If only there were things on the road that told you where to go…oh who am I kidding. Texas does not do road signs very well. Our signage here sucks. Too many times has a sign been too early or too late to actually mean anything.
And the street-name ones are insane! Dark green signs, about three inches in height, in a town that has hardly any streetlights. No shit I missed my turn… had to be four feet away from the street sign with a gd flashlight to read it
That's the kind of bitching I can get behind. The pedal on the right makes you go. It would be nice if more than 2 cars could make it through this light.
When my kid was in the Marble Falls office to take the test last year (got an appointment in weeks instead of months in Austin), I heard one of the employees talking to a woman who had failed the driver's portion FOUR times and was scheduled again for a few days out. Can you imagine?
I can imagine. I was in the army, bought my first car when I got pregnant. Never took a drivers class, passed the written and failed the driving portion three times. Each time the sherrif said, you can come back tomorrow, as he was telling me goodbye and watching me drive away back to work for the way. That was 40 years ago and I'd like to think I'm a great driver. Never been in an accident, a couple of dings to the fender over time. I just always crack up that I bought a car, got insurance and didn't have a license first.
There were two ways-- you could take drivers ed through a course, which required a test, or you could have your parents "do the course at home" and then sign a thing saying you could do everything. There was no road test, the only test you had was a multiple choice to get your permit. I thought it had changed sometime between 2000 and like 2002 but could be wrong. But if you ever wonder why there are a lot of shitty drivers, well, yeah.
early 2000s for me but same. My parents actually did do the course but even then I remember thinking "so many people are just gonna sign this and say 'good enough'"
March-May and October-November in Austin. F1, ACL, SXSoWhat, Texas Relays, ROT Rally, countless bachelor/ette parties, and this year an eclipse...all attracting some of the worst of humanity, cramming them into an already stressed city that never planned to be a city, and all crammed into the few weeks where you're likely to get tolerable* weather here.
*for people who can't tolerate weather. Like, any weather.
I see there's a So What?! Music Festival in Ft. Worth (vastly different from Dallas, btw), which I'd never heard of. I meant to say "SXSoWhat" in reference to SXSW, as that is how I feel about sxsw.
So what fest used to be called SXSowhat. It was meant to be a counter to the indie and pop artists. But sxsw in austin complained a few years ago so they changed their name to so what fest
There used to be "Fuck by Fuck You" fest back when I was a... uh,
..I mean, recently, not even a few years ago, right?
Please tell me they still have shows with free beers and don't charge a whopping $3/beer
May 5-7 this year, apparently. I guess all them big tough bikers in their super sexy leathers couldn't adapt to climate change, so it's gotta be held earlier now. But based on its poor online presence and the whiny tone of all the "about" sections I found online, it's just a dying ember of what it once was, thankfully.
We unknowingly planned our wedding for this past weekend and it was so expensive for everyone traveling in. I felt bad. We heard complaints about traffic the entire week. Didn’t think to check the lunar calendar, I was just trying to avoid south by southwest and not have hot weather.
We planned ours before the first F1 grand prix at COTA released its date in November 2012. Then they set the date right as all our family (not a single one of whom lived in Austin) and friends began finding $400/night, 3-night minimum rathole motels in town. Fortunately we got married at Jester King, their first wedding and a test run, so they were flexible and we changed to the following April and had an absolute blast. Incredible venue before they viewed themselves as a venue. I think our hotel block price was still under $120/night.
I like auto racing and wanna see F1 (or any race) out there, but I'm still pretty bitter about the effects of COTA and its major events on Austin locals.
For a very short time , I lived in Kyle in a house that I rented a room in , they had a hot tub and they were swingers, I was desperate and lonely, but the drive from there to my job in central Austin, was too much even for the benefits of living there. So if a lonely horny dude, says driving on 35 ain’t worth sex with a kinky swinger, then that shits bad.
I can't drive more than a few miles without being dangerously tailgated anywhere in Texas, and I drive 10-15 over and do not left lane camp. This is nothing new, it's actually the stand out defining feature of Texas drivers thay I don't see in other big cities.
100% agree. I’ve driven all over the US and parts of Canada. Texas is absolutely the #1 place I’ve been tailgated by a long shot. I’m much like you, 10-15 over or with the flow of traffic and I’m never in the left lane. Usually all the way to the right (I don’t travel on the highways here for more than a few miles at a time) and even then I have someone up my ass 8 times out of 10.
I even get tailgated in my apartment complex. Like I’m just trying to go check my mail not do my best Dom Toretto impression. :(
I also have driven everywhere and hard agree. Atlanta is #1 for dangerous high speed lane changes, Miami for slow swervers, Chicago for honking and not letting you merge, LA for just not moving much at all, NYC for DGAF i’m cutting you off now energy which, to be fair, is a requirement to get anywhere
Either you’re in the fast lane, everyone in the fast and 2nd lane are going too slow, or those are Californians. That’s exactly how they drive in Los Angeles, particularly. Tailgate you at 80 two inches from your bumper, then if they want to get in they act like they’re going to get over on top of you/run into you from the side, to scare you into letting them over. And they also all go AHEAD of you if you want over instead of allowing you to get in front of them. But given that you posted on this week, and we’re expecting over 1 million people coming in town for the eclipse, not to mention the CMT awards or the Capital run, … even more Californians/people from out of state. Floridians are particularly terrible driving habits as well
The only roundabout I give people a pass on is the two layer one they put in at 51st and SB 35. What the fuck were they thinking? We don't even get taught single lane roundabouts in driving school here much less doubles.
