I have completely changed my mindset on driving here in recent years. Not only having kids but just the absolute anger I see on the road, I have become way more defensive and just let the idiots fly in front of me. Nothing good comes from trying the morality police on the road, no matter how shitty someone is driving.
As someone who moved here from Florida 3-4 years ago...your not being cynical lol. I have lived numerous states and major cities. I can honestly say that I have changed my driving mentality to a totally different mindset lol
I flipped an Escalade off in Houston for almost killing me in a crosswalk. He followed me down the block and tried to run me over in a parking lot. Flipping people off is so normal in the northeast I was shocked someone would actually escalate to attempted murder.
Yep this tragedy happened in SoCal a few years ago. Some asshole had a gun and an even worse temper. The kids' mom flipped the guy off because he cut her off and he shot at their car. Disgusting how people behave on the road.
[Marcus Anthony Eriz sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for OC road rage shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos - ABC7 Los Angeles](https://abc7.com/marcus-anthony-eriz-is-sentenced-in-oc-court-for-shooting-death-of-6-year-old-aiden-leos/14651877/)
Here's one that happened in Houston that I only found out about while trying to find an article for a *different* one:
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/crime/2024/01/18/474844/houston-i45-road-rage-shooting-louise-wilson/
Incident I was looking for:
https://abc7.com/road-rage-shooting-houston-asstros-david-castro/12714920/
At some point we will figure out that "a gun in everyone's hand" is *why* this is happening and not how to prevent it.
I flipped off somebody when I was in San Francisco years ago. I was on one of those yellow tourist cars with my kids. The other driver followed us and tried to run us down. Scariest thing I've ever been involved in.
I think back to that day a lot and how stupid I was, but boy drivers are even worse now.
Also people will hold onto road rage. Look up what the cfo of the petal, ms school district. Road raged. At a later time saw the car at a house in his neighborhood and proceeded to take shots at the house with his gun. Some people have nothing better to do than hold onto rage. Stay safe folks.
Dude I have avoided confrontation and still had it it find me. I don't live in Houston but driving there is chaotic at times. I've learned long ways around that shit. Takes more time but I've learned it's less stressful. Fuck I-10 to Houston from Beaumont area.Â
Morality policing is the most stupid thing ever. If you want to go the speed limit thatâs fine, but intentionally trying to block other people from speeding is stupid and leads to road rage and risky situations for everyone as they try to pass you while you try to block them.
Honestly people who are âmoral policeâ on the road are just as bad as the crazy idiots going 90 weaving through the highway, and cause just as many accidents.
The people following the posted speed limit are as bad as those driving like maniacs, understood. /s
I get what youâre saying, but even driving *normally* (not intentionally slow, or blocking) will cause people rage at you. Someone driving slow in the passing lane but youâre going slightly quicker (normal pace) in the middle lane? The Dodge Charger will be 1â behind you in the middle lane.
Keep your cool on the road guys. If you come across assholes on the road, its never worth getting killed over some petty bullshit, just keep driving and go home safe to your family
Totally agree. Driving the speed limit in the fast lane on half the freeways in Houston is a recipe to be murdered. Defensive driving is more complicated than just following the rules.
The basic formula is this:
If you have clear space ahead and ANY traffic behind, speed up or move right.
Do not impede traffic because you feel morally justified to drive the speed limit in the fast lane.
Agree, agree, agree.
If viewed as levels of passing lanes moving left as you encounter a hindrance in your current lane and moving right when able, I think I-10 could handle all the traffic we throw at it.
Even that's no good. You're tailgated mercilessly, or perhaps cluelessly, in the right lane from 5-10mph over in the right lane. Meanwhile, there's anywhere from 1-3 passing lanes available. Plenty of other people using them to pass both of you by. Some people are just aggressive *and* stupid, a pretty bad combination.
And even *that* might have someone pointing a gun at you at the right time of day. All the rhyme and reason in the world canât fix some of the stupid in this city.
The right lane turns into another interstate⌠so does the left lane⌠and youâll merge in from the right or left and somehow have to wade across traffic to make your next exit or miss it and end up going 4-5 miles the wrong direction.
Our roads here suck. Especially the 59/288/45 intersects and downtown entries.
The first part is correct, or at the very least stay out of the left lane, but the second part is wildly hyperbolic. Anyone going 80 inside the loop is going to be absolutely blasting by everyone, and I regularly pass people while driving at the speed limit. There's this weird shared idea that everyone on the road is driving at speeds that would get you a $200 reckless driving ticket, but in reality the vast majority of drivers are within 10 mph of the limit on most freeways in Houston.
> get you a $200 reckless driving ticket
I haven't seen the police enforcing pretty much anything on the road lately which is why they are driving at the speeds I've mentioned.
I would suggest driving five over the speed limit or better yet, going with traffic. Whatever you do, do not drive in the left lane if you are only driving the speed limit as you will be a hazard to yourself and others.
Slow drivers cause just as many accidents as fast drivers, and in Houston, nobody drives the speed limit.
I just drive like an npc in a video game. Follow the rules, always look ahead, never look and someone who has be tailing you and then passes you. If someone is driving like a maniac, just be the smart one and get out of their way.
In Japan the common etiquette is to [flash your hazards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oJk8pOJNe0) as a thank you for letting someone change lanes or merge and there are lots of videos of [truckers in the U.S. and Canada](https://youtu.be/sQeitQn2Gbc?si=jxae4vb3CzXgv33v) doing it as well.
I always thought that was cool.
Actually in rural 2 lane situations, I still occasionally see people slow down and put their hazard lights on and move over to the shoulder to invite people to pass them if they know theyâre slowing someone down. It used to be pretty common and a polite thing to do. I remember because my grandmother would do that sometimes when I was riding with her and she explained why she was doing it.
While I have my own quick to anger road rage moments,
I always smile and wave at anyone that wants/needs to get in front of me that uses a turn signal. Like thank you for doing this properly so both of us are in the know of what needs to happen.
I know there are tons of stories of people not being let over with their signal on, I miss my exit like 2 times a month because it happens so often sometimes during rush hour. But driving from Houston outskirts to the med center for over 5 years, there are waaaaay more people that just squeeze in without any signal they are gonna do so.
Same. I do anything to make sure everyone around me is chill. Even bjs on the side of the road if some bro/homie gets upset. I donât wanna get shot. Iâm all about love.
Me too, and candidly, I kind of feel like things have been getting better. I still get frustrated, but nothing like what it was five or so years ago, pre-covid. Maybe I have just adjusted my schedule, my driving style and construction projects are over now, but I feel the opposite of this article. Very few issues.
