Friday, March 25, 2016

The Worst.

Before Dallas I lived in Utah and California. Two places known for “bad” drivers. And while that’s not without good reason, I must say, Texas takes the cake.

That’s right. I’m declaring it right now. Texas has THE WORST drivers I’ve ever seen.

I think they get away with it a little bit because of the ONE good thing I’ve noticed about Texas drivers – they are generally really good about letting people over/in when you put your blinker on. But seriously, that’s it. In order to validate my claim I will list out the various offenses I’ve noticed multiple times. So without further ado, and in no particular order (other than understanding they all are terrible) here I go…

·         Blind lane changes
o   I live in the “burbs” but drive to downtown Dallas all the time. On MANY occasions driving to downtown I’ve almost gotten into an accident because people will switch lanes, even in tight traffic, without looking. And hello, I’m right here. Coming at you at up to 60+ mph sometimes. Stop doing that!

·         Complete disregarding for lines
o   I know this isn’t a big one, but it drives me NUTS. Solid white lines…. You’re not supposed to cross them! Of course we’d all love to move out of the merging lane early, but if it’s a solid white line you’re supposed to wait until it because dashed.
§  Ok I just looked this one up, and at least in Texas it’s not necessarily against the law to cross it, but it’s “strongly discouraged”. Either way, I still find it super annoying. But now that I know it’s not illegal I’ll probably start doing it. #hypocrite

·         Stopping on a freeway onramp
o   Yes, I have literally had this happen to me. As I was leaving work a week or so ago I went to get on the freeway, which already has a pretty short ramp length, when the car in front of me literally stopped on the ramp. WAS SHE TRYING TO GET US ALL KILLED?! I was so annoyed. And to really drive this point home (that’s somewhat confusing wording to use when actually talking about driving, but oh well), let me share a story that I heard when I attended the YSA ward I should technically be in. A very young (18 or 19 year old) girl started talking about how she wanted to go to an art museum in downtown Dallas. Now, like I said before, I live in a suburb about 35 minutes from downtown. To get there from my house I end up using about 3 or 4 different freeways. Well, apparently this girl had NEVER driven on a freeway. (How is that possible you ask? I will explain in the next bullet point.) So, once she decided to go to the museum in downtown she mapped out how to get there using just side streets. But then her GPS, which was supposed to be programed to avoid freeways completely, told her to go a certain way that resulted in her having to go on a freeway. Apparently it did not go well. The gist of the story was that she got off the freeway as soon as she could, pulled into a parking lot where she cried and spazzed out for like 15 minutes. And then she just drove home because she couldn’t handle trying to drive to downtown after that “horrible” ordeal. THAT IS A TRUE STORY. By a legal adult. America, we should be worried for our future.

·         No formal driver’s ed
o   Absurd right? I guess Texas isn’t unique in not having driver’s ed done through the school system. And I know that in Utah you can take it separately from the school offered class, but I’m pretty sure most people do the school program. Anyways, what that means is that here in Texas parents teach their kids how to drive. So every little driving quirk/issue the parents have the young driver now inherits. Did you know that all growing up I thought you had to constantly be moving the steering wheel to keep the car going straight? You want to know why I thought that? Because when my dad drove, he constantly shook the steering wheel. Once I starting driving however, guess what I discovered? For the most part, cars go straight all on their own. MIND BLOWN. A uniform training program, in my oh so wise opinion, is the best way to teach a large group to follow set rules and guidelines. Not individuals with different issues and knowledge bases. And that’s how you end up with people who have driven for years and have NEVER driven on a freeway. So Absurd.

·         Use of the left lane
o   Ugh, this one irritates me multiple times a week. People, the left lane is for cars that want to go fast. If you are going the speed limit, move over. The left lane is not for you.

Well, I think that sums up my main complaints. I love Texas, but man, the drivers here put the Utah and California drivers to shame with the dumb crap they do.

One final thought, and this isn’t a complaint, but rather an observation. When did everyone learn how to back into parking spots? I can parallel park like a boss (thank you LA), but backing into a spot… no way. Not something I can do. How did I miss this training that apparently everyone else took? The girl who can’t drive on a freeway can probably even back into a spot. And that’s just embarrassing… for me.

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