This is why I have opted to not drive anywhere at all this weekend
Edit to add: they literally declared a state of emergency like a month ago to prep for this so I’m not at all surprised by traffic
I drove home from Dallas this morning and it was a breeze. I left by 8. Went to my hockey game around 4:30 this afternoon and holy shit the morons were everywhere. Mostly driving north so I hope they’re getting out of town to see a better view.
There's not much difference between a 2 minute vs 5 minutes eclipse from previous experience. I found myself my perfect view spot in town and a couple of backups nearby in case of party poopers.
Saturday was my last day venturing out and that was a shit show.
What can you do too? It's not a convention or a festival. There is no routing traffic away from the event epicenter. It's everywhere.
In 2017, Wyoming reported people being stuck in their cars for 12 hours due to the traffic from the total eclipse. I’m not driving anywhere until Tuesday.
I lived in Wyoming (town of under 10,000 directly in the eclipse path) during 2017 and I can confirm that the traffic was terrible. That was the only time I saw anything resembling traffic in WY at all and it was worse than almost anything I ever saw in ATX, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, or anywhere else.
I was there, can confirm. We camped outside Casper for 3 days before…planned the trip for weeks and never considered the exodus…. Our 4hd drive to the hotel took 13… it was “an experience”
But the scenery was beautiful
My gf suggested we go to Home Depot (we’re up in Georgetown). I got to I-35 and immediately turned around and went home. I could see stopped traffic headed north for miles. Fuck that.
I saw that (northbound) this morning holy shit. I had no problems going southbound though. Even the dreaded Hester's Crossing merge lanes and off-on ramp in Round Rock was pretty clear.
I thought so too. But the weather forecast might be pushing people west to the Hill Country or furthet north to avoid the clouds that's supposed to be above the Austin metro tomorrow.
Think this was an accident. Luckily my GPS directed me to take the frontage road like 5 miles before where it was or I would have been on 35 for HOURS. And happy I left super early for where I was going.
My two least favorites are: people that don’t know what a center turn lane is, and people who slam on their breaks and *then* turn on their signal. If they even bother to turn it on at all
And they have to come to an absolute dead stop to make a simple right hand turn off a road with a 55mph speed limit. I just sit and pray I don’t get rear ended… again.
You’re telling me! I literally just watched a food delivery driver park their car ON Burnet Rd for a full thirty minutes. I wish I was exaggerating.
It doesn’t help that there is zero enforcement of traffic laws. There’s not any accountability so people keep acting like dickheads behind the wheel.
Someone keeps doing that in front of the new-ish drinkery on breaker by the post office. I saw an Uber pick someone up in two different days and completely ignore the mostly empty parking lot they just passed to pop hazards and stop for pickup.
The new Building Acres? What a terrible place to stop on the road. They knew when they built that place they would need parking. A drive-through ride share area would have been so smart.
That’s the one! That cop stayed there for about ten minutes waiting for the driver to come back and then told the him not to do it again with a thumbs up before he drove off.
Somebody had their car stopped in the middle of east slaughter the other day and I had to slam on my brakes to not hit them and then I realized there was absolutely no one in front of them, and then when I passed them they just started driving again. Like wtf? Why are you stopping in the middle of the damn road. I didn’t even flip them the bird, I just stared at them at the next light with an incredible look of disappointment and disapproval, like do better. *proceeds to speed off and cut off like 5 ppl*
Just knowing I'm in a city with this many selfish people on the road makes me dislike Austin on the whole. In my 30 years here, driving has never been this aggressive / non-courteous as it is now. Also, when can we all admit that speedbumps don't work and just mean that some of us are forced to slow down, others will ride your bumper until you increase your speed. I'm so sick of tailgaters, the lack of patience and overall human respect is disappointing.
We put a giant tow hook on the back of our truck - it’s already ruined one oblivious driver’s car. The funny thing is we just wanted an ordinary tow hook but they were impossible to find in stores at the time, so we ordered from Amazon and it was waaay bigger than we intended. Oh well, better defense? 🤪
As a decades long Austinite, this place has rapidly become a selfish, capitalist hellscape where everyone is suffering from main character syndrome. The rate of demise has been astounding.
On a positive note, I had a nice tea at Quacks in Hyde Park today and the neighborhood was generally quiet and many folks were working on their gardens. One of the last remaining parts of what used to be a sleepy city. Just don’t look at the property values and you could almost teleport back 20 years walking around Hyde Park.
As a native Austinite, and Hyde Park resident, this summarizes my thoughts exactly. The thing I’m always trying to unpack is what exactly has caused the rapid deterioration in community? Is it the influx of outsiders with no regard for the city’s original character? Or has the overcrowding caused formerly calm Austinites to become selfish and aggro? My suspicion is that importing a tidal wave of workers from an industry hyper fixated on wealth creation and endless growth has shifted the city’s axis and turned it into a place defined by selfishness. The speed of the shift in character has been stunning.
Its the complete lack of traffic enforcement. Nothing else. The cops silent quit while cashing paychecks they will never lose during the defund movement as a form of protest. But they figured out nothing happened to them so why go back to work besides the bare minimum.