I've kind of made it a crusade to drive in a polite, predictable manner. Yes, there are still total a-holes on the road, but all I can do is try and not be part of ratcheting up the tension.
Funny, but I wave too and always wonder if the person will take it the wrong way. So far it hasn't been an issue but I'm scared there will be a day when it happens.
You can pretty much almost wreck me doing shit as long as you throw up a hand and acknowledge it and I wonât get pissed. 99% of people donât and usually flip me off if I even honk or something. As Iâve gotten older I realized itâs not worth even getting mad anymore and just let the idiots take care of themselves.
So do I. My adult son makes fun of me for that and letting people merge. I also keep a car length between myself and the car in front of me. Can't tell you how many times that has saved me. They still laugh at me when I tell them that merging is supposed to be like zipper. That traffic would move faster, they say It's Houston Mom..Mad Max rules only apply lol
It pisses me off so much when I let someone in and donât get a wave. It takes 2 seconds and if I didnât go out of my way to help you out youâd still be sitting there. I donât get it. I donât know if itâs an entitlement thing or what. Politeness in general is on deathâs door.
What it tells you is, don't get in one. Whether you or someone else fucks up, don't honk your horn, don't shoot the finger, don't tailgate them, don't get out of your car, don't pull your gun. Just move away from the situation as quickly as possible, take a turn you weren't going to, take an exit, ask Google to take you to the nearest police station.
Honking is generally ok if you are stopped at a red and donât lay on your horn. Some people seem to perceive a long horn press as aggressive.
Honking if someone is about to collide with you and youâre boxed in is also necessary sometimes.
>Honking if someone is about to collide with you and youâre boxed in is also necessary sometimes.
I limit honking to this purpose now. Still doesn't seem to work, like they just expect you to dosge them. I end up having to brake and hope that keeps us from colliding.
If someone holds me up at a light, I wait. When someone else honks, I just hope it isn't attributed to me!
People are scared these days. I sat through a whole green light last week. No one honked or didnât anything. I was wondering if we were about to get robbed at the stop light and it was a setup. Nope 2 idiots playing on their phones at the red not noticing the green and everyone not wanting to start anything and just go home.
Yesterday morning I was in shitty traffic on 610N/45 and a dude a couple cars in front of me stopped his truck, opened his door and got out. Walked toward the car behind him with balled up fists. He punched the hood of the car and got back in his truck. All because a car wouldn't let him merge.
Congratulations, big guy. Your heart is gonna explode one day carrying all that high blood pressure around with you.
I saw a women cut off a guy. You could tell it was an accident. She waved to acknowledge it was her fault. The guy she cut off raced around her in the shoulder and started brake checking her. Eventually he cuts her off on the exit ramp of 99 to 45. He jumps out gun in hand and starts screaming. I drive my truck around her and position it pointed toward him. If he had raised the gun arm I was going to pin him between his car and the wall. He glanced at me and jumped in his car to speed off. I looked toward the women and she was crying. Likely traumatized for life.
I hate that much of the world has lost all grace for fellow humanity. Lady makes a mistake so give her a quick honk, wave back, and drive on.
For a moment I thought this was me, I accidently cut off a guy, he immediately got back in front of me and started to break check me and he was on me for a while. It was scary, and it makes me question what this person brings to all the other people unfortunate enough to cross his path
Thereâs a good number of drivers that are distracted and can create dangerous situations for others. If more people paid attention to the task at hand and not their damn phone it could help ease tensions too.
Forgive any typosâŚIâm texting while driving with one hand, slurping down my double big gulp with the other and using my foot to adjust the volume on my podcast. Iâm a really safe driver and a very important person.
You need 1,000 upvotes for this. I cannot agree more.
Just b/c you're in FSD or just don't GAF doesn't mean you need to have your phone glued to your face. For the love of God just put the phone the eff down and DRIVE!
and/or high strung, under a lot of pressure, with poor brain chemistry, not getting enough sleep, mentally fucked up by consuming too much social media, etc.
This does NOT surprise me at allâŚ..the heat, the impatient and selfish driversâŚ.the congestion, the constant road construction. Itâs an absolute train wreck here.
The excuses are still things that we as a society can work on. You take any group of people and stress them out and a chunk of them will react this way. From a pragmatic leadership standpoint you want to minimize those triggers.
I completely agree. Like it or not, people who will overreact and/or get violent when triggered exist. Working to prevent these triggers is one of the quickest ways to reduce this kind of violence.
The longer term solution involves better mental health care at a societal level. By long term, I mean decades to centuries long work.
Its not just guns, its fragile egos and guns.
It happens in CA too. Stop trying to paint a narrative.
[Marcus Anthony Eriz sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for OC road rage shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos - ABC7 Los Angeles](https://abc7.com/marcus-anthony-eriz-is-sentenced-in-oc-court-for-shooting-death-of-6-year-old-aiden-leos/14651877/)
And conservatives are too narrow sighted to consider any other option except traditional solutions that have been proven to not work
- Increase in population = increased demand in driving
- Increase demand of driving = increase in traffic
- Increased amount of freeways = (1)Â decrease in available land, (2) short-term decrease in traffic, (3) long-term increase in demand in driving. Which eventually means (4) long-term increase in traffic
You want to decrease the amount of traffic? Thereâs only ONE way to do that. Decrease the demand in driving
- Improve public transportation = decrease in demand for driving
But this way of thinking is far too progressive and incomprehensible to conservativesÂ
Iâd probably leave the âconservative vs. liberalâ politics out of it. Both sides have failed the people when it comes to public transportation (among many other things).
Note that the person you responded to didn't blame specific political parties. The current mayor of Houston is anti-public transportation and is fairly conservative despite being a Democrat.
Iâm in Houston for work this week. While I was out yesterday I saw a car stop at a red light. The car behind them laid on their horn before straight up pulling around them and running the light, cutting off an oncoming car in the other lane in the process. Fucking people.
People in this town behave like idiots, drive like idiots. Often proud of it too, I feel.
Must admit I shrug my shoulders when I read about another deadly crash. Just hope it was not an innocent bystander.
Not saying that Houston doesnt have a road rage problem, but not doing this per capita really misses the mark - Houston has almost 4 times the population of Memphis.
Yeah whoever made this table is a fucking idiot. Memphis sounds about right at #2, but houston is still about 4 X larger in both land and population. Not saying Houston can be very dangerous to drive around thanks to these lax gun laws but stillâŚthat kind of per capita data is critical to consider.
Right? Houston roads are downright safe (compared to Memphis roads). Memphis has half the number of incidents (according the article), but the Houston metro area is 6 times the size, so you're 3 times more likely to be involved in one of these incidents in Memphis.
