Houston drivers are just horrible. (authority, council, solution)

[slbnoob]

I moved from Minnesota 'Nice' to Houston last year. I got a driving shock right away. I think some of it is due to all the transplants from other places/countries (including me) moving here, navigating the crowded and often complex road system here. However, many do lack the welcome driving etiquette. It is extremely common to see cars turning without indicating, even at 4 way stop signs. I have become far more aware of my surroundings because of driving here.

[Dopo]

Now that we are talking about this...
Where the h... are the cops? I rarely see one.

Never mind, I just remember the few cops I've seen driving on the highway doing the speed limit while cruising on the left lane

[F2BBS]

In San Antonio and SE Houston you gotta put your Mexican hat on before driving.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by josh u

I grew up in CA and always thought CA had the worst drivers in the country, but having spent significant time in Houston, I now recant my beliefs. You guys take the cake.

I've never seen so many clueless fools blocking the passing lane, including semis. I've never been cut off so many times, or nearly run off the road. I've never seen so many drivers try to cut in front of a line of waiting cars and subsequently block all the other lanes (one of many examples: 610 @ 59 junction). I've never seen so many accidents -- sometimes there'd be 2 accidents within 1 mile.

I generally only honk my horn when confronted with the most egregious infractions. I'm a very calm driver. In a typical year of driving in CA, I may do it 3 times. In 10 days of Houston driving, I did it 4 times.

Houston drivers are just atrociously bad and rude... and coming from a CA driver that's saying A LOT.

It didn't use to be this way 20 years ago.

I think the problem is from so many people with so many styles of driving coming from so many different places not being able to interact on the roads.

[Lbjen]

Clearly nobody's ever been to Chicago. I was shocked at how polite drivers here are in comparison. And amazed at how many people actually stick pretty close to the speed limit.

[texas7]

It isn't a Houston driver thing. It's everyone moving here from everywhere else bringing their own regional bad driving habits with them. So now you have an existing regional style of driving mixed with 49 other states and no telling how many other countries driving habits all mixed in. It isn't Houston drivers per se.

Nobody thinks they are personally a bad driver, they always think its only everyone around them. Sometimes you just have to look in the mirror.

[texas7]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Let's get something straight.... people do crazy things because they can get away with doing it

Here is just like in Venezuela (where I grew up) anybody does whatever the h... they want.
Today I was driving to work and I noticed a sob in a contractor van driving about 45mph on the left lane of highway 45.
First chance I had, I cut in front of him so close that I bet he c..... his pants.
Yes it's rude, but is even more rude to be the person that creates a traffic jam on the highway and make a bunch of people be late for work because you like driving slow on the left lane.

So the old saying two wrongs don't make a right would apply here. You contributed to bad drivers by joining in with them and potentially causing an accident and tying up a lot of traffic had that happened. Instead of going around the slow driver and getting about your way, you focused a bit of rage and wasted energy into looking for "the first chance I had" to cut in too close.

[hendersj31]

I moved form Chicago. Driving there is crazy too. I don't mind it too much, I just learn to work with it. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things

Originally Posted by Lbjen

Clearly nobody's ever been to Chicago. I was shocked at how polite drivers here are in comparison. And amazed at how many people actually stick pretty close to the speed limit.

[Meyerland]

Just about any big city with long commute times will have bad drivers. All of that road rage seems to multiply. Houston seems particularly bad because of all of the congestion on the hways/streets combined with people moving here from all over the globe. Many countries do not have similar driving rules.

I remember riding in the car with a very nice Egyptian lady, whose husband worked with mine. She was driving in the middle of a 2 lane road. She didn't stop at the sign and later ran a red light. I was scared to death! The next time we went to lunch, I drove.

[theSUBlime]

Terrible drivers here..and getting worse. It's called a ****ing blinker -- use it because the rest of us aren't psychic.