10 SHOCKING Things I Learned Driving Around Texas for 4 Months
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- In this video I discuss 10 shocking traffic-related things I encountered while traveling around the State of Texas earlier this year.
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0:00 Introduction
0:32 Frontage Roads
1:22 Texas Turnaroun
2:15 Double Yellow Turn Arrows
3:22 High Speed Limits
5:16 Interstate 69C
6:32 Super- Highways
7:47 The "Texit"
8:28 Red Fire Lane Lines
9:11 FM Roads
10:35 Loop Highways
As a former Texan, the speed limit is a suggestion. Go whatever speed traffic around you is going. Do not be the person sticking to the speed limit while everyone else is going 80-85.
That rule applies everywhere.
In NY the first thing my mom taught me about driving on the interstate was that the posted 65mph was the minimum i was allowed to drive in the right lane. (This is to keep up with traffic, i used the be terrified of driving, now i just dislike it)
The 2 most important lessons are:
Stay in your lane
Drive with traffic (either speed or go slowly with everyone else, deviation from the average is dangerous in both directions)
No such thing is a former Texan! Once a Texan, always a Texan!
@@rixxroxxk1620But can you become a Texan?
Or you’ll see flocks of birds
You know, the middle finger kind 😁
I don't care if other people drive under the speed limit as long as they're not blocking faster traffic in the left lanes. If you're driving the speed limit or less, keep to the right, unless you are passing someone. And if you are passing someone, don't sit neck and neck with them. Hit the gas, go 5-10 faster than that person, get around them, get back over, and let off the gas. Nobody will be mad at you for doing that. The entire train behind will be mad if you take 4 miles to pass someone going 0.15 miles an hour slower than you want to go.
Just stumbled onto your video. I am an OTR truck driver and am familiar with all kinds of different road and driving characteristics from around the country. Last year I moved to Texas, and I have to say that you are spot on with your ten items here. Only thing I would add, and I encounter this ALL THE TIME in Texas, “no matter how fast you are driving, there will always be someone who wants to go faster!”
exactly. If you're in the left doing 85, you still need to check your mirror and get over if others want to go faster and start stacking up behind you or passing on the right.
Indeed. I-10 out in west Texas is a race track. I'm doing 90 and I get passed by good ole boys in their utility trucks.
That's why the left lane is for passing... Only. I'm amazed at all the people moving here who seem to be genuinely offended that someone dare pass them.
Texas is big, must go fast
Pedal to the metal, brother! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE- please don't do this 😂
A fun fact I love about frontage roads in Texas is that we have so many that each major metro has a different name for them. Houstonians famously refer to them as feeder roads and Austinites call them frontage roads. I grew up in DFW where they were usually called service roads which surprised me when my girlfriend from San Antonio told me she had known them as access roads her whole life.
In El Paso they are called Gateways, go figure why. But some sections in I10 have their own name, Desert boulevard north and south.
Growing up in Beaumont (TX) during the 60s and 70s, my dad used to call them excess roads as a joke.
I live in Dallas and still call them frontage roads
😂😂😂
So true here in San Antonio.
Another thing out in the rural counties... On roads that have an improved shoulder, if you're going slow and others are behind you, it's the courteous thing to pull on to that improved shoulder and let those behind you pass by. I asked a DPS officer about it once, and he said it's not only legal, but it's the nice thing to do! Pro tip: Only do this when there's a good stretch of improved shoulder ahead of you. Wait till you're past hills, creeks, bridges, road crossings, and such.
I saw a Texas plate do this in Kansas once, and I hit my brakes because thought they were going to run off into the ditch. 😂
That's definitely not legal here.
Yes, I too mention the curves. Thanks for the way you wrote this.
did not know this living in texas 🙏 thanks for sharing
I think you are the only other person that knows that! I’m 67 and have lived in north Texas most of my life,and it use to be very common for people to move over and let you pass .But haven’t seen it happen but once in the past 30 years 😅.Then again most drivers don’t move into the right lane to let faster traffic by either! 😡
Had an Aunt & Uncle (both since deceased) in East Texas my late Mom & I would go visit each Christmas from Alabama; who lived on a Farm to Market road. After Mom passed, I’d go out twice a year. I never had any problems on either Farm to Market or Interstate Highways. Her other Brother would drive up from the DFW area to East Texas to visit. I offered to drive to DFW but Mom would have none of the traffic there.
As a resident of Texas, I can vouch for all of these. However, you missed one - Texas' mania for having it's guard rails in premium condition. In most other states, when someone crashes into a guard rail, that thing can stay damaged for months (or years). In Texas, there are warning signs put up immediately and it's repaired or replaced within a month. Also, road repairs happen quickly. We had an entire wide span bridge washed out in flooding a couple years back. Six months later it was completely replaced.
"Also, road repairs happen quickly" Living near DFW, I don't know if I should laugh or cry at that statement.
New Jersey seems to be really good about repairing guard rails, too. Most of the time, they're replaced as part of accident cleanup.