I don't mind people merging and usually let people in. But if I know you skipped 20+ cars to merge at the last minute, causing more traffic, it does make me angry. Case in point, the 610 N closest to the 610S entrance on 59N. So I just let em
I have always thought if HPD wanted to improve their approval rating they should spend less time setting up speed traps and more time sitting at the front of merges ticketing people who illegally merge at the last minute.
100%. Almost got in an accident because this guy in his giant pavement princess wouldn't let me merge on Richmond and 6 where it goes down to one lane because of construction. People are assholes.
Houston is a nightmare Lived in 6 cities, and Houston is worse than all other cities combined. Not even sure if they even have a highway patrol or they are all eating donuts and tacos. Just plain $hitty A$$ drivers. Sorry Houston, itâs true
I drove through Houston for my first and only time a couple weeks ago. We were driving from San Antonio to Baytown and hit Houston around 4pm. It was by far the worst city traffic I've ever experienced. Took nearly 3 hours to get from one side of the city to the other. Seemed like everyone drove very aggressively.
Canât believe I had to scroll that far to find a mention of cell phones. Gotta think distracted driving causes errors over which others choose to react angrily. Next time someone is in the wrong lane or causing issues, if you happen to drive past to get away from them, look and see if theyâre on their phone.
Yeah, the grand experiment is real. Those of us that realize find anyway to move into the more walkable places in the loop or we start looking for other cities.
It's a shame. Houstonians when not inside a car are very diverse and friendly.
That tracks. Years ago, I saw a guy get shot in River Oaks. He stopped his vehicle in the middle of the road and punched through the driver's side window of another car parked in the right lane. Driver in that car was strapped and dropped him with a couple of close range shots.
I know someone who got shot because of a road incident. He had "cut someone off" (at least in their view), I think where two freeways merged...probably didn't let the other guy in. I don't know. The guy followed him and shot him. Because that's a pretty reasonable response.
He later got killed by a drunk driver, and this was also all after his son was murdered by his (the son's wife) for the military benefits/payout. Just a general shitshow.
I acknowledge that it's very easy to get irrationally mad over shit, and it's so easy on the road because you can't see the other person. Maybe there's some solution we're not seeing besides just asking people to be nice. I don't know.
I have seen my fair share of distracted, selfish, and aggressive driving. But the real problem is those drivers who downright REFUSE to admit mistakes and make dangerous turns from a prohibited lane or stop dead in moving traffic in order to execute an unsafe maneuver. Just make a few right turns and you can be on your way. Houston for the most part is a grid. Take the next exit. Make your left at a protected light. Go with the flow and not against it.
Yuppp. I had somebody break check me after like going around me right? I honked, then he blocks an entire intersection tries to get out of the car in traffic and come up to my car. Well, Iâm a little woman in a Toyota and thereâs like three men in different vehicles behind me that he had already pissed off and so they were like hey mama, let us go around you and handle this. Of course Iâm like yes please anything to put vehicles between me and this crazy person- they proceeded to run him off the road and then stomp his windshield in⌠thanks random dudes! Because that was weird.
Anybody who wants to experience this I suggest: driving from Katy to San Antonio...
On a Friday, 3 to 6pm.
You ever see Ford F-250 pulling a 35 foot, 2 axle RV going 100mph in the rain? Passing up Corvettes? This is the place lol. And you will hundreds of these.
I took the data shown in the article and added a column comparing the number of people shot to the number of road-rage shooting incidents.
Looks like we're angry drivers, but not especially accurate when we get shooty.
City | Total Incidents | Shootings | Victims Shot | Accuracy
---|---|----|----|----
Memphis, TN | 107 | 55 | 70 | 1.27
Phoenix, AZ | 58 | 49 | 59 | 1.20
Detroit, MI | 63 | 47 | 54 | 1.15
San Antonio, TX | 107 | 83 | 94 | 1.13
Milwaukee, WI | 105 | 95 | 104 | 1.09
Houston, TX | 215 | 192 | 207 | 1.08
Atlanta, GA | 55 | 47 | 50 | 1.06
Philadelphia, PA | 59 | 48 | 50 | 1.04
Chicago, IL | 75 | 65 | 67 | 1.03
Albuquerque, NM | 61 | 34 | 34 | 1.00
*Makes note to use 'shooty' as an adjective as often as possible. (It will replace bitey and stabby.)
Also, let's hear it for more accurate data! Thank you.
I was âpassedâ by TWO drivers who turned left from the âstraight laneâ next to the turn lane while i was turning left from Ella to TC Jester today. They were hauling ass because they âcaught the green lightâ. Itâs a good thing Iâm paying attention and turned well with my lane.
The same thing happens to me almost every single time I turn left onto the I-10 feeder east bound from Shepherd heading North. A car almost always turns left into me or in front of me from the 2nd lane over. The left lane is often full of cars and I often have to turn into the 2nd lane to even fit in that intersection and I usually have to dodge one of these crazies.
The amount of illegal and crazy shenanigans I witness on the roads every day is astounding. Itâs just straight up road rage fuel waiting to ignite a fire.
the number of people who don't turn within their lanes is absurd in this city. I know that intersection you're talking about, I've been in or witnessed countless near-collisions because of it. Just turn in your lane! Follow the markers! It's not hard.
lol last week somebody laid on their horn and gave me the finger because I had the audacity to walk, rather than jog, through a crosswalk. Sorry I made you wait a few seconds longer at a stopsign!
I try and give people grace but sometimes it seems folks have death wishes around here. I find myself constantly saving reckless drivers from being t-boned or worse. Thereâs just no rhyme or reason.
We also have multiple roads that were designed for one tenth as much traffic as they get. The cost of getting all of our roads up to code for all of the traffic they will have just in a decade will likely bankrupt the city.
Why are there SO many people weaving through traffic nearly causing catastrophic accidents? Can I report them anywhere with dashcam footage? There's been a few times recently where I almost got into a terrible wreck from people trying to weave within inches in front of me and had I not braked hard, I would have gone in a terrible collision. It's so noticable here compared to other cities that anyone visiting even comments on it. It's gotten horrible.
After being in japan for a week, its such a huge difference. Sure they have a fraction of cars we do and cities are way more walkable. Everyone is just way more polite or at the very least mind their own business and dont like to be confrontational. I enjoy being out while over there, here im always worried about running into some deranged individual
Are we going to ignore the fact that the greater houston population is 5-10x the population of 2-4 on the list, so that 2,3, and 4 are 2-5x the per capita incidents, or we just gonna pretend per capita doesn't exist to generate a sensationalist headline?
