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Having lived in LA, Dallas, Chicago, and Houston as well as driven extensively in SF, Vegas, Atlanta, Miami, and DC, Houston is the worst. The drivers in Houston are far more aggressive than in the other cities.
I don’t know who is the most, but I found drivers in Houston to be surprisingly aggressive. I say surprising because I wasn’t expecting it and also because I found them aggressive for no reason. The freeway traffic could be heavy but moving, but they don’t want to let people change lanes in front of them. They sped up to block at the sight of a turn signal. I get that in some instances but if we’re all only going 15-20 mph, what’s the point?
I don’t know who is the most, but I found drivers in Houston to be surprisingly aggressive. I say surprising because I wasn’t expecting it and also because I found them aggressive for no reason. The freeway traffic could be heavy but moving, but they don’t want to let people change lanes in front of them. They sped up to block at the sight of a turn signal. I get that in some instances but if we’re all only going 15-20 mph, what’s the point?
I'm not sure if I remember that about Houston. Most of the time I've driven there, traffic flowed well. Not saying you're wrong, wouldn't be surprised. From the places I've lived:
Tyler - was a child, never had to drive, wasn't noticeably difficult
Corpus Christi - easy peasy. Drivers were reasonable, because they could be.
Austin- relatively nice drivers, awful, awful traffic. Sometimes it was such a standstill that you could get out of the car and pee and still not have to find your car.
DC - Awful, awful traffic. Pretty aggressive drivers, or so I thought. In the larger cities, people will cut right in front of you, with or without signaling. Used to upset me, but it's just part of life.
Denver - lots of speeding, aggression, dense traffic that moves swiftly. Pretty surprised at the aggression honestly. Not what I expected.
Clemson - about what you'd expect. Pretty hectic during sporting events.
Seattle - dense, but pretty friendly drivers
SoCal- crazy, you have to be aggressive here. Drivers will let you in though. OC drivers are fast drivers, will ride you and often will not signal. LA is the zoo basically.
Yeah, I really hate those service roads. You can get off the interstate easily enough, but it's a pain figuring out how to get back on.
What is so difficult about getting on the interstate from a service/frontage road compared to getting back on the interstate from a non-service/frontage road?
I don’t know who is the most, but I found drivers in Houston to be surprisingly aggressive. I say surprising because I wasn’t expecting it and also because I found them aggressive for no reason. The freeway traffic could be heavy but moving, but they don’t want to let people change lanes in front of them. They sped up to block at the sight of a turn signal. I get that in some instances but if we’re all only going 15-20 mph, what’s the point?
Stop signs and red lights are merely suggestions. Pedestrians are merely speed bumps.
Some will exit the highway on the right by cutting across multiple lanes from the extreme left hand lane at the last second.
Some will drive their Chevy or jalopy with a broken windshield at 25MPH on the highway.
Three wheelers drive on the highway, evidently without impunity from my experience.
As you merge from one highway overpass to another highway some will attempt to pass you on the side of the road.
A red light with a green turn directional arrow is the equivalent in Miami of a PhD team from the Stanford Physics department trying to split an atom at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory—the “mixed message” confuses many Miamians.
25% of drivers in the state don’t have insurance (many of these likely don’t have US citizenship) and will drive away if involved in an accident rather than stopping to exchange information or wait for the police.
And these are just the foreigners—I’ve not even brought up the elderly or getting caught in potential flooded streets during or following a heavy downpour.
I decided in the past few years that the Miami/Fort Lauderdale-style drivers have moved to Atlanta. I've lived in both places. Atlanta driving has gotten scary. Lots of recent transplants who left whatever traffic manners they had back home. Aggressive, weaving, and they honk at anything. Granted, Miami driving is no picnic, but overall doesn't seem as bad as Atlanta's traffic has become. Atlanta's drivers were always a little heavy on the gas pedal, but they still had some courtesy.
What is so difficult about getting on the interstate from a service/frontage road compared to getting back on the interstate from a non-service/frontage road?
In a traditional diamond interchange, the perpendicular road at the bottom of the exit ramp is the road that is announced on the exit sign. And the onramp directly across from the bottom of the exit ramp will lead you back onto the interstate. So it's very easy to figure out where you need to go to find the road that is listed on the exit signs, or to find the way back on to the highway.
But in Texas, the off-ramp will put you onto a service road. Where is the road that was listed on the exit sign? I don't know, somewhere up there. When you do find it, the lane to turn left is immediately next to the lane that would let you do a U-turn to get back onto the highway going the other way, and which lane is which is not well marked. (I discovered this the hard way.) And when you've done what you came to do and want to get back onto the interstate, where is the onramp? I don't know, somewhere up there.
Maybe if I had learned to drive in Texas, it would be second nature. But I didn't. I learned to drive in one of the other 49 states that has traditional diamond interchanges for most of the access/egress points to and from the interstate.
I decided in the past few years that the Miami/Fort Lauderdale-style drivers have moved to Atlanta. I've lived in both places. Atlanta driving has gotten scary. Lots of recent transplants who left whatever traffic manners they had back home. Aggressive, weaving, and they honk at anything. Granted, Miami driving is no picnic, but overall doesn't seem as bad as Atlanta's traffic has become. Atlanta's drivers were always a little heavy on the gas pedal, but they still had some courtesy.
Or brought their crappy habits with them. And listen, all for globalization, but there are a lot of folks from other countries who clearly think they're still driving in their home country.
To me the worst cities to drive in are those with streets that just end and expressways that have just feeder roads that all lead to and God forbid you have a blockage and find you really cant just exit and easily find city streets to continue on..... them cities are the worst to drive in in you are just stuck then as it is futile to try to find another route in them cities. Cities that have plenty of alternative routes then are less stressful.
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