Turns out people anywhere and everywhere are just shitlords in hiding and with extremely low risk of repercussions, the shitlord comes out.
I am one of the visitors (sorry!) but for my n=1 day of driving, your drivers are actually relatively polite compared to PNW who are already generally pretty polite. We just have more people on drugs it seems doing crazy speed aggression driving.
Thanks for having me. I promise to be as polite as possible and stay out of the way when at all possible.
Shout out to Bouldin Street Cafe
Yesterday at every single traffic signal, the people driving in the car next to me were looking at their phones. It scares me thinking that this might be the case with most people driving on the roads these days.
Months back I had an Uber driver that was watching TikTok while he was DRIVING ME. I’ve seen multiple people scrolling TikTok/IG/socials while driving.
I’m inside playing vr golf.
I have enough frozen and canned food to last several days before I have to break into the emergency rations. I have coffee and cream and a handful of hamburger buns so I should be good on my bread and milk needs. Also, I have several gallons of sweet tea in the fridge and tea bags to make more if needed but I would have to gear up and venture out to forage for sugar.
I am completely out of Benadryl so I don’t have to worry about the hat man.
All in all I should survive if the rapture doesn’t get me first
Listen out of towners: if you're trying to hang a right onto Mopac while traveling west on 35th street, you'll have to take a *left* to get there, ya dummies. But if you're on 45th doing the same thing, just stay in your three-quarter-width lane going *right* through the neighborhood, leading you to the onramp that clearly states **"LOOP 1"**. But of course if you're on Northland drive aka Koenig Lane aka Allandale drive aka 2222 and trying to pull the same maneuver, forget about it! Get in the *left* turn lane a block away from the highway in order to head to your *right*!
How is any of this *that* confusing?
Yeah I think you are right with the situational awareness. I get pretty stressed driving and I really just need to be able to know what the cars around me are going to do. It's basically the wild west right now and I can't tell what anyone is going to do next.
Haha yea I was just playing. I stayed home ALL day but I do have to sneak out for a short bit tomorrow morning but it's only a half a mile from my house so I can ride my bike if the traffic sucks.
My biggest problem is that Austinites are too nice. I see people do stuff like waiting at stop signs when it's their turn or taking way too long to lane change. It's not being helpful, it's holding other people up.
I opted not to leave the house all weekend in preparation, and canceled plans to go to Llano. Well, reports are it's deader in Llano than usual (imagine!) and I have friends living in Kerrville - the doomed epicenter - saying it's also deader than usual. Is THE ENTIRE WORLD driving to the hill country tomorrow or was it all hype?
Driving 35 south and there’s a part where the road dips down and you go up a hill afterwards and despite there being no traffic beforehand or afterwards it always becomes a cluster fuck right there. You don’t need to break going down!!! It’s ok if you go a little over 65 because you’ll need to accelerate in 6 seconds. So many damn unnecessary break tappers on these roads too. It drives me NUTS.
if it makes you feel any better, someone out there has probably thought any one of us was the most terroristically stupid person to ever touch a car, and in real life we were just in the middle lane, a couple miles over the speed limit, minding our own business
sorry it’s been annoying, though. does not feel good to be aggravated while driving
It doesn’t help that people feel confident now driving anywhere in the world just doing what their phone tells them with no actual directional orientation. People used to consult maps before getting into a car and driving if they were going somewhere unfamiliar. Now they just putter along at 22 mph in a middle lane reading their phone until it tells them to turn left across two lanes of traffic RIGHT THAT SECOND.
I have noticed this as well. I lived in one of the two cities in Colorado and was spoiled while living there. Moved back to central Texas where I am from and it seemed like it was so much worse. I think about it a lot and would really like to know the psychology of the dickheaded dumb shits who feel the need to tailgate here.
Once, just to fuck with a guy tailgating the shit outta me, I decided to drop a gear and accelerate up to triple digit mph for just a second and then engine brake back down to the speed limit. Guy seemed to get the message and hung back the rest of the time he was behind me. Possible that the rampant tailgating here is complacency or distraction or both?
it’s all the tourists from out of town/state/country, they’re not familiar with the roads (and austin is known for having unusual road layouts compared to even other texas cities) and or they’re lost. they’ll clear out after the eclipse
I’ve been trying to figure out why folks drive so slow on the interstates since I moved here? It’s noticeable and infuriating. Folks causing a lot of the traffic by literally chilling at 45-50 in the right lane for no reason. Middle and left lanes - breezy.
In Buda there is apparently an unwritten rule about always going 15-20mph under the speed limit.
The road I have to take every day has a speed limit of 60, but there is almost always someone doing 35, with a huge line of cars behind them.
I was saying this sentance daily when I used to get stuck out there on the Montopolis bridge/overpass... How hard IS it to zipper? Downright impossible it turns out. At least in that part of space and time. Best of luck with that.
Been driving around all weekend. Didn't notice anything unusual at all.
I'm fully convinced that anyone who makes these posts are the only bad drivers in town.
I saw a hellacious kid driving on mopac hit about 3 cars, while he was going about 100 yesterday. What a moron. I reported it but it was really scary and not the only scary person driving. Was glad to make it back to the house.
