Driver behavior fascinates me - how about you? (Houston, Dallas: insurance, gated)

[SyZ]

Anybody who's spent more than 30 minutes on a toll road in Dallas can attest to the following:

- People who have a constant need to be < 5 feet from the car in front of them, even if neighboring lanes are open (these, of course, are the ones who tell their insurance adjuster that the person in front of them who braked is at fault for the rear-end accident about to ensue)

- No matter the speed, it's just never enough in the fast lane. Multiple times I've done a little experiment - I'll move up to 83, 84, 85 ... 88, ... yet, mysteriously, the car behind is still honking and cursing me out. I'm sorry, is 18 over the speed limit just not enough for you? I usually do this en route to the 12 step recovery program I lead at my church, hoping they'll follow and come in to find healing and freedom in Christ from anger and rage. Unfortunately, nobody's followed me that far yet. They always give up after realizing they can't intimidate me to move.

- Industry data shows that, despite living in a time where 'smart' and 'self-driving' vehicles have more safety features and advances than at any point in history, we live in a time where frequency of accidents is higher than at almost any other point.

- There's always that one guy in the right lane doing 48 with nobody in front of him. Like he's paralyzed and fearful of driving on 121. Yet, there he is, on the road, not staying at home.

- That one woman who who makes sure to turn her blinker on after she's halfway into the lane she just merged into, and then turns it off 2 milliseconds later. For your benefit, of course.

- The people who just never know their exit is coming up until they need to merge 4 lanes at once in order to make it, risking death in order to save the two minutes it would take to go to the next exit and make a U-turn.

Any others I'm missing?

I know the reason for all of the above - do you?

[tmtex]

Agree. Next time you go to the store, look around and see how many people are looking at their phones while driving

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Originally Posted by SyZ

- No matter the speed, it's just never enough in the fast lane. Multiple times I've done a little experiment - I'll move up to 83, 84, 85 ... 88, ... yet, mysteriously, the car behind is still honking and cursing me out. I'm sorry, is 18 over the speed limit just not enough for you? I usually do this en route to the 12 step recovery program I lead at my church, hoping they'll follow and come in to find healing and freedom in Christ from anger and rage. Unfortunately, nobody's followed me that far yet. They always give up after realizing they can't intimidate me to move.?

There's no such thing as a fast lane. There's a passing lane, but that's not the same thing. So long as you are actively passing, you are going fast enough. If you aren't actively passing, you shouldn't be in the lane.

But I do see drivers regularly who get on your a** even though someone else is in front of you, preventing you from going any faster. It's quite frustrating.

The worst, though, are people who tailgate you even if you are in the middle lane and there are other lanes they could easily pass in. I read a study a while back that said the obesity epidemic is making parents worse at judging whether their kid is overweight or not. Evidently, researchers have conducted this study over decades, and parents are much more likely now to judge a picture of an obese kid as being normal becuase that is what they see a lot. Anyway, I think these drivers have something similar going on. They've tailgated long enough that it just looks like a proper distance to them.

[RiskReturn]

The usual bad driver accusations aside, I think the combination of new residents from all over the country bringing their hodge-podge of incongruous driving habits + DFWs lack of proper signage and weird interpretation of merging ramps/lanes are partly to blame.

[lepoisson]

Drivers in DFW are so bad and I don't really understand why. When you drive an hour out of town, driving habits are totally different.

[tmtex]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Drivers in DFW are so bad and I don't really understand why. When you drive an hour out of town, driving habits are totally different.

Very true

[apple44]

For the moving over 4 lanes all at once -- I sometimes have to do it. I really don't like it, but there's just no way that I could know it earlier to manage the lane change, especially when it's a new place I'm going to.

[ifew552]

Could be much worse. If you think Dallas is bad, you should go check out Houston.

[arkroyal2223]

Originally Posted by apple44

For the moving over 4 lanes all at once -- I sometimes have to do it. I really don't like it, but there's just no way that I could know it earlier to manage the lane change, especially when it's a new place I'm going to.

No, you do not have to do it. You go down to the next exit and then make a U-turn.

[Leonard123]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Drivers in DFW are so bad and I don't really understand why. When you drive an hour out of town, driving habits are totally different.

An hour out of what town? "DFW" is not a town.

I often wonder whether there is any driver besides myself in north Texas who never uses highways or toll roads? Am I the only one? Why aren't more people scared of them?

I don't care where you go. People drive too fast. If I had my way, every single driver who ever exceeded the speed limit or failed to yield properly would be ticketed every time.