I always wondered why damaged guard rails need warning signs. Are the people thinking, "Hey, today would be a great day to hit a guard rail! Oh, this one is damaged; I better pick another."
As an OTR truck driver, I've seen several states with the "caution damaged guardrail ahead", often accompanied by construction. I've also lived in Michign, New Mexico, Arizona and California, and never saw them in those states.
@@Plasmacore_Vagree. I35 in Temple and Waco were "under repair" for a decade+.
As a Texan, I've always noticed how much more our roads are maintained compared to some states like OK and LA. I didn't know the U-Turns were unique to Texas.
Yeah, you know the very _moment_ you’ve crossed into OK… 😏
@@nw42yeah, there’s a sign ;p
Coming from Chicago to Texas.....this was such a good thing . Cars last longer down here because of the road maintenance 👍🏽
Can’t forget New Mexico…what a horrendous place to drive
Not true. Texas has the some of the worst roads I’ve ever seen.
As someone who grew up in Texas, and now lives on a Farm to Market Road, I did not realize the most other states were lacking these road features. We never called it the Texas turnaround, just the U-turn Lane. It may be more prevalent here because we also have lots of reasons to exit and make a U-turn to get all the businesses on the access Road on the far side of the highway. The loops are there to help you bypass a lot of the traffic of going through the town, but so many people keep fleeing other parts of the country for Texas that we just have to keep adding more and more as the major Metro areas expand. I hope you enjoyed your time in Texas, and had the chance to stop at at least one Buc-ee's.
improved public transportation would be better
@alexanderredhorse1297 yeah and less stupid sprawl would do wonders
@@furrycircuitry2378 no thanks, I purposely chose to live someplace where I can only see one other house. You could not pay me to go back to the crowded squeeze of suburbia, let alone the claustrophobic squeeze of apartments, condos, townhomes, Etc.
@@hightowerhomestead9046 let the city be city let the country be country this stupid sprawl tries to be both and its terrible I just wish dallas was walkable I've been to other cities and they are so much better when you can walk around and not rely on a car
@@furrycircuitry2378 Sprawl is a matter of course of pretty much every place in the US that wasn't physically constrained during growth. Denver's metro area spread into a dozen smaller towns for instance. You get successful and you add industry, you have to put it somewhere. Places like New York are walkable but they also have no major industry other than an addiction to office space and debt and only amount to anthills. Maybe you want to live in a corpo owned 1000 story megastructures that make it "easy" to live in a space that is walkable, but lots of people don't.
Born and bred Texan. Recently I took a road trip to Nashville. Texas to Arkansas to Tennessee. And what I found that I hated was the absence of access/frontage roads. I made a few wrong turns or missed an exit and it took 3 times as long to backtrack. It made absolutely no sense to me. 🤷🏻♀️
I seriously just made this exact drive. And made the same comment above! I just told my husband how crazy the roads were, then I saw your comment and we lol backseat it's almost the exact words I just said to him.
We just made that trip as well. We stopped for gas and accidentally got on going east instead west. It was 5 miles to the next exit to get turned around
😂 people in 49 other states can generally enjoy the absence of cars with black on white license plates. When one shows up... Assholery is sure to follow.
I’ve found the frontage roads more annoying. Map says in order to get to business XYZ, take exit 123. In other states, the off ramp connects to a cross street and that’s where XYZ is located. In TX, the off ramp puts you and the frontage road that if one is lucky, XYZ is further down along the frontage road. If not, you have to drive until you find a spot to do a u-turn and drive back on the frontage road going in the opposite direction, sometimes past the original exit.. I can see where this design might help for getting on or off the freeway when there is a lot of traffic that would otherwise back up a short exit ramp start slowing down a lane or two on the main highway. In practice, if there’s heavy tariffic, the feeder road and exit ramp are getting packed too.
Dude, the part about drivers ignoring the left turn lines and turning into whatever lane they want to is so accurate it hurts. I've almost gotten in about 30 wrecks that way from idiots turning left into the wrong lane. I hate it so much
I agree with this. I've almost been hit by a cop turning from the inner to outer lane. On my way to work one day a huge commercial passenger bus just about pushed a garbage truck down onto I35 because they turned from the inner lane to the outer hitting the truck on an overpass. Took them like 6 hours to clean it up as it was right across the highway from my work.
@nitzerebbhead Jesus. Yeah, even at freshly painted intersections, people just absolutely do not pay attention to the lines. It's like they think once they're in the middle of the intersection it's a free for all. I also see people who try going straight from a left turn only lane with a left turn/straight lane to the right of them that someone turns left from and nearly cause accidents that way too all the time. North texas drivers are the worst I've ever seen anywhere, and I've lived in 3 states and been to about 25 of them.
So true, It’s not the head on traffic that is the concern haha
The inside lane must turn into the inside lane, but the outside lane can turn into any of the outside lanes. Follow that rule and all will run smoothly. But every state has their share of idiot drivers.