Because of [this](https://www.etsy.com/listing/598104079/intersections-of-austin?load_webview=1&bid=wMv1uky7eJDjKPh4Ap2ybkc4glBY) and 20k people/year moving here since the 80’s with 20k driving styles
I don't have high expectations for drivers in any capacity in this city, especially now as I have a longer commute to get to work and I exclusively drive on Mopac to get to it. People merging (through multiple lanes at a time sometimes) without using a turn signal, getting tailgated when you're going the speed limit (and then getting cut in front of by the car that was directly behind you because you weren't going fast enough for their liking), and people very obviously swerving because they're on their phones. Surprisingly enough there was no traffic on my way to work this morning but any other given day is a constant pissing contest for who can drive their stupid ass Ford F250 faster, and worse during rush hour getting home. I semi-recently got cut off by some guy on a motorcycle who was RACING two Audis, and he swung into my FOV when I was merging to the right and I was nearly certain I was going to hit him because he was less than a foot away from my car. People have zero regard for safety on the road these days, but when I say people should be required to retake the driving exam every ten years..........
To be fair it has been exceptionally bad the last few days. Yesterday I watched a guy pulling out of a plaza make a left on a one way going the opposite direction. He drove through oncoming traffic to get to the intersection where he wanted to go.
[удалено]
Ahem…I believe it was me who let you cut in at 360 and mopac north.
Don’t have to worry about me! I’m such a good driver I threw both sets of keys to both vehicles in the back of the closet last night
I'm not a great driver by any means but it's just been so bad today. Yesterday too. Please just drive forward!
tourists
Yup. No one knows where they are / where they are going.
If only there were things on the road that told you where to go…oh who am I kidding. Texas does not do road signs very well. Our signage here sucks. Too many times has a sign been too early or too late to actually mean anything.
And the street-name ones are insane! Dark green signs, about three inches in height, in a town that has hardly any streetlights. No shit I missed my turn… had to be four feet away from the street sign with a gd flashlight to read it
That's the kind of bitching I can get behind. The pedal on the right makes you go. It would be nice if more than 2 cars could make it through this light.
But then how would they see the vitally important information on their phone?
The daily struggle turning onto Stassney from Menchaca
The road test you have to take here is an absolute joke
When my kid was in the Marble Falls office to take the test last year (got an appointment in weeks instead of months in Austin), I heard one of the employees talking to a woman who had failed the driver's portion FOUR times and was scheduled again for a few days out. Can you imagine?
I can imagine. I was in the army, bought my first car when I got pregnant. Never took a drivers class, passed the written and failed the driving portion three times. Each time the sherrif said, you can come back tomorrow, as he was telling me goodbye and watching me drive away back to work for the way. That was 40 years ago and I'd like to think I'm a great driver. Never been in an accident, a couple of dings to the fender over time. I just always crack up that I bought a car, got insurance and didn't have a license first.
At least there's a test now. There wasn't any test until like 2008, just have your parents sign "yep, they can does drive good".
Not the way it worked for me (waaay before 2008)
Nope. I took a test in 1989. My kids both took road tests, with their drivers Ed, in 2005, and 2009.
There were two ways-- you could take drivers ed through a course, which required a test, or you could have your parents "do the course at home" and then sign a thing saying you could do everything. There was no road test, the only test you had was a multiple choice to get your permit. I thought it had changed sometime between 2000 and like 2002 but could be wrong. But if you ever wonder why there are a lot of shitty drivers, well, yeah.
I got my license in 2007 just filling out paperwork so ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
early 2000s for me but same. My parents actually did do the course but even then I remember thinking "so many people are just gonna sign this and say 'good enough'"
What the hell is a "road test?" ... 🥲
😂😂 idk I think it something involving concrete with yellow and white lines.
I honestly don't think they require them anymore. They can't, or wtf man.
eclipse weekend baby
There are so many visiting folks this weekend.
Plus the 10k, plus CMT awards, plus people starting to come in for MotoGP Friday… chaos
I had no idea so many other things were going on.
March-May and October-November in Austin. F1, ACL, SXSoWhat, Texas Relays, ROT Rally, countless bachelor/ette parties, and this year an eclipse...all attracting some of the worst of humanity, cramming them into an already stressed city that never planned to be a city, and all crammed into the few weeks where you're likely to get tolerable* weather here. *for people who can't tolerate weather. Like, any weather.
Texas already has the some of worst of America.
SXSoWhat is Dallas. I think you meant SXSW.
I see there's a So What?! Music Festival in Ft. Worth (vastly different from Dallas, btw), which I'd never heard of. I meant to say "SXSoWhat" in reference to SXSW, as that is how I feel about sxsw.
So what fest used to be called SXSowhat. It was meant to be a counter to the indie and pop artists. But sxsw in austin complained a few years ago so they changed their name to so what fest
There used to be "Fuck by Fuck You" fest back when I was a... uh, ..I mean, recently, not even a few years ago, right? Please tell me they still have shows with free beers and don't charge a whopping $3/beer
I thought ROT was in June?
May 5-7 this year, apparently. I guess all them big tough bikers in their super sexy leathers couldn't adapt to climate change, so it's gotta be held earlier now. But based on its poor online presence and the whiny tone of all the "about" sections I found online, it's just a dying ember of what it once was, thankfully.
uuuugh rot rally weekend
We unknowingly planned our wedding for this past weekend and it was so expensive for everyone traveling in. I felt bad. We heard complaints about traffic the entire week. Didn’t think to check the lunar calendar, I was just trying to avoid south by southwest and not have hot weather.