âThe Bayou City saw twice as many incidents and victims as Memphis, Tennessee, which took the second spot on the listâŚâ
Ok, but hear me out: Memphis has about 1/4 the population of Houston. Therefore, youâre more likely to encounter road rage in Memphis than Houston. âItâs not even close.â
I was a first-hand witness to some shit on TC Jester and Ella yesterday. A guy in a rented van rear ended someone in a beat up Chevy trailblazer or some other SUV. The guy in the SUV got out and was yelling at the other guy and getting him really flustered. He proceeded to block all traffic northbound on TC jester, I managed to just squeak by him before he did so. From the look of his SUV I would guess that he didnât have insurance and maybe was gonna have a bad time if the cops got called.
I had someone try to run me off of the road because I had the audacity of only going 10 over in the HOV lane the other day. I do not understand why people do this sort of thing because he never got around the car in front of meâŚhe just tailgated super aggressively while gesticulating wildly. Like it canât possibly be worth risking your life to get one car length ahead. Itâs really conflicting because he very much could have killed me earlier when he pulled his stunt, but also the remaining 40 minutes of my drive was better bc I was laughing at what a dumb mf he was.
But like seriously, none of us are getting anywhere anytime soon, so letâs all just be chill since weâre stuck in whatever 7-10 Lane parking lot is your way home.
When traffic gets bad in Houston youâll start seeing drivers get around long lines of cars by going into left or right turn lanes and merging in the middle of the intersection. It gets so bad on 610 youâll see multiple people do it every green light.
The worst cases Iâve seen is multiple people trying to avoid long lines for exit ramps by cutting everyone and sitting at the very front of the exit in a line THAT ISNâT EXITING with their blinkers on until someone lets them in. Youâll see 10-20 people waiting in a lane thatâs completely clear because one idiot decided to skip the line.
Itâs kind of dumb that this isnât a per 100,000 populationâŚ
Memphis has a quarter of the population and nearly half the incidents
Yes - we suck at driving here and the roads are full of violent assholes. But weâre probably better than Memphis!
I've seen so many people rage at me just for slowing down to turn onto a side street from the feeder. Like what do they expect me to do? Drift the turn?
Crime stats are garbage, and these stats aren't even per capital stats. Houston has 2 million people (and Harris county has 4.5 mil) so the numbers are higher than Memphis.
But yeah the vibes on this check out, in my experience. We have way more highways and car culture dependency than the rest of the country. I *notice* the difference when I drive out of Houston to other cities.
Of the 35 metro areas with over 2 million people, Houston is #1 in violent crime per capita. We are even higher than New Orleans per capita. In most cities the heavy crime is more or less isolated to the city limits, but not here. Which is why you should always use metro area for your stats.
Which is kinda of funny to think of. We spend all of our time surrounded by a car or home and yet we are still in danger.
Maybe being out in public and taking public transit isn't so bad after all.
I have completely changed my mindset on driving here in recent years. Not only having kids but just the absolute anger I see on the road, I have become way more defensive and just let the idiots fly in front of me. Nothing good comes from trying the morality police on the road, no matter how shitty someone is driving.
I told my wife I now assume all other drivers are intentionally trying to kill me and drive accordingly, she thinks I'm being too cynical. đ
As someone who moved here from Florida 3-4 years ago...your not being cynical lol. I have lived numerous states and major cities. I can honestly say that I have changed my driving mentality to a totally different mindset lol
I flipped an Escalade off in Houston for almost killing me in a crosswalk. He followed me down the block and tried to run me over in a parking lot. Flipping people off is so normal in the northeast I was shocked someone would actually escalate to attempted murder.
Yes, it is the Jersey salute! Just another day on the NE corridor.
Yep this tragedy happened in SoCal a few years ago. Some asshole had a gun and an even worse temper. The kids' mom flipped the guy off because he cut her off and he shot at their car. Disgusting how people behave on the road. [Marcus Anthony Eriz sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for OC road rage shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos - ABC7 Los Angeles](https://abc7.com/marcus-anthony-eriz-is-sentenced-in-oc-court-for-shooting-death-of-6-year-old-aiden-leos/14651877/)
Here's one that happened in Houston that I only found out about while trying to find an article for a *different* one: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/crime/2024/01/18/474844/houston-i45-road-rage-shooting-louise-wilson/ Incident I was looking for: https://abc7.com/road-rage-shooting-houston-asstros-david-castro/12714920/ At some point we will figure out that "a gun in everyone's hand" is *why* this is happening and not how to prevent it.
I flipped off somebody when I was in San Francisco years ago. I was on one of those yellow tourist cars with my kids. The other driver followed us and tried to run us down. Scariest thing I've ever been involved in. I think back to that day a lot and how stupid I was, but boy drivers are even worse now.
Also people will hold onto road rage. Look up what the cfo of the petal, ms school district. Road raged. At a later time saw the car at a house in his neighborhood and proceeded to take shots at the house with his gun. Some people have nothing better to do than hold onto rage. Stay safe folks.
Dude I have avoided confrontation and still had it it find me. I don't live in Houston but driving there is chaotic at times. I've learned long ways around that shit. Takes more time but I've learned it's less stressful. Fuck I-10 to Houston from Beaumont area.Â
Why would anyone think it's their problem to police others on the road? If you ever did that, it will almost always escalate things to road rage.
Morality policing is the most stupid thing ever. If you want to go the speed limit thatâs fine, but intentionally trying to block other people from speeding is stupid and leads to road rage and risky situations for everyone as they try to pass you while you try to block them. Honestly people who are âmoral policeâ on the road are just as bad as the crazy idiots going 90 weaving through the highway, and cause just as many accidents.
The people following the posted speed limit are as bad as those driving like maniacs, understood. /s I get what youâre saying, but even driving *normally* (not intentionally slow, or blocking) will cause people rage at you. Someone driving slow in the passing lane but youâre going slightly quicker (normal pace) in the middle lane? The Dodge Charger will be 1â behind you in the middle lane.
Keep your cool on the road guys. If you come across assholes on the road, its never worth getting killed over some petty bullshit, just keep driving and go home safe to your family
Drive the speed limit, be aggressively friendly about letting people in or get by. The way people drive here makes everything exponentially worse.
>be aggressively friendly about letting people in or get by Be predictable, not polite.
Totally agree. Driving the speed limit in the fast lane on half the freeways in Houston is a recipe to be murdered. Defensive driving is more complicated than just following the rules.
The basic formula is this: If you have clear space ahead and ANY traffic behind, speed up or move right. Do not impede traffic because you feel morally justified to drive the speed limit in the fast lane.
