Houston to Austin: Driving Comparison

We just drove back from Houston to Austin. We left the far side of Houston before rush hour and hit serious traffic on the near side. Let me give this to the people of Houston: them drivers don't play. If there's a speed limit, they drive it if possible. They leave something like safe clear following distances between cars. When you put on a turn signal they don't zoom up to cut you off. If they pass you, it's done at a rate of speed that makes sense (no snail racing). If you are near, they will not drive into you. They take off from lights at a reasonably high rate of acceleration. There is no jamming of brakes. There is no cut-you-off-and-slow-down action. The people of Houston have places to be and don't dick around getting there. It was almost like driving with a million of myself on the road.

Then we got closer to home and the jackassery started. We were cut off within a car length so the car that cut us off could go zero miles per hour faster because the car in front of us was going the same speed as the car in the "passing" lane. We were very nearly passed on the right on the SHOULDER by someone in a hurry to turn off the highway. These incidents were within two miles of each other, just past the "AUSTIN 30 MILES" sign. I started to mutter badwords under my breath and my Darling Wife wondered out loud what was going on . . . then we realized that these were Austin drivers.

Oh well, it was nice for the dayandahalf we were in Houston, anyway.