I live in houston along 45 and I’ve gone so far inside as to be almost touching the left side curb and STILL had ppl almost hit me from the outside lane
We (Texas) used to have some really complicated speed limit laws. The speed limit signs at the state line were the size of billboards. If I recall, they'd read something like this:
Speed Limit: 70
Night: 65
Trucks: 60
The night restriction was removed in 2011. Truck restrictions were gradually modified or removed depending on the local population density or terrain.
I still drive slower at night because that's when deer try their best to wreck your car.
California is like that except not the night limit. There is a lower speed limit for Trucks and autos pulling trailers.
@@alhutchison447 Texas used to classify those as "trucks," too.
The truck restrictions are a recipe for disaster. I lived in Michigan for my first 60 years and sadly, most of the interstates outside of major metros are still four lanes. They then slap a lower speed limit on the trucks and enforce the living hell out of it, while they completely ignore cars doing anything under 80. So, you have trucks driving 65, trying to pass other trucks doing 63 up a hill, and a line of cars with very frustrated drivers. They should be frustrated at their own state for not building more lanes after 60+ years of the IHS! At least Texas usually has extra lanes for cars to get around the larger vehicles.
Oh ya I remember,, 👍
@@timmyb1957In Michigan, all you get with more lanes is more potholes.
I never realized loops were so uncommon. My hometown of Paris, Texas also has a loop, and it’s population is something like 20,000. It’s honestly pretty handy, and I think that amount of people is the sweet spot for having easy travel. I now live in Houston and it’s a nightmare 😭
Sadly, Houston is a nightmare mostly because of poor exchanges between major roads. Nearly any exchange with I-610 requires trucks to slow to 35 or 40 mph and that very quickly backs up into major obstructions on all the arteries. Further, there are at least 4 places on 610 where two lanes merge with NO warning or merge sign (probably mostly due to the construction) and one on I-10 west. These silent merges cause a lot of confusion and slow-down due to sudden panic. The beltway is either toll road or full of stoplights, and then 99 is a toll road, so most commercial traffic takes the direct route or 610 just to avoid needless fees, which exacerbates the issues. Just for an example that isn't 610-involved, the US-59 / I-45 / TX-288 exchange in downtown, southbound, slams more than 10 lanes of traffic into a 2 lane freeway in the course of just a couple of miles (from the before the I-10 exchange to just south of the the TX-288 south exit). And, I guess finally, TX-288 forces all traffic to merge across the freeway multiple times, including shoving 3 lanes into 1 when merging into US-59, then immediately becoming an exit-only after about 300 feet.
Further, you have things like the on-ramps in the woodlands on I-45 causing basically all the traffic through that area. If you dump people moving 45 mph onto a freeway going 65, then have an off-ramp in 200 ft, it's absolutely going to cause a mess as soon as any congestion starts at all.
Midland took forever to get our loop. Denver has one kind of now that part is a tollway.
I imagine loops were the solution to noisy trucks driving through towns as a truck bypass. I didn't actually know loops were uncommon outside Texas.
Denton has loop 288, I've lived in Portland/Oregon area, I miss a lot of these aspects especially service roads and prevalent u-turns
The flavor text for a texit is "That is where Texan's are voting to put the next exit". The funny thing is it works. Here in Denton, there was a texit on Northbound I-35 about a 1/4 mile before the actual exit for US 380. I have personally used it dozens of times. When they reworked that intersection as part of an expansion to I-35 they moved the real exit to where the texit was. Traffic now moves much better there.
You know what they say... might makes right!
Texas driver here. Thank you for posting this. Interesting observations.
Also might want to mention that the frontage roads in the more rural areas might be two-way Service Roads, so be careful of oncoming traffic when you exit in case they don't yield (which they are supposed to.) And be careful to keep right on these.
Minor correction, Fire-Lane markings designate where you can and cannot *park* in a parking lot, but don't restrict where you can *drive* in a parking lot.
Nice video. Really loved the inclusion of maps that you used. Keep up the good work!
Driving in the North Texas area most my life, our two way service roads mess with my head.
Yeah. I almost killed my entire family on one of those 2 way service roads when I completely forgot it was 2 way, thank god the other driver was on his toes!
It's too bad that he never got to experience the joy of the old-school chicane-style on and off-ramps, mostly without acceleration/deceleration ramps, back in the day. Actually had a good friend who passed away after failing to negotiate the off-ramp, entirely due to his own stupidity (he had a brand-new Ninja 1000 back in the 80's and exited IH35 near Kyle while speeding in the triple digits. As he negotiated the exit, he hit the concrete berm and went airborne into 5-strand barbed wire that ran the length of the frontage road).
That is a GREAT point. Some of the Feeders are definitely 2 way traffic.
Yep from Amarillo. Encountered these around Waco when I was there briefly. Lived all over Texas now in SA. SA has the most dangerous drivers ever.
Having lived in Illinois my entire life, me, and every family member, thought the Texas Turnaround was our left-hand turn. You only make this mistake once, and after you do, you realize just how brilliant these things are. Made correcting my journey so easy, numerous times.
Haha 😁
As someone who has spent most of my life in Houston, trust me, you'll eventually make the mistake again some day.