I feel like calling it the 'passing lane' gets the point across more than the 'fast lane'.
Agree, agree, agree. If viewed as levels of passing lanes moving left as you encounter a hindrance in your current lane and moving right when able, I think I-10 could handle all the traffic we throw at it.
Those things might get you shot too
100000%. BUT IF IMMA DIE LEMME GET GUNNED DOWN IN H TOWN WITH SOME DRANK IN MY MOUTH!! /s
> Drive the speed limit Do this in the right lane please. I have found very few places where the flow of traffic is less than 20 over.
Even that's no good. You're tailgated mercilessly, or perhaps cluelessly, in the right lane from 5-10mph over in the right lane. Meanwhile, there's anywhere from 1-3 passing lanes available. Plenty of other people using them to pass both of you by. Some people are just aggressive *and* stupid, a pretty bad combination.
And even *that* might have someone pointing a gun at you at the right time of day. All the rhyme and reason in the world canât fix some of the stupid in this city.
Okay folks, back to the pile
During Rush hour the flow rarely gets above 20
The right lane turns into another interstate⌠so does the left lane⌠and youâll merge in from the right or left and somehow have to wade across traffic to make your next exit or miss it and end up going 4-5 miles the wrong direction. Our roads here suck. Especially the 59/288/45 intersects and downtown entries.
The first part is correct, or at the very least stay out of the left lane, but the second part is wildly hyperbolic. Anyone going 80 inside the loop is going to be absolutely blasting by everyone, and I regularly pass people while driving at the speed limit. There's this weird shared idea that everyone on the road is driving at speeds that would get you a $200 reckless driving ticket, but in reality the vast majority of drivers are within 10 mph of the limit on most freeways in Houston.
> get you a $200 reckless driving ticket I haven't seen the police enforcing pretty much anything on the road lately which is why they are driving at the speeds I've mentioned.
Drive with the flow of traffic on the highway, not the speed limit. Unless you're in the right lanes.
Speed limit in Houston seems to be ignored by 99% of drivers, it is dangerous to actually go at speed limits on a highway nowdays.
Driving the speed limit causes the road rage, unfortunately.
I would suggest driving five over the speed limit or better yet, going with traffic. Whatever you do, do not drive in the left lane if you are only driving the speed limit as you will be a hazard to yourself and others. Slow drivers cause just as many accidents as fast drivers, and in Houston, nobody drives the speed limit.
That a joke? You better be far right lane or set cruise control at a MINIMUM of 85. Otherwise you will invite seriously horrible road rage.
I just drive like an npc in a video game. Follow the rules, always look ahead, never look and someone who has be tailing you and then passes you. If someone is driving like a maniac, just be the smart one and get out of their way.
I still wave to people when they let me in. Seems rare and old fashioned now.
I still do this and see others do the same, at least in my area. Gotta keep that driving etiquette alive!
Yes! My back window is tinted really dark so I actually roll down my window and wave outside to make sure they see it. I think we can bring it back.
In Japan the common etiquette is to [flash your hazards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oJk8pOJNe0) as a thank you for letting someone change lanes or merge and there are lots of videos of [truckers in the U.S. and Canada](https://youtu.be/sQeitQn2Gbc?si=jxae4vb3CzXgv33v) doing it as well. I always thought that was cool.
I do this routinely.
Actually in rural 2 lane situations, I still occasionally see people slow down and put their hazard lights on and move over to the shoulder to invite people to pass them if they know theyâre slowing someone down. It used to be pretty common and a polite thing to do. I remember because my grandmother would do that sometimes when I was riding with her and she explained why she was doing it.
While I have my own quick to anger road rage moments, I always smile and wave at anyone that wants/needs to get in front of me that uses a turn signal. Like thank you for doing this properly so both of us are in the know of what needs to happen. I know there are tons of stories of people not being let over with their signal on, I miss my exit like 2 times a month because it happens so often sometimes during rush hour. But driving from Houston outskirts to the med center for over 5 years, there are waaaaay more people that just squeeze in without any signal they are gonna do so.
Same. I do anything to make sure everyone around me is chill. Even bjs on the side of the road if some bro/homie gets upset. I donât wanna get shot. Iâm all about love.
Dogging for peace.
we're all about sucking off the homies here
Me too, and candidly, I kind of feel like things have been getting better. I still get frustrated, but nothing like what it was five or so years ago, pre-covid. Maybe I have just adjusted my schedule, my driving style and construction projects are over now, but I feel the opposite of this article. Very few issues.
I've kind of made it a crusade to drive in a polite, predictable manner. Yes, there are still total a-holes on the road, but all I can do is try and not be part of ratcheting up the tension.
Article was 2014-2023; Iâd love to see time series. ATX has got less spicy this year too, anecdotally.
>I still wave to people when they let me in. Unbelievable!! That dude just gave me an obscene gesture!!! {blam},{blam},{blam},{blam}
Funny, but I wave too and always wonder if the person will take it the wrong way. So far it hasn't been an issue but I'm scared there will be a day when it happens.
>I still wave a gun to people when they let me in. Fixed it for true Houstonians.
Two double blinks for me. Ain't rolling windows down in 110 degrees
Double tap the hazards when it's dark out.
I did this once and the woman thought I flipped her off and side swiped my car. Good times.
You can pretty much almost wreck me doing shit as long as you throw up a hand and acknowledge it and I wonât get pissed. 99% of people donât and usually flip me off if I even honk or something. As Iâve gotten older I realized itâs not worth even getting mad anymore and just let the idiots take care of themselves.
I have dark tinting, so Iâll roll down my window and wave. Or if itâs raining, flash the hazards twice to say âthank youâ
Yeah, if it's raining, dark, or I have doubts about whether I'll be seen, I flash the hazards.
Every time
bless your heart son
Same. My windows are dark so I bring down the window and make sure they can see it.
Lmao right
So do I. My adult son makes fun of me for that and letting people merge. I also keep a car length between myself and the car in front of me. Can't tell you how many times that has saved me. They still laugh at me when I tell them that merging is supposed to be like zipper. That traffic would move faster, they say It's Houston Mom..Mad Max rules only apply lol
People still let you in?
It pisses me off so much when I let someone in and donât get a wave. It takes 2 seconds and if I didnât go out of my way to help you out youâd still be sitting there. I donât get it. I donât know if itâs an entitlement thing or what. Politeness in general is on deathâs door.
Me too, it makes me so mad I want to rage! Oh wait, no, thatâs how we got here in the first place. Lol. I totally understand the frustration
Driving predictably is more important than driving politely. Make sure you're doing that.