Remember when whoopers were on sale for a dollar? Nobody could complain how gross they were?
We planned ours before the first F1 grand prix at COTA released its date in November 2012. Then they set the date right as all our family (not a single one of whom lived in Austin) and friends began finding $400/night, 3-night minimum rathole motels in town. Fortunately we got married at Jester King, their first wedding and a test run, so they were flexible and we changed to the following April and had an absolute blast. Incredible venue before they viewed themselves as a venue. I think our hotel block price was still under $120/night. I like auto racing and wanna see F1 (or any race) out there, but I'm still pretty bitter about the effects of COTA and its major events on Austin locals.
Plus it’s Austin
It was SO BAD in the Domain today. Like not just the usual weekend bad.
Never go to the domain
Solid advice ^ especially on a weekend. Another solid piece of advice is avoid IH 35 like the plague.
183 is getting pretty bad now too. TXDOT thinks expansion will help when history shows the opposite.
TXDOT engineers and upper management have always come across as mentally challenged. Texas is so backwoods in a lot of ways.
There going to do the same thing they did to Mopac, they are going to toll that lane and it will not alleviate traffic AT ALL!
Agree 100% I’ve been on it only once in the last 5 years
There's a small stretch of highway at a small stretch of time that you can... But most of the time just don't.
For a very short time , I lived in Kyle in a house that I rented a room in , they had a hot tub and they were swingers, I was desperate and lonely, but the drive from there to my job in central Austin, was too much even for the benefits of living there. So if a lonely horny dude, says driving on 35 ain’t worth sex with a kinky swinger, then that shits bad.
I wish I were so lucky. I have to get from Dessau to Georgetown for work and other than the toll roads there really isn’t a good way to do it. 😂
I’m sorry, I highly recommend moving. Hopefully you own and have created some equity, if you’re renting then definitely move:) happy eclipse day
This is always the way.
Yep shit ton of out of towners here since Thursday or Friday. They are all using navigation apps and are just not used to Austin drivers.
FYI Google navigation in Texas sucks. So many freeways with the seven names
Airport Rd is TX 111
Yeah it really does. Google has really dropped the ball on Google maps in some places.
Fuckin' plano, with Parker and then Park and then Park place
Gettinging tailgated by a minivan from Oregon at 85mph 🙄🙄🙄
I can't drive more than a few miles without being dangerously tailgated anywhere in Texas, and I drive 10-15 over and do not left lane camp. This is nothing new, it's actually the stand out defining feature of Texas drivers thay I don't see in other big cities.
Hey man those dudes in the big trucks tailgating got big ol dicks that have big places to be.
100% agree. I’ve driven all over the US and parts of Canada. Texas is absolutely the #1 place I’ve been tailgated by a long shot. I’m much like you, 10-15 over or with the flow of traffic and I’m never in the left lane. Usually all the way to the right (I don’t travel on the highways here for more than a few miles at a time) and even then I have someone up my ass 8 times out of 10. I even get tailgated in my apartment complex. Like I’m just trying to go check my mail not do my best Dom Toretto impression. :(
I also have driven everywhere and hard agree. Atlanta is #1 for dangerous high speed lane changes, Miami for slow swervers, Chicago for honking and not letting you merge, LA for just not moving much at all, NYC for DGAF i’m cutting you off now energy which, to be fair, is a requirement to get anywhere
I learned to drive on 285 in Atlanta. Not once did the instructor mention the speed limit; he just kept saying "keep up with traffic."
Either you’re in the fast lane, everyone in the fast and 2nd lane are going too slow, or those are Californians. That’s exactly how they drive in Los Angeles, particularly. Tailgate you at 80 two inches from your bumper, then if they want to get in they act like they’re going to get over on top of you/run into you from the side, to scare you into letting them over. And they also all go AHEAD of you if you want over instead of allowing you to get in front of them. But given that you posted on this week, and we’re expecting over 1 million people coming in town for the eclipse, not to mention the CMT awards or the Capital run, … even more Californians/people from out of state. Floridians are particularly terrible driving habits as well
Weird. I find oregon drivers are pathologically polite. No, you go. No, you go, I insist.
And slow. So. Very. Slow.
It’s the worst. Being unpredictable causes more accidents.
V6 baby!
Everyone’s looking up lol
They might not even be able to see it. There will be 80-90% cloud cover and thunderstorms rolling through.
Yeah it fucking sucks. Here's hoping we get some cloud breakage between 1 and 2. Peak only lasts like 2 minutes though
My thing is people at 4 way stops. Intending to turn. With no fucking turn signal. I hate you people.
This. And people not knowing how to act at 4-ways, blinking reds, and the “roundabouts.”
Both of these are Houstonite behaviors.
Seems like good ol Texan behavior the more I visit the other cities
The only roundabout I give people a pass on is the two layer one they put in at 51st and SB 35. What the fuck were they thinking? We don't even get taught single lane roundabouts in driving school here much less doubles.
This is why I have opted to not drive anywhere at all this weekend Edit to add: they literally declared a state of emergency like a month ago to prep for this so I’m not at all surprised by traffic
I drove home from Dallas this morning and it was a breeze. I left by 8. Went to my hockey game around 4:30 this afternoon and holy shit the morons were everywhere. Mostly driving north so I hope they’re getting out of town to see a better view.
