I voted Other, and I'm going to call myself "vengeful." I'm Good Guy Greg, never cutting into long lines, letting people in... until I see someone else being a dick. If and when that happens, if able, I will pin the jerk between me and a slow car, or maybe if someone's trying to cut everyone off in the right turn lane and I'm in front, I'll pretend not to even see them and then just gun the light hard to try to leave them stranded on the side of the road (I've succeeded twice).
most people in houston believe that "the flow of traffic" means that if the speed limit is 70, you should be driving 85 so that you don't slow it down. I guarantee you if everybody (you include) drove the speed limit, you'd have a lot less worries about people impeding your flow. And believe me, nobody in Houston drives only 5 miles over the speed limit. That is insane. When's the last time you drove literally anywhere in houston. In fact, I see most people doing 60 in a 35 than I seen a guy doing 25 in a 35. Don't get me started. Texas, especially Houston, has the worst drivers in the entire united states.
I was a more aggressive driver when I was younger and healthier but I am still an aggressive driver when I am in a hurry. I'm never in a hurry from leaving late, as I'm conscientious about arriving early to meetings. But my illness (chronic late-stage Lyme disease) sometimes flares up on me so hard I have to get home as soon as possible for many hours of vomiting or some other horrible thing. When that happens, I don't outrace everyone but I do get where I'm going as soon as possible and I'll speed if everyone else is. Otherwise the effect of my illness is that I'm rarely in a hurry because I've been mostly bedridden for over two years. Usually it's a race from the bed to the toilet and not a race in a car since I'm only ever up to an hour or two of being upright and out in the world. And that's a PSA of sorts. You probably don't know much about Lyme but once you get it you've no choice but to become an expert. It is an incurable disease if it's untreated more than a year (mine was untreated for over 30 years) and it will derail your life like nobody's business. I would argue it's a worse thing to have than cancer as the treatment is every bit as brutal but there's no hope of a cure. Most people don't know that Lyme has been in 49 states for about 40 years. In the last year alone the CDC upped its number of diagnosed cases from 30K to 300K per year (that's higher than HIV and breast cancer combined) and they believe only about 30% of cases are actually diagnosed properly. Most people that have Lyme don't know they have it. They're just incredibly sick and can't figure out why. So yeah, sometimes I drive aggressively. I think needing to projectile vomit like RIGHT NOW is as good an excuse as any for that.
Ultimate troll I live inside the loop and need to put these non Houstonites in their place when they enter our city.
I was an aggressive hurry-up driver when I was younger, then I realized that thinking I need to speed was just an illusion. Driving aggressively around town only saves you maybe a couple of minutes off your travel time. You speed to get home and you watch TV or do something on you phone, you speed to a meeting and then you sit in the waiting room, you race down Westheimer and granny pulls up behind you at the light. The unimportance of short periods of time and the small actual difference speeding saves make the increased risks for safety and tickets a dumb choice, usually one precipitated by a bad choice of time management. on the front side. You know where you need to be, you know how long it takes; back calculate that into when you need to leave and do it. The more time critical your arrival is you add a little fudge factor. If there is an unexpected traffic delay (and you should have checked before you left), screw it! that's just the way it goes, being late won't be fatal, people understand. The other advantage to this tactic is you avoid road ragers.... You've got butinski's at the merge? let them in, you're not late, you're not killing yourself with useless stress, it costs you nothing and you get to feel smug and superior. Music, podcast, phone conversation, coffee, air conditioning: car time is good time, enjoy it, don't stress it. Plan well and don't over assume the importance if your delayed. It took me like 30 years to learn that but once I did it made living in a car town much more chill.
GGG but I'll also do some un-kind things like merge at the front of a long line. Really other than that I'm a passive driver, especially when the baby is with me. So I'm like 50% GGG, 30% GG, 20% troll.
I drive decisively, I always signal, I check my blind spot, and I drive as fast as the flow of traffic will allow me. I'm the only driver in Austin that does so I'm easy to find.
I like to keep it low, maybe 150-200 yards at most. Really take my time. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IyLxIdN57cM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
3-4 times a month there's a white F250 doing the same, and then getting the hell off of Mopac/183/71 asap.
Every place says they have the worst drivers. Houston has too much traffic to be rated worst city. I am the ADD Multitasker driver. Do other people zone out for 30 minutes, wake up out of it and ask themselves where they are? Generally if people are going at least the speed limit and obeying the laws, Im fine. Where I live, people have no concept of a stop sign. And don't get me started with roundabouts.
Houston drivers are better than Austin drivers. The distances are longer, the traffic worse, but I think people tend to drive like they know where they are going. Neither Austin or Houston are bad like Cairo or Rome bad (passing on sidewalks kind of stuff), but even in those places you can reasonably anticipate what's going to happen once you get used to driving there. In Austin, there's a few seriously sociopathic drivers every day I see cutting across lanes to exit without warning as if they were the only cars on the road and forcing everyone to swerve and slam on brakes, and there's no way to read or anticipate something like that. I bought an electric assist bike and ride 100+ miles a week on it. It gets me to work faster than my car, but the same sociopaths on Austin roads are constantly driving stoned (or talking on their phone, or whatever it is they do) and not paying attention and nearly smacking me every damn day. I'm to the point now that I turn a license plate into APD every other day or so. I'm about to get a GoPro and strap it to my head.
The thing about excessive drivers and the few slow ones out there: your days are numbered When bots drive cars it will be a mid-speed ballet of efficiencey
15% Rage Brah... when slow bros cut into my 3-4 second zone despite me driving slightly over the limit. 40% Aggressive... I'm lazy to rise in the morning 20% Ultimate troll... I cut when the lines are as long as the eyes can see, and I only speed up if I see the car weaving in and out in my rearview. 25% Good guy Greg... If a sane looking car can drive faster, by all means. I don't like letting trucks or vans pass, but if I'm in a slower lane and their signal is up, it's the decent thing to do. ~33%* ADD Multi-tasker... Google maps for when I want guidance on stoppages 5-10% Dip**** driver... I generally take the next exit on mistakes and don't slam on my breaks, but being an aggressive driver can morph you into dip**** driver (braking) if your risks for taking that lane fails.
houston drivers are terrible, aggressive, pedal to the floor, tailgating degenerates on wheels. don't even try it
The thing is Houston and Dallas have two of the 3 best freeway systems in America (LA being the other). You have plenty of lanes to drive the speed limit you want to drive. The thing I hate is when slow(er) drivers venture to the far left lane. If you don't want people tailgating, you should stay in another lane if you are only going to drive the speed limit. The far left lane isn't for p***y drivers. You ever been to Florida? I'm sure it's almost a general consensus that they have the worst drivers. I know insurance is more expensive there because of it.