@@Nami being from Dallas, I agree. Still happens all the time!
Imagine spending your life in Texas and taking U-turn lanes for granted and then visiting New Jersey. After seemingly driving for hours searching for a U-turn, it suddenly dawns on you that there *are* no U-turns, ever. The Jersey U-turn involves a right-hand exit that loops around until it intersects the road as a crossing street, requiring a left turn onto the original road to complete the reversal in your direction of travel. That was bad enough, but being treated like I'm about to blow up the gas station because I want to pump my own gas was also interesting.
As someone who's lived in Texas their whole life, I thought turn arounds were standard on all high ways. Also, speed limits here are more like suggestions. Far right lane is the speed limit,middle lanes are for 5-10 above the limit. And far left is for criminal speeding/ nascar qualifiers.
I moved here in 1998 and was surprised by a lot of these. Now I've been here long enough to forget how unique they are, but I'm always reminded when I leave the state. I remember the first of these that surprised me was the FM roads, and gave me my first insight into how big Texas was, because Texas has enough of these roads to need four digits! I don't think I'd ever seen a four digit road before coming here.
When I first moved to Texas, it was to the Dallas area. The rush hour was 85 mph bumper to bumper and completely terrified me. If I left half a car space in front of me, someone muscled their way in. After a couple weeks I was a pro. Another interesting thing is the rural driving with the extra half a car width on either side. Someone blinks lights at you from behind and you shift right while they pass.
I’m from Austin. The comment about people in Dallas cutting in front of you if you leave a little bit of room… that’s just D/FW drivers. They will signal their lane change but it’s not to ask permission - it’s a warning.
Omg people in San Antonio absolutely muscle their way in if you have even a bit of room, it's why I'm always so hesitant to leave a lot of room between myself and other cars but I know I gotta at least be somewhat safe while driving, even if that's hard while living in Texas lol
A couple of interesting points: 1) The third (outermost) loop around Houston is about 170 miles in length. 2) The first freeway in Texas was the Gulf Freeway segment of I-45 from Houston to Galveston which opened around 1949. I've heard that it should be completed in a couple more decades!
I-45, or the Gulf Freeway, has actually been completed at least once after an expansion project in the late '60s and early '70s. However, it was discovered that most of the freeway had been built several feet too low when many sections flooded after a typical Houston spring rain shower. so they had to tear it up and rebuild it.
That outer loop around Houston is known as 99, most of it is a toll road. Part of it in Liberty County, single lane, not seperated! I have no idea what I would cost to make the whole loop!
LOL GOOD ONE 😅
Actually the first paved freeway in TX was I-35 in Ft. Worth to handle the livestock movement North.
I moved to Houston in 1994, they were building the second loop (Beltway 8) ant they were rebuilding I-45 South (between Galveston and Houston, by the NASA Johnson Space Center). 30 years later, they're still rebuilding I-45 South.
There's a joke around here that says we can put a man on the moon but we can't finish I-45 South lol
Back before GPS, paper road maps were provided free at most gas stations (yes, it's true). In my 40s I made my first trip to the northeast. I rented a car, looked at the map of the area and estimated several hours to my destination. I started driving and soon felt like I was going at warp speed. I arrived in about half the time I had estimated. Turns out the map sizes were about the same every where. So when I saw my destination was about 4 inches away I mentally calculated Texas scale. Turns out the maps in smaller states are almost life-size compared to the ones for Texas.
😂 I’ll keep that in mind.
Slightly related but I grew up in Dallas but worked in Houston for a few years. I was used to the loop sizes in Dallas so when I scouted out my routes on the map in Houston, I mentally calculated the time to travel down the beltway 8 loop as similar to 635, forgetting their loops are significantly bigger and boy did I learn to correct that quickly. 😅
Were there no scale sizes on the key maps you used? My dad still has his and they had scale sizes to calculate distances from what the map detailed.
@@jaylowry4082 Sure there were, but it didn't occur to me until things seemed weird to check that. Sure explained things, though.
shit yeah, i remember when i was younger visiting my grandparents it was like a ~6 hour drive to get from dallas to san antonio (keep in mind thats going from dallas, austin, to san antonio for anyone who doesnt live here)
i was uh, very carsick on that trip
Never realized the turnaround on the access road was an oddity. The loop in my town (306) has turnarounds under basically every overpass, and they even put one on an overpass specifically at the high school to accommodate the buses for road football games. It's also funny hearing that loops aren't common as well. We've got only 100,000 people and we've had a loop since the 80's.
I think Texas frontage roads, along with turnarounds, are the greatest things ever. I never knew that most others states do not have them.
Those frontage roads take some getting used to. It could be two miles or more until you reach the cross-over arterial, but thankfully the speed limits on those frontage roads are higher (not 35). Still, it seems odd that there’s not another exit to take to get you closer.
Some other states have them sparingly, but bidirectional. Makes getting on and off the freeway a bit more interesting, since you may have to cross traffic. No one has them at the same frequency as Texas though.