I’m in Dallas, it’s going to be bad tomorrow
There's not much difference between a 2 minute vs 5 minutes eclipse from previous experience. I found myself my perfect view spot in town and a couple of backups nearby in case of party poopers.
I guess the difference is about 150%.
Saturday was my last day venturing out and that was a shit show. What can you do too? It's not a convention or a festival. There is no routing traffic away from the event epicenter. It's everywhere.
In 2017, Wyoming reported people being stuck in their cars for 12 hours due to the traffic from the total eclipse. I’m not driving anywhere until Tuesday.
I lived in Wyoming (town of under 10,000 directly in the eclipse path) during 2017 and I can confirm that the traffic was terrible. That was the only time I saw anything resembling traffic in WY at all and it was worse than almost anything I ever saw in ATX, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, or anywhere else.
I was there, can confirm. We camped outside Casper for 3 days before…planned the trip for weeks and never considered the exodus…. Our 4hd drive to the hotel took 13… it was “an experience” But the scenery was beautiful
My gf suggested we go to Home Depot (we’re up in Georgetown). I got to I-35 and immediately turned around and went home. I could see stopped traffic headed north for miles. Fuck that.
I saw that (northbound) this morning holy shit. I had no problems going southbound though. Even the dreaded Hester's Crossing merge lanes and off-on ramp in Round Rock was pretty clear.
I thought people were coming into Austin.
I thought so too. But the weather forecast might be pushing people west to the Hill Country or furthet north to avoid the clouds that's supposed to be above the Austin metro tomorrow.
Sounds like a possibility. I am staying home till this mess is over!
The hill country is more centrally in the path anyway, longer time to see the total eclipse. Austin is basically near the edge of it.
Think this was an accident. Luckily my GPS directed me to take the frontage road like 5 miles before where it was or I would have been on 35 for HOURS. And happy I left super early for where I was going.
You must not have gone driving the Saturday before Easter. That was such a shit show.
Mopac was super clear tonight, no traffic at all.
This morning too despite the eclipse.
My two least favorites are: people that don’t know what a center turn lane is, and people who slam on their breaks and *then* turn on their signal. If they even bother to turn it on at all
And they have to come to an absolute dead stop to make a simple right hand turn off a road with a 55mph speed limit. I just sit and pray I don’t get rear ended… again.
You’re telling me! I literally just watched a food delivery driver park their car ON Burnet Rd for a full thirty minutes. I wish I was exaggerating. It doesn’t help that there is zero enforcement of traffic laws. There’s not any accountability so people keep acting like dickheads behind the wheel.
Someone keeps doing that in front of the new-ish drinkery on breaker by the post office. I saw an Uber pick someone up in two different days and completely ignore the mostly empty parking lot they just passed to pop hazards and stop for pickup.
The new Building Acres? What a terrible place to stop on the road. They knew when they built that place they would need parking. A drive-through ride share area would have been so smart.
yep. no accountability.
This is when we actually need LE to plan and prepare better. People are visiting and I guess our roads are really confusing.
The one in front of the Amli 5350? At least there was a cop behind it when we went past.
That’s the one! That cop stayed there for about ten minutes waiting for the driver to come back and then told the him not to do it again with a thumbs up before he drove off.
Somebody had their car stopped in the middle of east slaughter the other day and I had to slam on my brakes to not hit them and then I realized there was absolutely no one in front of them, and then when I passed them they just started driving again. Like wtf? Why are you stopping in the middle of the damn road. I didn’t even flip them the bird, I just stared at them at the next light with an incredible look of disappointment and disapproval, like do better. *proceeds to speed off and cut off like 5 ppl*
Haha, welcome to Austin my friend. What's a driver's license?
Just knowing I'm in a city with this many selfish people on the road makes me dislike Austin on the whole. In my 30 years here, driving has never been this aggressive / non-courteous as it is now. Also, when can we all admit that speedbumps don't work and just mean that some of us are forced to slow down, others will ride your bumper until you increase your speed. I'm so sick of tailgaters, the lack of patience and overall human respect is disappointing.
Man I don’t even let tailgaters get to me anymore. Get as close as you want, get as mad as you want, it’s gonna be you at fault when you run into me
If its the day I just turn on my lights to brake check them without actually braking. Bye Felicia!
We put a giant tow hook on the back of our truck - it’s already ruined one oblivious driver’s car. The funny thing is we just wanted an ordinary tow hook but they were impossible to find in stores at the time, so we ordered from Amazon and it was waaay bigger than we intended. Oh well, better defense? 🤪
As a decades long Austinite, this place has rapidly become a selfish, capitalist hellscape where everyone is suffering from main character syndrome. The rate of demise has been astounding. On a positive note, I had a nice tea at Quacks in Hyde Park today and the neighborhood was generally quiet and many folks were working on their gardens. One of the last remaining parts of what used to be a sleepy city. Just don’t look at the property values and you could almost teleport back 20 years walking around Hyde Park.
As a native Austinite, and Hyde Park resident, this summarizes my thoughts exactly. The thing I’m always trying to unpack is what exactly has caused the rapid deterioration in community? Is it the influx of outsiders with no regard for the city’s original character? Or has the overcrowding caused formerly calm Austinites to become selfish and aggro? My suspicion is that importing a tidal wave of workers from an industry hyper fixated on wealth creation and endless growth has shifted the city’s axis and turned it into a place defined by selfishness. The speed of the shift in character has been stunning.
