Houston named US road rage capital !

[HoustonMidtown]

http://www.inautonews.com/the-us-road-rage-capital-is-houston#.U3UFcV7IZFw

 

 

[brijonmang]

You saw it here first: http://thenewsleak.blogspot.com/2013/03/houston-metro-giddy-over-1-ranking.html?q=houston

 

[Subdude]

You saw it here first: http://thenewsleak.blogspot.com/2013/03/houston-metro-giddy-over-1-ranking.html?q=houston

 

 

Five years running, too!  The funny thing is that Bellaire made #5.

[Slick Vik]

I am not surprised.

[mkultra25]

A few years ago, the Chronicle sent someone up to Austin County to interview Johnny Holmes at the ranch he retired to after leaving office as Harris County DA. At some point he was asked if he missed Houston, and his reply was that he did not, because it was a nice change living in a place where people used all their fingers when they waved at you on the road. 

[j_cuevas713]

A few years ago, the Chronicle sent someone up to Austin County to interview Johnny Holmes at the ranch he retired to after leaving office as Harris County DA. At some point he was asked if he missed Houston, and his reply was that he did not, because it was a nice change living in a place where people used all their fingers when they waved at you on the road. 

Love it! lmao... I don't see all negatives things as a positive, but damn, at least we have some huevos in this city... We don't shy away from how we truely feel which makes this place so great. I talked to a buddy of mine from dallas a few weeks ago, he came down for a cheerleading rally for his daughter. He noticed right off the bat and I quote "You gotta move it around here, or you'll get run over." He was referring to how we drive on our highways. 

[Montrose1100]

I've noticed a huge difference while living in Abilene. Every drives 20mph under the speed limit verses over. But equal amounts of idiots who cut you off, almost hit you and make you slam on your breaks so they can get into your lane with no remorse or understanding of what was happening. 18-Wheeler's waiting until you are catty corner to them to change into your lane, even though the lane was open before you even approached them... I could go on forever...

 

Edit: I never flip anyone off or anything crazy just look at them and shake my head. I've seen a guy pull a gun, another pulled another guy out of his car in stopped traffic on the freeway. You never know how crazy the person is.

[mollusk]

Years ago, I was taking some friends to the airport in the SF bay area.  They were somewhat concerned about running late, to the point that I was finally told "you're from Houston.  Drive like it.  I know you know how."  Which in turn then startled the devil out of pretty much everybody else on the freeway.

[Slick Vik]

Bump into the wrong something and road rage is nothing to brag about. I've been shot at and saw someone get shot in front of me.

[monarch]

oh very nice, props for sharing.  another dubious distinction, as per our fair city.

[IronTiger]

Bump into the wrong something and road rage is nothing to brag about. I've been shot at and saw someone get shot in front of me.

Given your preexisting anti-highway/car sentiment and other dubious claims made in the past, I will have to call BS on one or both of those.

But Houston having aggressive drivers? I believe it!

[Slick Vik]

Given your preexisting anti-highway/car sentiment and other dubious claims made in the past, I will have to call BS on one or both of those.

But Houston having aggressive drivers? I believe it!

Go ahead and call bs it's nothing to brag about. But it happened.

[BaderJF]

We just need to get the freaking slow drivers off the road and everything will be alright.

I love speeding so much I got a custom plate which says SPEEDR

[mkultra25]

 

Edit: I never flip anyone off or anything crazy just look at them and shake my head. I've seen a guy pull a gun, another pulled another guy out of his car in stopped traffic on the freeway. You never know how crazy the person is.

 

A former coworker used to talk about how he'd gotten into a disagreement with someone on the freeway one day, and figured he'd intimidate the other guy by pretending that he was about to pull a gun (which he didn't have in his pickup). His scheme almost backfired (pun fully intended) when the other guy called the bluff, pulled his own gun, and started waving it around. Oops. 

[livincinco]

This survey polled 2,500 people in 25 metropolitan areas. 100 people per metro. I would place no value in a survey with a sample size that small.

[mollusk]

moo, liveineastsanantonio... ( ) 

 

Normally I pay attention to sample sizes, too.  However, any time I've ever driven in some supposedly notorious place my reaction has always been "huh????  They signal.  They drive the same speed.  They let people in.  They don't use guns.  This is a crazy place?  Hoo - wheeee, what's up wit dat?  What's up wit dat?"  

 

A Boston rotary has nothing on the Park Place/Broadway traffic circle under the Gulf Freeway before TxDOT replaced the yield signs with traffic lights.  Oh, delicious mayhem... 

[Luminare]

This survey polled 2,500 people in 25 metropolitan areas. 100 people per metro. I would place no value in a survey with a sample size that small.

