I was in a traffic jam yesterday, for about 45 minutes. Suprisingly, there wasn't a single car honk, nobody yelled out their window for people to hurry up, and everybody I saw looked rather calm. Is the traffic jam cliche just a New York thing? Has ANYBODY ever been stuck in a cliche traffic jam where everybody is honking their horn and yelling? I don't believe I ever have. Yeah yeah, not exactly the most thought provoking topic, but it's either this or the nuances of the sandwich...
what time in dallas, i was on 75 or something. Same place for an hour and thirty minutes. Didn't move an inch. At that point we were doing songs with our horns. People actually got out to converse with each other. It actually became a game around the 55 min mark.
Most people in Houston are used to traffic. How could you NOT be? Most people just grin and bear it. They lay off the brake pedal and just coast, which is what you're supposed to do. But every once in a while, you get someone who acts like they've never seen traffic in their LIFE. They're speeding up, then braking, then speeding up, switching lanes (as if there's some secret fast lane that no one knows about), braking, switching lanes again, etc. It's funny, the harder they try to get ahead, the further back they fall.
I think you get more honking at red lights when drivers don't snap to the light being green than you do on the freeway. The only time I honk on the freeway is when some jerky is trying to move into my lane, while I'm in it!
I believe that New York is unlike most American cities, missing large freeways downtown, with major intersections at gridlock because there are so many businesses which seem to deliver and receive goods, exchange people, etc. In Houston, the jams happen in the Galleria area (think Westheimer near Sage) because of so many businesses. I think that if we had Downtown Houston like Downtown New York, we'd hear the "Hey, buddy, MOVE IT!" and "HEY!!! I'm WALKING here!" NY sayings. WOW. A serious post by me. That's FUNNY.
anytime i encounter a rubbernecker, they get a full 5 second horn blast from me...just like this morning. traffic is smooth until a lone cop car was in the shoulder tending to an minor accident. that mother****er in front me thought he could help the situation by staring at it. pissed me off and then he had the nerve to throw up his hands as if to say i was the problem.
I was flying from Paris to Houston years back and someone ran through airport security and they lost him in the airport. They had to close the terminal, get everyone out and run everyone through metal detectors again. So, my wife and I were waiting in line for an hour and half to get in. Considering all the people they had to process, it was pretty quick really. But, the French were up in arms about it within 15 minutes. They started a chant and were banging on stuff to get the airport people's butts in gear. As if making a loud racket was going to get the job done any faster. Annoying as hell.
In some European countries, big drape/curtain-like barriers are put in place when an accident happens on the freeway to deter folks from rubbernecking.