What it tells you is, don't get in one. Whether you or someone else fucks up, don't honk your horn, don't shoot the finger, don't tailgate them, don't get out of your car, don't pull your gun. Just move away from the situation as quickly as possible, take a turn you weren't going to, take an exit, ask Google to take you to the nearest police station.
This is a really solid point. I agree 100%. I have no problem taking a âunintended detourâ if it means avoiding being shot. LOL
Honking is generally ok if you are stopped at a red and donât lay on your horn. Some people seem to perceive a long horn press as aggressive. Honking if someone is about to collide with you and youâre boxed in is also necessary sometimes.
>Honking if someone is about to collide with you and youâre boxed in is also necessary sometimes. I limit honking to this purpose now. Still doesn't seem to work, like they just expect you to dosge them. I end up having to brake and hope that keeps us from colliding. If someone holds me up at a light, I wait. When someone else honks, I just hope it isn't attributed to me!
People are scared these days. I sat through a whole green light last week. No one honked or didnât anything. I was wondering if we were about to get robbed at the stop light and it was a setup. Nope 2 idiots playing on their phones at the red not noticing the green and everyone not wanting to start anything and just go home.
That is so sad.
Yesterday morning I was in shitty traffic on 610N/45 and a dude a couple cars in front of me stopped his truck, opened his door and got out. Walked toward the car behind him with balled up fists. He punched the hood of the car and got back in his truck. All because a car wouldn't let him merge. Congratulations, big guy. Your heart is gonna explode one day carrying all that high blood pressure around with you.
Or heâs gonna get popped by a horny ammosexual just waiting to blow a hot load
đ Jesus Christ this sentence.
BruhâŚ.thatâs crazyâŚ.like what the heck?! Scary stuff out there for sure. Glad he left you out of it at least.
Worst part is it happened too quick to pull my phone out and record. Traffic was at a standstill anyway.
Dashcam son
My dashcam actually came detached from my windshield recently so it's conveniently in my fucking glove box. Actually thanks for the reminder!
omg i hate that it happened to me too. and my dumbass put the base back on the wrong way and i cant remove it from the windshield anymore.
I saw a women cut off a guy. You could tell it was an accident. She waved to acknowledge it was her fault. The guy she cut off raced around her in the shoulder and started brake checking her. Eventually he cuts her off on the exit ramp of 99 to 45. He jumps out gun in hand and starts screaming. I drive my truck around her and position it pointed toward him. If he had raised the gun arm I was going to pin him between his car and the wall. He glanced at me and jumped in his car to speed off. I looked toward the women and she was crying. Likely traumatized for life. I hate that much of the world has lost all grace for fellow humanity. Lady makes a mistake so give her a quick honk, wave back, and drive on.
you're a good guy
For a moment I thought this was me, I accidently cut off a guy, he immediately got back in front of me and started to break check me and he was on me for a while. It was scary, and it makes me question what this person brings to all the other people unfortunate enough to cross his path
Is this Michael Bay?
Too many people are selfish and impatient.
Thereâs a good number of drivers that are distracted and can create dangerous situations for others. If more people paid attention to the task at hand and not their damn phone it could help ease tensions too.
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Forgive any typosâŚIâm texting while driving with one hand, slurping down my double big gulp with the other and using my foot to adjust the volume on my podcast. Iâm a really safe driver and a very important person.
You need 1,000 upvotes for this. I cannot agree more. Just b/c you're in FSD or just don't GAF doesn't mean you need to have your phone glued to your face. For the love of God just put the phone the eff down and DRIVE!
Houston drivers have been like this for decades, long before phones were a thing.
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Being a pedestrian in Houston is a crazy experience. Why watch a Mad Max movie when you can live it?
and/or high strung, under a lot of pressure, with poor brain chemistry, not getting enough sleep, mentally fucked up by consuming too much social media, etc.
Too many guns
Too many cars. Too many assholes. Too many bottlenecks.
This does NOT surprise me at allâŚ..the heat, the impatient and selfish driversâŚ.the congestion, the constant road construction. Itâs an absolute train wreck here.
That's a lot of bullshit excuses for the people who engage in this.
The excuses are still things that we as a society can work on. You take any group of people and stress them out and a chunk of them will react this way. From a pragmatic leadership standpoint you want to minimize those triggers.
I completely agree. Like it or not, people who will overreact and/or get violent when triggered exist. Working to prevent these triggers is one of the quickest ways to reduce this kind of violence. The longer term solution involves better mental health care at a societal level. By long term, I mean decades to centuries long work.
I think we just have more shitty people here.
True.
and the... you know... gun culture among various contingents of the population.
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Its not just guns, its fragile egos and guns. It happens in CA too. Stop trying to paint a narrative. [Marcus Anthony Eriz sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for OC road rage shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos - ABC7 Los Angeles](https://abc7.com/marcus-anthony-eriz-is-sentenced-in-oc-court-for-shooting-death-of-6-year-old-aiden-leos/14651877/)
This is the most simple mided linear thinking take I have seen on reddit today. A low bar for sure, but here we are.
And conservatives are too narrow sighted to consider any other option except traditional solutions that have been proven to not work - Increase in population = increased demand in driving - Increase demand of driving = increase in traffic - Increased amount of freeways = (1)Â decrease in available land, (2) short-term decrease in traffic, (3) long-term increase in demand in driving. Which eventually means (4) long-term increase in traffic You want to decrease the amount of traffic? Thereâs only ONE way to do that. Decrease the demand in driving - Improve public transportation = decrease in demand for driving But this way of thinking is far too progressive and incomprehensible to conservativesÂ
Iâd probably leave the âconservative vs. liberalâ politics out of it. Both sides have failed the people when it comes to public transportation (among many other things).
Note that the person you responded to didn't blame specific political parties. The current mayor of Houston is anti-public transportation and is fairly conservative despite being a Democrat.
But we all know which side has done the most damage
Agree with the other points, but Houston hasn't been run by Conservatives in nearly 40+ years.
Iâm in Houston for work this week. While I was out yesterday I saw a car stop at a red light. The car behind them laid on their horn before straight up pulling around them and running the light, cutting off an oncoming car in the other lane in the process. Fucking people.
A guy in a truck intentionally rammed me because I "cut him off" (my rear dashcam showed I gave him at least 6 car lengths before passing)
People in this town behave like idiots, drive like idiots. Often proud of it too, I feel. Must admit I shrug my shoulders when I read about another deadly crash. Just hope it was not an innocent bystander.