Most survey samplings are around that number actually. Of course any survey is going to be bent to whatever the surveyor desires, but I think all of us can agree that this city, at least at the moment, does deserve this honor.

I really think Houston, and the US, could benefit from an increase in the time one has to learn how to drive. I think its around a month or something like that? for someone to learn how to drive. I think driving should be a class that is about 4-6 months.

Also, It's not that its anger that is the problem, but its the shear number of bad drivers that is ridiculous. While you can't fix stupid you most certainly can foster a better driving environment. Maybe also up the fee it cost to take the class.

Not to mention since we all love to push public transit on this forum it could also be a way to create the actual need for public transit. Its the way they do it in Europe and in many places in the world. Could certainly work here especially when the car isn't necessarily the "freedom" ticket for coming generations(which I know still is in some cases) that it once was.

[IronTiger]

Most survey samplings are around that number actually. Of course any survey is going to be bent to whatever the surveyor desires, but I think all of us can agree that this city, at least at the moment, does deserve this honor.

I really think Houston, and the US, could benefit from an increase in the time one has to learn how to drive. I think its around a month or something like that? for someone to learn how to drive. I think driving should be a class that is about 4-6 months.

Also, It's not that its anger that is the problem, but its the shear number of bad drivers that is ridiculous. While you can't fix stupid you most certainly can foster a better driving environment. Maybe also up the fee it cost to take the class.

Not to mention since we all love to push public transit on this forum it could also be a way to create the actual need for public transit. Its the way they do it in Europe and in many places in the world. Could certainly work here especially when the car isn't necessarily the "freedom" ticket for coming generations(which I know still is in some cases) that it once was.

One thing I've learned is that driver aggressiveness is not necessarily a person-based thing, it's more of a virus that pervades the area. To illustrate: I knew two independent people...one moved away from Houston to College Station and became a LESS aggressive driver while another moved to Houston and became a MORE aggressive driver.

What I've noticed myself is that there's hardly any cops on the road on Houston highways. In smaller cities (the smaller the city, actually) they'll be there, ready for a ticket for going over the speed limit or other shenanigans.

[livincinco]

Most survey samplings are around that number actually. Of course any survey is going to be bent to whatever the surveyor desires, but I think all of us can agree that this city, at least at the moment, does deserve this honor.

I really think Houston, and the US, could benefit from an increase in the time one has to learn how to drive. I think its around a month or something like that? for someone to learn how to drive. I think driving should be a class that is about 4-6 months.

Also, It's not that its anger that is the problem, but its the shear number of bad drivers that is ridiculous. While you can't fix stupid you most certainly can foster a better driving environment. Maybe also up the fee it cost to take the class.

Not to mention since we all love to push public transit on this forum it could also be a way to create the actual need for public transit. Its the way they do it in Europe and in many places in the world. Could certainly work here especially when the car isn't necessarily the "freedom" ticket for coming generations(which I know still is in some cases) that it once was.

I'm just stating that it is ridiculous to claim that Houston has the highest road rage in the country off a sample set of 100 people, especially when you're comparing against significantly different results from a prior survey. Keep in mind that the margin of error for a sample set of 100 is +/- 10%. I wasn't able to find the actual results, but I have a lot of difficulty believing that the differential was outside the margin of error.

Regarding your statements about public transit, I don't disagree with the necessity of public transit. What I disagree with is the "end justifies the means" rationale of many public transit advocates. If you're acknowledging the survey is flawed, it's not justified then to use it to advocate public transit regardless of how noble you feel that result is.

[IronTiger]

I'm just stating that it is ridiculous to claim that Houston has the highest road rage in the country off a sample set of 100 people, especially when you're comparing against significantly different results from a prior survey. Keep in mind that the margin of error for a sample set of 100 is +/- 10%. I wasn't able to find the actual results, but I have a lot of difficulty believing that the differential was outside the margin of error.

I'll be taking a statistics class soon! In a month I'll try to figure out what the confidence is for that and how class it is reality.

Regarding your statements about public transit, I don't disagree with the necessity of public transit. What I disagree with is the "end justifies the means" rationale of many public transit advocates. If you're acknowledging the survey is flawed, it's not justified then to use it to advocate public transit regardless of how noble you feel that result is.

This tends to illustrate the "bubble" that a lot of Houstonites are in. It's easier to sympathize with he mass transit advocates when drivers are so aggressive (and roads tend to be in poor shape, but that's another issue). But the sad truth of the matter is that drivers to tend to be more aggressive in huge cities, regardless of mass transit: New York City, Paris, Boston? (Especially Boston--they definitely take advantage of the horn)

[Luminare]

I'm not even saying that mass transit cures road rage or bad driving lol. Far from it. Your always going to have traffic problems in a big city. Its just going to happen, but ours is very abnormal because we put all our eggs in one basket and expect that basket to never break! What I was proposing is a possible way to bring balance to our transportation network or we are going to have 20 lane highways one day. I mean the zombies at TXdot are already thinking of making I-45 14 lanes -.-. Not ever going to solve the problem because the car will always be a huge part of Houston, but you can at least tone down some of the negatives and to not just not do it because its going to happen anyway is something we shouldn't do.

