab on my driver's side.    We slowed down, I stopped and then he ran into me again.    

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I have been fortunate in that ive worked from home for 14 years and had a 22 minute reverse commute for 4... And during those 4, the new West Loop SB SB/Katy WB connector was under construction or had just opened...

Ive looked at traffic on 610 SB and 10EB and wondered how tf people live that life...

Then i yell at mfers on talking and texting on their phones.

Houston is big. Shit is far. Drive like you have some damn sense...

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1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Were you there though?

His words:

 I was in the middle of where the bus was and I was in the right lane.  He switched into my lane forcing me off the road.   The 18wheeler incident happened on the overpass from i10 West to 610North where there are only 2 lanes and railing.  I was again around the middle when he cut over, I sped up to try to avoid the collision and couldn't.  Slowing down would have caused him to crunch me with his trailer.  He hit me with the cab on my driver's side.    We slowed down, I stopped and then he ran into me again.

Blindspot diagram:

Blindspots1.jpg

Edited by slorch
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People that will drive alongside a large truck or other oversized vehicle for an extended stretch of road infuriate me.

Happens all the time on I35 headed to Austin from DFW. Some dipshit in the left lane will take forever to pass a trucker because he's got cruise control set at 71 and the fucking truck is going 70.5. So oblivious and stupid.

Even better is when you're behind someone in the passing lane, and it looks like they're going to zoom right by a truck. But then for some inexplicable reason they slow down while passing said truck...leaving you stuck driving in the fuckers big ass blind spot. Cmon grandma, move on and move over.

 

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12 minutes ago, Hate said:

Pro tip for Houston drivers today....if you aren't already on your way home, your commute is going to suck!  Always leave work by 3, if possible, on rainy days.  

And rainy days that are Halloween.  Parents are leaving early today.

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They don't restrain their shitty driving to Houston.

Fatality-Accident.jpg

A Houston woman was killed when her Chevrolet Spark car struck the back of a tractor trailer Sunday afternoon on U.S. 81/287 south of Alvord, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Ricky Hunter.

Hunter said preliminary investigation indicates the driver of the Chevy, identified as 36-year-old Tiffany Ann Rosario, was traveling south on U.S. 81/287 and attempted to pass another vehicle on the shoulder of the roadway when she collided with the tractor trailer. The impact wedged Rosario’s car underneath the tractor trailer, collapsing a majority of the vehicle.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

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7 hours ago, pearlandhorn said:

I drive an hour to and from work every day.  For the first 6 years, I took freeways (288 and 610 or 288 to 59.  Now I take Mykawa up through town.  Less miles and I get there 15 minutes faster.  Fuck the freeways in this city.

How is your suspension holding up?

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