They exist in a lot of other states: Tennessee Arkansas and Alabama are place I’ve used one personally. They key is… you need a lot of space. And they would have been built before the area started to become developed.
They’re only found outside of Texas in areas which are more rural. Generally.
Hey Mike, I enjoyed your video. After the Army I moved to Houston and have lived here since 1984. Everything in your video were things I had to figure out on my own.
Something you missed, when you ask Texans for directions we measure distances in the time it might take to drive from point A to point B. For instance, A Texan would not tell you that Interstate 10 between downtown Houston and downtown San Antonio is about 200 miles, we would tell you it is about 3 hours. A local joke is "It takes an hour to drive from Houston to Houston."
We don’t just measure in hours. Sometimes in cigarettes, or songs. Anything to avoid telling you we don’t know how far it is.
We might occasionally also say distances in beers. E.g.: I live 2 beers west of the Galleria.
@@jackhalloween7373 My wife got a DWI back in the 1990s, I got a couple of friends who got DUI's. Texas cops will arrest you for a DUI just for having empty containers. They will arrest you for DUI if you are sleeping it off in your car, parked, turned off and locked up. I haven't had a beer while driving in over thirty years.
@@neutronjack7399 Inn the age of the computer nothing is forgotten nor forgiven.
Not unique to TX. Californians been doing that for fifty, sixty years
As a current Texan, this is pretty damn accurate. Wait until he hears about those rural residential roads with 75mph speed limits! I live off of one myself!
As a trucker one thing that caught my attention was the heights of overpasses. When you look in the Rand McNally road atlas it lists low clearance bridges for all states. Most states list bridges that are lower than 13’6”. Whereas Texas lists overpasses that are 14-15 ish feet as low.
I grew up in Texas. I didn't realize our fire lane markings were unique, but I am not surprised to hear that most places don't go to the same trouble.
In NY at least there is usually just a couple of no parking signs that specify its a fire lane. And if a parking lot has marked spots you must park in them, if the spots are unmarked just follow the pattern of other parked cars. (Only common for grass/dirt/gravel lots)
Other places do generally build the fire lanes, they just don't paint and mark them formally like Texas does.
In northern climates, the snow in the winter would cover the red line, hence, they have signs.
I had no idea other states didn’t do that either. I just thought other states were cooler about where people parked. Oops. Lesson learned. Never leave Texas.
Even with the painted red lines, people still park in the fire lanes!
When I was about 16, I got pulled over in Washington DC for crossing a simulated island. I had no idea they were to be reguarded as if they were curbed! But when I told the officer about Texits, he couldn't believe it at first until he heard that it could be 20 miles to the next exit out west, and the frontage road might be worse than a dirt road. He was also astonished that I had driven from Dallas to DC and planned to drive the return trip as well. He said there probably was not even 200 kids my age in DC with driver's licenses, while there was over 1000 just in my high school. Different worlds indeed. I definitely took the Metro where I could up there. Bonus: Those turn around lanes on the frontage roads are sometimes also called flip flops.
Isn't a Texit kind of a hallmark of not very good design?
@@artemkatelnytskyiits probably the physically largest example of "desire lines/paths" that are much more commonly shown by people walking in the grass making a durt path.
Overall if they show up its a pretty bug indicator of a flaw in your design.
For the texit example its that their are insufficient exits for the area being served. The only places in the northeast that i can think of with 20+ miles between exits are super rural like the mass pike between Albany and Springfield. (And the lack of frontage roads prevents any attenpt at a texit, although you can bet that massholes would take them in a heartbeat)
I have so many questions about what these things are but let’s start off with just one and maybe I can figure out the rest, what is a simulated island?
Am guessing an area, on pavement, striped off in yellow, with diagonal lines inside of the perimeter yellow stripe.
As for texits many of them have been eliminated on the frontage just S of the NM state line on interstate 10. They put a bunch of curb and gutter on the frontage so only high clearance trucks can “texit” now. Not the greatest job on 10 in El Paso over the last 25 years. A lot of piecemealing despite all the money they have. No vision for a coherent ultimate build out.
Often in Houston, Texas area I see these "Texits" when traffic has built up due to a wreck. And mainly it's people in pickups and SUVs that do it because they have higher ground clearance.
Several years ago, coming home from a weekend trip to central Louisiana, we were on State Highway 225 , coming westbound near 610. Suddenly the traffic just stopped, and I could see emergency vehicle lights. Figured it was probably a wreck. So I got online in my maps app and found where the adjacent streets went(was Sunday night and I was very unfamiliar with this area of town). Many people were doing the "Texits" because the traffic was stopped and no one could get half a mile on the shoulder, to the actual exit ramp. We were in a Suburban, it was a bumpy ride but we got through to the side streets. Took a little bit of detouring, but we got back to 610 and home.