[Slick Vik]

They want to double and triple stack freeways

[livincinco]

I'm not even saying that mass transit cures road rage or bad driving lol. Far from it. Your always going to have traffic problems in a big city. Its just going to happen, but ours is very abnormal because we put all our eggs in one basket and expect that basket to never break! What I was proposing is a possible way to bring balance to our transportation network or we are going to have 20 lane highways one day. I mean the zombies at TXdot are already thinking of making I-45 14 lanes -.-. Not ever going to solve the problem because the car will always be a huge part of Houston, but you can at least tone down some of the negatives and to not just not do it because its going to happen anyway is something we shouldn't do.

Please reference Bill King's excellent op-ed on the challenges of rail in Houston. (Thanks to Tory Gattis for the link).

http://www.chron.com/opinion/king/article/King-Rail-system-unlikely-here-and-for-good-5478737.php

[Dakota79]

I am on the roads all day, and don't experience road rage. If you leave enough time to get where you are going, and let people in here and there you'll find Houston drivers not too bad. I find it a lot less stressful when I'm not in a hurry. Being in a rush causes the rage, IMHO.

[Luminare]

Please reference Bill King's excellent op-ed on the challenges of rail in Houston. (Thanks to Tory Gattis for the link).

http://www.chron.com/opinion/king/article/King-Rail-system-unlikely-here-and-for-good-5478737.php

 

Traffic, once again, is always going to be in every major city. Even cities in Europe experience enormous amounts of traffic and have large extensive rail networks, but this argument has been used for decades to justify not investing in something that is a public good and can be used by every single person in the city rich or poor and offers freedom of choice to travel how you choose. The car while an incredible means of transportation that has revolutionized the way we live, this doesn't mean that we should use this as our only means of transportation.

 

With your argument, I'm surprised we don't just rip the train off our city seal and put a ford mustang on it! You have to look at the bigger picture here which both you and the author fail to see. I'm not talking about today or tomorrow or even a year from now. I'm looking 10-20years. If you don't like investing in this types of systems then just come out and say it. I'm perfectly ok with how you might feel about it. At the current pace of growth though the model we run is very inefficient, its an enormous strain on the economy, and will be the cities downfall. Nobody on here is saying we need to FORCE people to take public transport, but what we are saying is that its a civic duty of a major city to provide such services.

[IronTiger]

The King piece also mentioned climate: one thing about Houston's super-wide freeways is that they double as hurricane evacuation paths, which cannot work on narrow freeways and especially not light rail. A Hurricane Rita-scale disaster hasn't been seen lately (you couldn't find peanut butter or bottled water in College Station for a short period)

Getting back on topic, I don't think road rage is a particular issue, it's just linked to congestion, which is linked to the city size. If you REALLY don't want congestion or road rage, you had better move to a town that has less stoplights then the number of your fingers.

[kylejack]

Getting back on topic, I don't think road rage is a particular issue, it's just linked to congestion, which is linked to the city size. If you REALLY don't want congestion or road rage, you had better move to a town that has less stoplights then the number of your fingers.

 

Obviously there's another missing factor at play since Houston is 4th in population but 1st in road rage.

[sevfiv]

I agree - I don't do hurries or rushes and life for everyone is sooo much easier and calm this way.

 

 

 

I am on the roads all day, and don't experience road rage. If you leave enough time to get where you are going, and let people in here and there you'll find Houston drivers not too bad. I find it a lot less stressful when I'm not in a hurry. Being in a rush causes the rage, IMHO.

 

[livincinco]

I'm not sure why this ties back to road rage. Are you claiming that cities with extensive public transit have lower rates of road rage because I would argue that congestion and causes road rage and that transit is irrelevant to the discussion.

I have laid out my thoughts on transit in a number of different threads and have no wish to derail yet another thread with discussion of trains. This thread is about road rage and, in my opinion, the survey cited is questionable.

[kylejack]

I'm not sure why this ties back to road rage. Are you claiming that cities with extensive public transit have lower rates of road rage because I would argue that congestion and causes road rage and that transit is irrelevant to the discussion.

I have laid out my thoughts on transit in a number of different threads and have no wish to derail yet another thread with discussion of trains. This thread is about road rage and, in my opinion, the survey cited is questionable.

 

He's using an Either/Or Fallacy to suggest that if you have more light rail that you can't have wide freeways.