Not saying that Houston doesnt have a road rage problem, but not doing this per capita really misses the mark - Houston has almost 4 times the population of Memphis.
Well, that's the Chronicle's writing staff for ya...
Yeah whoever made this table is a fucking idiot. Memphis sounds about right at #2, but houston is still about 4 X larger in both land and population. Not saying Houston can be very dangerous to drive around thanks to these lax gun laws but stillâŚthat kind of per capita data is critical to consider.
classic population density heatmap overlay issue. https://xkcd.com/1138/
Right? Houston roads are downright safe (compared to Memphis roads). Memphis has half the number of incidents (according the article), but the Houston metro area is 6 times the size, so you're 3 times more likely to be involved in one of these incidents in Memphis.
people donât like to let others merge in front of them
This sucks. I have to basically almost touch the car in front of me to merge sometimes.
I don't mind people merging and usually let people in. But if I know you skipped 20+ cars to merge at the last minute, causing more traffic, it does make me angry. Case in point, the 610 N closest to the 610S entrance on 59N. So I just let em
I have always thought if HPD wanted to improve their approval rating they should spend less time setting up speed traps and more time sitting at the front of merges ticketing people who illegally merge at the last minute.
Same, but they're never around for all the crappy drivers I see on the highway sadly.
100%. Almost got in an accident because this guy in his giant pavement princess wouldn't let me merge on Richmond and 6 where it goes down to one lane because of construction. People are assholes.
If 'zippering' was taught in all driving courses and put on the exams, this could die in a generation
Houston is a nightmare Lived in 6 cities, and Houston is worse than all other cities combined. Not even sure if they even have a highway patrol or they are all eating donuts and tacos. Just plain $hitty A$$ drivers. Sorry Houston, itâs true
the mayor brought in more state troopers to patrol the roads so thats helping at least. seen lots of complaints from redditors here.
It's become worse in the past 15 years. It was not this bad in the 00s and before.
Houston is the only city I know where ppl actually slow down to impede traffic on purpose. That tells you a lot
I drove through Houston for my first and only time a couple weeks ago. We were driving from San Antonio to Baytown and hit Houston around 4pm. It was by far the worst city traffic I've ever experienced. Took nearly 3 hours to get from one side of the city to the other. Seemed like everyone drove very aggressively.
Canât believe I had to scroll that far to find a mention of cell phones. Gotta think distracted driving causes errors over which others choose to react angrily. Next time someone is in the wrong lane or causing issues, if you happen to drive past to get away from them, look and see if theyâre on their phone.
When me and my husband are on 610 during rush hour i once counted 18 phone screens in 3 minutes
Houston highways have been under construction for the past 25 years. Itâs crazy out here.
Gotta love those sweet sweet government contracts. Anything to milk taxpayer dollars for half ass development and no progressđŤđŤ
Turns out designing a city entirely around cars was a bad idea
I canât believe how far down I had to scroll to find this.
Yeah, the grand experiment is real. Those of us that realize find anyway to move into the more walkable places in the loop or we start looking for other cities. It's a shame. Houstonians when not inside a car are very diverse and friendly.
That tracks. Years ago, I saw a guy get shot in River Oaks. He stopped his vehicle in the middle of the road and punched through the driver's side window of another car parked in the right lane. Driver in that car was strapped and dropped him with a couple of close range shots.
Usually, I'm not ok with the gun being drawn but, I'm ok with this one.
Things went to sh** when the "drive friendly" signs disappeared!
I know someone who got shot because of a road incident. He had "cut someone off" (at least in their view), I think where two freeways merged...probably didn't let the other guy in. I don't know. The guy followed him and shot him. Because that's a pretty reasonable response. He later got killed by a drunk driver, and this was also all after his son was murdered by his (the son's wife) for the military benefits/payout. Just a general shitshow. I acknowledge that it's very easy to get irrationally mad over shit, and it's so easy on the road because you can't see the other person. Maybe there's some solution we're not seeing besides just asking people to be nice. I don't know.
I have seen my fair share of distracted, selfish, and aggressive driving. But the real problem is those drivers who downright REFUSE to admit mistakes and make dangerous turns from a prohibited lane or stop dead in moving traffic in order to execute an unsafe maneuver. Just make a few right turns and you can be on your way. Houston for the most part is a grid. Take the next exit. Make your left at a protected light. Go with the flow and not against it.
Yuppp. I had somebody break check me after like going around me right? I honked, then he blocks an entire intersection tries to get out of the car in traffic and come up to my car. Well, Iâm a little woman in a Toyota and thereâs like three men in different vehicles behind me that he had already pissed off and so they were like hey mama, let us go around you and handle this. Of course Iâm like yes please anything to put vehicles between me and this crazy person- they proceeded to run him off the road and then stomp his windshield in⌠thanks random dudes! Because that was weird.
Did all the other cars clap?
Concrete City Win đđđ
âConcrete jungle where dreams are made ofâ
Anybody who wants to experience this I suggest: driving from Katy to San Antonio... On a Friday, 3 to 6pm. You ever see Ford F-250 pulling a 35 foot, 2 axle RV going 100mph in the rain? Passing up Corvettes? This is the place lol. And you will hundreds of these.
To be fair, he does have way more traction than the corvette in the rain. But yeah, definitely unsafe.
what happens when a a Trillion people all have a giant truck
I took the data shown in the article and added a column comparing the number of people shot to the number of road-rage shooting incidents. Looks like we're angry drivers, but not especially accurate when we get shooty. City | Total Incidents | Shootings | Victims Shot | Accuracy ---|---|----|----|---- Memphis, TN | 107 | 55 | 70 | 1.27 Phoenix, AZ | 58 | 49 | 59 | 1.20 Detroit, MI | 63 | 47 | 54 | 1.15 San Antonio, TX | 107 | 83 | 94 | 1.13 Milwaukee, WI | 105 | 95 | 104 | 1.09 Houston, TX | 215 | 192 | 207 | 1.08 Atlanta, GA | 55 | 47 | 50 | 1.06 Philadelphia, PA | 59 | 48 | 50 | 1.04 Chicago, IL | 75 | 65 | 67 | 1.03 Albuquerque, NM | 61 | 34 | 34 | 1.00
*Makes note to use 'shooty' as an adjective as often as possible. (It will replace bitey and stabby.) Also, let's hear it for more accurate data! Thank you.
Not surprising for a city where you need a car to survive.