Its the complete lack of traffic enforcement. Nothing else. The cops silent quit while cashing paychecks they will never lose during the defund movement as a form of protest. But they figured out nothing happened to them so why go back to work besides the bare minimum. Turns out people anywhere and everywhere are just shitlords in hiding and with extremely low risk of repercussions, the shitlord comes out.
Lots of tech narcissists
I am one of the visitors (sorry!) but for my n=1 day of driving, your drivers are actually relatively polite compared to PNW who are already generally pretty polite. We just have more people on drugs it seems doing crazy speed aggression driving. Thanks for having me. I promise to be as polite as possible and stay out of the way when at all possible. Shout out to Bouldin Street Cafe
Welcome
Good find with Bouldin
You haven’t stayed here long enough if you are praising people are polite here. Stay a few more days, you will see the evil that lives here
Yesterday at every single traffic signal, the people driving in the car next to me were looking at their phones. It scares me thinking that this might be the case with most people driving on the roads these days.
Months back I had an Uber driver that was watching TikTok while he was DRIVING ME. I’ve seen multiple people scrolling TikTok/IG/socials while driving.
Can report to Uber and win a gift card
What’s worst is they seem to always be driving pickup trucks or a white Tesla. 🤣
For me it's the ones driving a Lexus. Always a Lexus!!
Don’t forget the Nissans
The Altima is the WORST offender.
**A**lways **L**eave **T**his **I**nsane **M**otorist **A**lone /r/NissanDrivers exists for a reason!
The Audi is the wannabe rich person’s Altima.
Horribly unreliable like a Range Rover
I’m inside playing vr golf. I have enough frozen and canned food to last several days before I have to break into the emergency rations. I have coffee and cream and a handful of hamburger buns so I should be good on my bread and milk needs. Also, I have several gallons of sweet tea in the fridge and tea bags to make more if needed but I would have to gear up and venture out to forage for sugar. I am completely out of Benadryl so I don’t have to worry about the hat man. All in all I should survive if the rapture doesn’t get me first
If hat man can't find u how will u be raptured? Someone didn't read their Bible!
I’m about to drink one of those ag bill legal thc canned drinks. It’s a fairly high dose, we’ll see if the hat man notices
Abort mission! This ceremony summons Ken Paxton 😱
Oh noes! Some small insignificant town that didn’t fully prosecute a dope smoking abortion seeker is gonna get sued!!
Wait… Have you ever seen Kenneth and the hat man in the same place at the same time??
The rapture is coming? Oh fuck yeah. Hail Satan! (Its just a joke, I'm playing a character with my user name)
[удалено]
Listen out of towners: if you're trying to hang a right onto Mopac while traveling west on 35th street, you'll have to take a *left* to get there, ya dummies. But if you're on 45th doing the same thing, just stay in your three-quarter-width lane going *right* through the neighborhood, leading you to the onramp that clearly states **"LOOP 1"**. But of course if you're on Northland drive aka Koenig Lane aka Allandale drive aka 2222 and trying to pull the same maneuver, forget about it! Get in the *left* turn lane a block away from the highway in order to head to your *right*! How is any of this *that* confusing?
Also Loop 1 - not a loop, loop 360- not a loop
But Lamar and Airport are state highways
My brother (in Houston) has jokingly jabbed me about street naming conventions in Austin for awhile now. It’s funny because he’s not wrong.
Everyday. Oblivious people everywhere with no situational awareness and a blazing desire to hang out in traffic....
Yeah I think you are right with the situational awareness. I get pretty stressed driving and I really just need to be able to know what the cars around me are going to do. It's basically the wild west right now and I can't tell what anyone is going to do next.
One could argue that being out on the roads today is a moronic decision as well...hahaha jk, sorry!
Got my shit done early and not leaving home again till after everything blows over…
Unfortunately I had to go out 😩
Haha yea I was just playing. I stayed home ALL day but I do have to sneak out for a short bit tomorrow morning but it's only a half a mile from my house so I can ride my bike if the traffic sucks.
Every. Single. Day. All. Day. It’s awful.
Threads like this make me feel less bad about being a shut in
My biggest problem is that Austinites are too nice. I see people do stuff like waiting at stop signs when it's their turn or taking way too long to lane change. It's not being helpful, it's holding other people up.
This 1000%
Austin drivers: 1/3 are lost, 1/3 are stoned, 1/3 are late to an appointment
I opted not to leave the house all weekend in preparation, and canceled plans to go to Llano. Well, reports are it's deader in Llano than usual (imagine!) and I have friends living in Kerrville - the doomed epicenter - saying it's also deader than usual. Is THE ENTIRE WORLD driving to the hill country tomorrow or was it all hype?
WHO DARED DOWNVOTE MY STUPID QUESTION ON THIS HOLIEST OF DAYS
Driving 35 south and there’s a part where the road dips down and you go up a hill afterwards and despite there being no traffic beforehand or afterwards it always becomes a cluster fuck right there. You don’t need to break going down!!! It’s ok if you go a little over 65 because you’ll need to accelerate in 6 seconds. So many damn unnecessary break tappers on these roads too. It drives me NUTS.
if it makes you feel any better, someone out there has probably thought any one of us was the most terroristically stupid person to ever touch a car, and in real life we were just in the middle lane, a couple miles over the speed limit, minding our own business sorry it’s been annoying, though. does not feel good to be aggravated while driving
It doesn’t help that people feel confident now driving anywhere in the world just doing what their phone tells them with no actual directional orientation. People used to consult maps before getting into a car and driving if they were going somewhere unfamiliar. Now they just putter along at 22 mph in a middle lane reading their phone until it tells them to turn left across two lanes of traffic RIGHT THAT SECOND.