Great video, even as a Texan I learned a bit, and definitely cracked up a few times. I usually go about 10 mph over the speeed limit so i am basically a grandma
The Plano-Renner intersection with the double yellows is one I suffer through all of the time with your exact points: people not following the left turn guide lines and the lack of visibility. In general Texas doesn't suffer for road infrastructure, but the drivers themselves are another story
Many years ago (before GPS), I went for a job interview in Paris, Texas. As we were leaving town late that night, every exit on the highway ( under construction) said “Paris next exit”. After a while I realized I was seeing the same exits twice and that we were on a loop. Eventually we saw a distant sign far off the loop for the highway we wanted and took the “Paris next exit” exit. It felt like an episode of The Twilight Zone!
I did the same thing , crazy
I know that loop LMAO
My husband grew up in Antlers Oklahoma, about 30 miles north of Paris. It was the "big city" for them. We stayed there this past May on the way to pick up our new puppy and we even got lost on that loop. And in the dark, it's really hard to figure out.
😂😂😂
Great stuff…..
I couldn't make sense of the layout of Paris when I was there- in the days before google maps.
I've never had the chance to drive outside of Texas so I had no idea that the "Texas Turnaround" or "U-turn lanes" (which is what I've always called them) weren't outside of Texas. I live right next to I35, and yeah those 70mph freeways are everywhere, even when you hop on freeways and it says "65" everyone and their mom is doing 80.
edit: I had no idea we were the only state that had fire lane markings, so used to seeing it all my life.
Yeah, to Texans that's just "the u-turn lane" lol.
We aren't the only state with fire lane markings, and he also doesn't understand they aren't for telling you where you can drive, they're telling you where you're not allowed to park. Most states have them, in some capacity or another, in varying degrees of prevalence.
Pathetic. Really pathetic. 🙄
They are in other states, just not as often. I'm from Louisiana and there are major roads with a u-turn under the freeway. This person is from GA so I guess they don't have them there, but unless you have been to every state in the U.S. you can't really say other states don't have them. I think TX just has more of them.
@@Jaster832 It's not just telling you where you can park since there were parking spots behind those red lines. It's more "if you park here and there is an emergency, you may be here for a while".
honestly same, I only drive in oklahoma and texas, personally. Oklahoma is the same up until you reach the speed limit part of hte video
Very interesting video. We live in Tucson and travel to the Dallas area often. One thing you could add about 'frontage roads' is that sometimes they are 1-way roads and sometimes they're not. It's really hard to know and more than once I've had near-death experiences with them. In my daughter's neighborhood in Fourney, when they first moved there the lanes were 2-way until some bureaucrat decided to change them. And, don't even get me started on horizontal traffic lights. My dad was color blind and had a dickens of a time trying to figure out which light was the red one! LOL
Texans, like myself, normally use the Texit when traffic along the interstate is backed up for more than a mile due Tia traffic accident or the lane is restricted down to 1 lane and has backed up traffic with mergers. I use the Texit a lot in these instances. It’s rather normal. But most of the time you can see the backed up traffic and can take the exit just before and go around and save yourself about 10 minutes or more of waiting and moving as a snails pace.
These vids are very well written/edited. There is a real economy of language. Somewhere there is an English teacher who did their job.
Fascinating. As a life long Texan who doesn't travel much I had no idea so much of what I see around me is unusual to the rest of the US. This video was very eye-opening. Well done and thanks.
Same here. I took a trip to California a couple years ago and I was surprised by how low the posted speed limits were (not that people went the limit 😂).
❤ Thanks for sharing. I'm from Texas and appreciate your candid yet respectful tone. I didn't realize that the "Texas Turnaround" was extraordinary.😊
I'm a North Texas native and Had no notion that access roads and Texas turnarounds (I've always called them boomerang lanes) were uncommon. It seems like it's just been 10- 15 years that they stopped being two way roads. They sure made you perk up and pay attention leaving the highway Especially at night!
Yep, you’re pretty much nailed it to the T. Born and raised here and have been to 41 other states across the country and this is the only place where I’ve seen rural highway back roads with speed limits over 70. However, as you know drivers on the road really determine the speed limit a lot more than these signs can ever do which means that 75 mph posted speed limit means that most will drive 85-90 mph.
Yep. In the summer, I went on a road trip. Was going on a back road from LA to TX. 45 in LA. the SECOND I enter TX, it's 75.
Texas was the one place where I felt significantly unsafe doing the speed limit
@@whatsthat9408 I go 80 in a city in Texas, I genuinely think Houston drivers are worse than Georgian drivers in the 'following speed limits' department
@@supercellex4D , that can be true however as someone who has been to most parts of the country including Georgia and especially Texas, Id say almost in every state you’re going to hear folks mentioned how their state has the worst drivers. In my honest opinion, I think Idaho is in the top 5 for best drivers. Almost everyone there drives the speed limit and follows instructions.
@@JonasMatthewBahtalast time I went through Boise I followed a cop doing 80 in the left-hand Lane all the way through the city. Which is about what everyone was doing. Through 55 mph construction zones. Don't tell me you all follow the rules.
@@someonesomewhere7587 , I lived in Idaho for a few years so I know what I’m talking about, there are crazy drivers here, yes, but that’s the case in every state, if you think it’s bad here, Boston driving will give you heart attack.