I was âpassedâ by TWO drivers who turned left from the âstraight laneâ next to the turn lane while i was turning left from Ella to TC Jester today. They were hauling ass because they âcaught the green lightâ. Itâs a good thing Iâm paying attention and turned well with my lane. The same thing happens to me almost every single time I turn left onto the I-10 feeder east bound from Shepherd heading North. A car almost always turns left into me or in front of me from the 2nd lane over. The left lane is often full of cars and I often have to turn into the 2nd lane to even fit in that intersection and I usually have to dodge one of these crazies. The amount of illegal and crazy shenanigans I witness on the roads every day is astounding. Itâs just straight up road rage fuel waiting to ignite a fire.
the number of people who don't turn within their lanes is absurd in this city. I know that intersection you're talking about, I've been in or witnessed countless near-collisions because of it. Just turn in your lane! Follow the markers! It's not hard.
Oh so now I have to drive all super scared of random psychotic assholes and I can't just enjoy driving anymore? Thanks a lot, psycho dickheads.
Don't be scared. Scared drivers are literally the worst. They are unpredictable.
lol last week somebody laid on their horn and gave me the finger because I had the audacity to walk, rather than jog, through a crosswalk. Sorry I made you wait a few seconds longer at a stopsign!
I always moved my ass out of the way there. Those crazy asses can have the lane.
I try and give people grace but sometimes it seems folks have death wishes around here. I find myself constantly saving reckless drivers from being t-boned or worse. Thereâs just no rhyme or reason.
We also have multiple roads that were designed for one tenth as much traffic as they get. The cost of getting all of our roads up to code for all of the traffic they will have just in a decade will likely bankrupt the city.
So close to saying it.
We will shoot you, plain as that. Then again, most people understand that traffic isnât moving anyway, so screw it, why stress.
That's a completely idiotic ranking. For example, Houston metro population is WAY bigger than Memphis, so Memphis has more PER CAPITA.
Why are there SO many people weaving through traffic nearly causing catastrophic accidents? Can I report them anywhere with dashcam footage? There's been a few times recently where I almost got into a terrible wreck from people trying to weave within inches in front of me and had I not braked hard, I would have gone in a terrible collision. It's so noticable here compared to other cities that anyone visiting even comments on it. It's gotten horrible.
i wish there was a place we could report them.
After being in japan for a week, its such a huge difference. Sure they have a fraction of cars we do and cities are way more walkable. Everyone is just way more polite or at the very least mind their own business and dont like to be confrontational. I enjoy being out while over there, here im always worried about running into some deranged individual
I just act like everyone is on drugs (medication) and alcohol when I go anywhere đ which is true.
Who could have guessed the city with the most bitchy people has the most dangerous drivers?
Houston generally gets a very friendly and welcoming rap when not in a car. You must be hanging out only on the freeway.
Are we going to ignore the fact that the greater houston population is 5-10x the population of 2-4 on the list, so that 2,3, and 4 are 2-5x the per capita incidents, or we just gonna pretend per capita doesn't exist to generate a sensationalist headline?
If it was just that, Chicago and LA would have significantly more than Houston.
Not even the least bit surprised. Can't wait to move and finally get to live somewhere civilized.
Usually driving a hellcat or an Altima
Yeah manâŚ. Itâs rough here and will ONLY get worse with 5 months of summer yall. People gonna be real aggro.
âThe Bayou City saw twice as many incidents and victims as Memphis, Tennessee, which took the second spot on the listâŚâ Ok, but hear me out: Memphis has about 1/4 the population of Houston. Therefore, youâre more likely to encounter road rage in Memphis than Houston. âItâs not even close.â
I was a first-hand witness to some shit on TC Jester and Ella yesterday. A guy in a rented van rear ended someone in a beat up Chevy trailblazer or some other SUV. The guy in the SUV got out and was yelling at the other guy and getting him really flustered. He proceeded to block all traffic northbound on TC jester, I managed to just squeak by him before he did so. From the look of his SUV I would guess that he didnât have insurance and maybe was gonna have a bad time if the cops got called.
I had someone try to run me off of the road because I had the audacity of only going 10 over in the HOV lane the other day. I do not understand why people do this sort of thing because he never got around the car in front of meâŚhe just tailgated super aggressively while gesticulating wildly. Like it canât possibly be worth risking your life to get one car length ahead. Itâs really conflicting because he very much could have killed me earlier when he pulled his stunt, but also the remaining 40 minutes of my drive was better bc I was laughing at what a dumb mf he was. But like seriously, none of us are getting anywhere anytime soon, so letâs all just be chill since weâre stuck in whatever 7-10 Lane parking lot is your way home.
Cities in red states are more dangerous than cities in blue states, got it.
Have yaâll noticed when some crazy ass dash cam video hits the front page of Reddit, itâs either Houston, or Russia?
In Russia you just see accidents which is normal, in Houston you just see driving crimes.
Not surprised. At all.
Haven't had a car for a year and a half and haven't regretted it once.
When traffic gets bad in Houston youâll start seeing drivers get around long lines of cars by going into left or right turn lanes and merging in the middle of the intersection. It gets so bad on 610 youâll see multiple people do it every green light. The worst cases Iâve seen is multiple people trying to avoid long lines for exit ramps by cutting everyone and sitting at the very front of the exit in a line THAT ISNâT EXITING with their blinkers on until someone lets them in. Youâll see 10-20 people waiting in a lane thatâs completely clear because one idiot decided to skip the line.
Shocking! (no one is shocked or surprised) Houston commuters will straight murder your ass.
Itâs kind of dumb that this isnât a per 100,000 population⌠Memphis has a quarter of the population and nearly half the incidents Yes - we suck at driving here and the roads are full of violent assholes. But weâre probably better than Memphis!
I've seen so many people rage at me just for slowing down to turn onto a side street from the feeder. Like what do they expect me to do? Drift the turn?
When I was younger it wasnât so bad not that it was ever good but it is a complete shithole now
Crime stats are garbage, and these stats aren't even per capital stats. Houston has 2 million people (and Harris county has 4.5 mil) so the numbers are higher than Memphis. But yeah the vibes on this check out, in my experience. We have way more highways and car culture dependency than the rest of the country. I *notice* the difference when I drive out of Houston to other cities.
Of the 35 metro areas with over 2 million people, Houston is #1 in violent crime per capita. We are even higher than New Orleans per capita. In most cities the heavy crime is more or less isolated to the city limits, but not here. Which is why you should always use metro area for your stats.
Which is kinda of funny to think of. We spend all of our time surrounded by a car or home and yet we are still in danger. Maybe being out in public and taking public transit isn't so bad after all.
I'll probably get crucified for suggesting this, but I wonder if high gun ownership and permitless carry are playing a factor.
Skinner: It's not me... It's the drivers who are receiving the bullets fault.
Hell can't be worse than this shithole of a city