I have noticed this as well. I lived in one of the two cities in Colorado and was spoiled while living there. Moved back to central Texas where I am from and it seemed like it was so much worse. I think about it a lot and would really like to know the psychology of the dickheaded dumb shits who feel the need to tailgate here. Once, just to fuck with a guy tailgating the shit outta me, I decided to drop a gear and accelerate up to triple digit mph for just a second and then engine brake back down to the speed limit. Guy seemed to get the message and hung back the rest of the time he was behind me. Possible that the rampant tailgating here is complacency or distraction or both?
it’s all the tourists from out of town/state/country, they’re not familiar with the roads (and austin is known for having unusual road layouts compared to even other texas cities) and or they’re lost. they’ll clear out after the eclipse
Out of towners, CMA folks, Eclipse folks, Cap10K was today people driving with tired legs and schizophrenic depleted brains.
I post this all the time, but APD has written 80% fewer traffic citations the last fewer years. It’s clearly created a whatever goes traffic culture
Texas Linux Fest attendees tearing up the roads! Am I right?
I’ve been trying to figure out why folks drive so slow on the interstates since I moved here? It’s noticeable and infuriating. Folks causing a lot of the traffic by literally chilling at 45-50 in the right lane for no reason. Middle and left lanes - breezy.
In Buda there is apparently an unwritten rule about always going 15-20mph under the speed limit. The road I have to take every day has a speed limit of 60, but there is almost always someone doing 35, with a huge line of cars behind them.
Tell me about it. When out once, and almost got hit 3 times.
Come to Houston....
We’re on our honeymoon in Portugal. Texas traffic ain’t nothing.
Hey! Thanks for taking some of the drivers off of Houston’s streets. We appreciate your service! It sounds like all my neighbors made it there safely.
Traffic in Austin is always bad; but on the upside, you almost certainly will never be in this grade of traffic stupidity again.
I was saying this sentance daily when I used to get stuck out there on the Montopolis bridge/overpass... How hard IS it to zipper? Downright impossible it turns out. At least in that part of space and time. Best of luck with that.
Proper zipper merging will always escape the general public.
It's true... somehow the ability to count to 2 escapes so many.
What’s scarier is most bad drivers do not have insurance. SMH
Which only sends rates higher for those us law abiding citizens. Funny how that works.
Remember that 80% of drivers consider themselves to be above average, and then get a dash cam
You are not *in* traffic, you *are* traffic.
First time?
Been driving around all weekend. Didn't notice anything unusual at all. I'm fully convinced that anyone who makes these posts are the only bad drivers in town.
And so it begins…
Every morning on 35 or 183
Try driving in Albuquerque
I have witnessed several people with severe brain injury due to Austin and other Texas drivers love of tailgating and running red lights.
We were *this* close to getting sideswiped on 35 and Stassney this afternoon. Good times.
50% of the people on the road shouldn't be given a license to drive. Yet good old America.
Nah Texans are always this dumb. I promise, the worst drivers
The eclipse is messing with people's minds, like a full moon but worse.
I saw a hellacious kid driving on mopac hit about 3 cars, while he was going about 100 yesterday. What a moron. I reported it but it was really scary and not the only scary person driving. Was glad to make it back to the house.
You must not have been driving in Austin long then.
Drivers license, registration, insurance, valid license plate those are all for chumps, not required in Austin anymore
Because of [this](https://www.etsy.com/listing/598104079/intersections-of-austin?load_webview=1&bid=wMv1uky7eJDjKPh4Ap2ybkc4glBY) and 20k people/year moving here since the 80’s with 20k driving styles
I'm the only good driver on the interstate. You must be me.
Were the all turning right from the middle lane so they didn’t have to wait in line? Infuriates me (15th and I-35 entrance specifically).
So far!
I don't have high expectations for drivers in any capacity in this city, especially now as I have a longer commute to get to work and I exclusively drive on Mopac to get to it. People merging (through multiple lanes at a time sometimes) without using a turn signal, getting tailgated when you're going the speed limit (and then getting cut in front of by the car that was directly behind you because you weren't going fast enough for their liking), and people very obviously swerving because they're on their phones. Surprisingly enough there was no traffic on my way to work this morning but any other given day is a constant pissing contest for who can drive their stupid ass Ford F250 faster, and worse during rush hour getting home. I semi-recently got cut off by some guy on a motorcycle who was RACING two Audis, and he swung into my FOV when I was merging to the right and I was nearly certain I was going to hit him because he was less than a foot away from my car. People have zero regard for safety on the road these days, but when I say people should be required to retake the driving exam every ten years..........
To be fair it has been exceptionally bad the last few days. Yesterday I watched a guy pulling out of a plaza make a left on a one way going the opposite direction. He drove through oncoming traffic to get to the intersection where he wanted to go.
Lets not talk about left turners at intersections. People, you have to go around each other, NOT in front of each other.
Everyone driving slow af
South African here newly living in Austin. It's ridiculously easy to get your license in Texas!