The "Texas turnaround" saved me literally 3 days ago. I had an old radiator in my car that had an unnoticed dry rotting hose fitting that finally gave out. There was interstate work being done, so traffic was diverted to a frontage road for a pretty good stretch. It was a pretty barren stretch with no gas stations on my side of the road, but I was able to pull off, dump my drinking water in the radiator, hit the turnaround, and make it to a gas station that was a mile back on the other side.
Got a ride back home and swapped out the radiator the next day in the gas station parking lot. God bless America.
Shout out to you for fixing it yourself, no better feeling!
And God bless Texas! :)
@@sylasjones9330 Absolutely 👍
🫡🇺🇸
Bro nobody calls it a "Texas Turnaround" 💀 we just call it a U turn
My Texan hubby never got over the fact that the state I lived in (WA) doesn't have frontage roads. Our freeway on/off system is horrible, actually. He would never fail to grumble about it when entering/exiting. I think the frontage system is great. I think the turning into whichever lane you want thing is universal. People do it here constantly.
In a job I had years ago, my employer bought a new computer system and they sent an instructor out from California to teach us how to set it up and use it. We had all loaded up to go out for lunch and the driver took one of those Texas Turnarounds on the drive. Our Californian teacher gasped mightily when he entered the turnaround, thinking we had just turned against oncoming traffic on the cross street. Then she realized what was really going on and said, "Hey, this is really cool! I wish we had these back home."
I had no idea so many traffic innovations were unique to Texas including the Turnaround and the Double Left. I moved to Hawaii when I was stationed there during my time in the Army and I was so frustrated by the lack of frontage roads, turnarounds and double yellow turns. Makes me feel a bit validated to know that it was actually the Lone Star State that had spoiled me and not the Island State that had screwed me.
You think the double left is great? Try double right turn on red.
i pull out in front of ppl and drive slow just because i can. im joking but ppl do it to me and i lose brain cells every time it happens.@@anochron1
@anochron1 where at??
@@anochron1 We have those also... What's even better is when you get a protected green right arrow when the cars have a protected left so the whole turn lane can clear out without having to stop at the red light so they don't get a ticket. It's still rare but one of the best things ever.
Texas roads are stupid.. i live here. Trust me they are not innovations.
These features generally make Texas a very friendly state for truckers. Hardly any trash routes there.
It also provides entertainment when a trucker is caught on camera trying to take a Texit.
your profile photo is crazy it looks so real
@@masonblaster3997 lol I've had it for so long I don't even think about it anymore. I aped someone else's concept but improved it by rotating the fly. Way more believable.
Texas has a bunch of truck scales but they're seldom open. I'm a resident of Texas and in 21 years of truck driving I only had to scale 4 times in the state. Twice near Texarkana on US 59. Once on I-10 west of Houston and once near Victoria on US 59.
theres a couple of texits on I35 which the 18wheelers cant get over without "beaching" themselves... yet they still try.
This video was FAR more interesting than I expected! Congrats! Informative and entertaining. The "Texit" footage at the beginning really cracked me up!
Really enjoyed your video. I especially liked that you used the local names for freeways in Houston. I remember being really confused when I first moved down from Dallas.
Texan here, and as many have mentioned, you are spot-on with your observations. First time I was driving in California, I realized I was heading the wrong direction on I5 so I exited at Sepulveda Blvd (pretty sure that was the street name), intending to do a u-turn (as I was used to doing in Texas) and ended up taking some 15-20 minutes to get back onto the freeway headed the correct direction!
That happened to me in Houston years back. Missed an exit, ended up at the ship channel and took 45 mins off my route.
15-20 minutes. Mate at least learn the states you'll visit 😂
@@Steve.._.Well the best way to learn the state is to be there and observe wouldn't yah say?
As in all states, some freeways do not have an entrance and an exit at the same cross street. For example, you may be able to exit from the freeway to 37th street, but you might not be able to get onto that same freeway from 37th street. You would need to know that the next closest entrance to the freeway is located at 40th street or something like that.@@zacsdiyguns
@@zacsdiyguns admittedly, this is typically only found when a freeway runs through a dense urban area. Something Utah probably doesn't have much of 😅
A lot of our "loop" roads started as "by-passes." These were ways for travelers to avoid going through town (all the lights); over time, they became more established and turned into loops.
You will also still find a number of major roads unpaved, especially in west Texas. One thing that surprises a lot of folks is that we don't refer to how many miles away a place is, but how long it take to get there. Going from Houston to San Antonio - about 3 hours (closer to 2 if you're in a hurry).
Same here. I always think of the time it will take me to get somewhere, rarely consider how many miles.
For a second, I thought you were making a Beyonce reference with the "all of the lights".
That's so true everything is based on minutes/hours. 30 minutes to work, 10 minutes to grocery store, etc.
Do other people use miles? I’ve lived here my whole life and I thought using time was normal.
I think the distance in terms of time instead of miles might be more of a national thing instead of just a Texas thing although I could be wrong as I don't get out of state much. I live in Illinois and I always go by time distance too. "Chicago is only 2 hours away"
Another detail about the highways and roads in the DFW area also called the metroplex, is that in addition to the number many roads have several different names for the same stretch. Also north east of Dallas is SH11, named for State Highway 11. There are intersections where traffic on SH11 does not have to stop, but crossing traffic does at a flashing red light. So there are signs posted that read SH11 DOES NOT STOP HERE. But pranksters will paint on the sign changing the 1 into the letter T, making the sign read, SH1T DOES NOT STOP HERE.
Hi Mike, I live in Texas (and love it). I knew about nearly all these Texas driving features but your video really put it together. Very nice indeed. Thanks!!
I grew up roughly at the intersection of I-45 and FM 1960. Back in those days ( 1974 to 1984) I-45 was a quiet 4 lane road and the region was very rural. Lots of ranch land and vanishing farms. The developers were busy buying up as much land as they could to build the latest and greatest invention, the subdivision, and strip malls and shopping centers. I miss those days.....
Holy cow, i can’t even imagine that intersection being “rural” at any
Point! Wild!
I criticize Texas for a number of things as a 36-year resident, but most of these highway features are great. If you are unable to get to an exit, there's usually another one coming soon and turnarounds connected to frontage roads ensure that you can make it back to your destination without much problem. It's something you take for granted until you go elsewhere; miss an exit in Toronto and who knows how you'll ever find your way back!
Same. Many criticisms. The highway system is not generally one of them.
As a native of DFW, when I was in Seattle for the Army I once missed an exit I needed to take. To get turned around and back to the same exit was 12 miles of driving. That just does not happen here in Texas unless you are WAY out in the middle of nowhere.
Which makes it more confusing as to why so many people here feel the need to fly across 3 lanes of traffic to make a last second exit, when it's so easy to get back if they just calmly take the next exit.
@@doubletwist62Probably out-of-staters that are used to the shitty highway system of wherever they're from. One of the MANY reasons we Texas hate transplants. They tend to want to continue to do things as where they came from. Not just driving habits.
@@RobotDCLXVII'm sure that may account for some of it, but, it happens far too frequently and I've seen it happening for far too long for it to be out of state transplants.
As a native Texan, friends from other states were always amazed that slower cars pulled over and drove on the shoulder to allow a faster car to pass on 2-lane FM roads. That’s just being friendly. And also the 2 finger wave off the top of the steering wheel as you pass oncoming vehicles.
What happens when you’re driving on the shoulder to let someone pass only to go around a curve and someone is parked on the shoulder having car trouble! Texans the shoulder is not for driving if it was id be a 3 lane highway or in Arkansas on a mountain road we have truck lane or slow lane to allow passing on an incline, Texas sky high insurance rates, not for me!
@@judyutley2910If you need to pull off the road, you pull off of the road. You don't park on the shoulder of a highway. You pull over off of the shoulder.
Your description of the double-left turns are spot on. There are a few places in Houston where we have TRIPPLE left turn lanes, and thelance control is a real fuster cluck. I stick to the line; most people don't and then give you a friendly 1 finger salute.
I remember a permissive double left turn in downtown Birmingham 15 years ago (pre-flashing yellow arrow signals).
It was a novelty I thought would never be allowed in my home state of Minnesota. Then a few years ago my northeastern Minnesota county installed two-lane permissive left-turn signals just a mile or so from my job.
One added thing I've noticed in Texas is the size and height of the interchanges in the DFW area. I've driven through other States but have never seen the immense size of the interchanges as here in Texas. The fun part is watching everyone try to drive down an interstate during an ice storm. Hubby and I are retired truck drivers and we've been known to drive down to the local Red Lobster, which is alongside the Expressway, park the car and sit and watch the action on the overpasses because Texans don't slow down for anything on an expressway.
Front row seats 😂👏
Wait till they finish the 114, Loop 12, 183 interchange
www.txdot.gov/projects/projects-studies/dallas/irving-interchange.html
Being a resident of Texas and then moving to North Carolina. There were so many things I would look for like frontage roads, loops, turn around, “the Texit”, the list goes on. For years I just thought those were something every state had. I learned a lot joining the army.
moved from NC to TX because of the army and i can say i love the traffic here
Because Interstates are 'national level' highways, I'd think the same thing you did, that they would all have the same features that the ones in Texas have.
Spent a few months in Houston working a consulting job. The frontage roads were fantastic. Whenever there was an accident, people just exited to the frontage road, bypassed the accident and jumped back on the freeway. This should be everywhere. Same thing for the Texas Turnarounds. Fantastic.
These are spot on and believe me when I tell you, get WAZE and TRUST IT! The one time I didn’t I paid dearly and this was the first time I witnessed and participated in a Texit lol. One observation you might have missed in the DFW area is how TX has mitigated the current and anticipated increases in traffic and congestion. TX has built up and over existing highways and their express lanes are express lanes. The key benefit is you can get between major cities within 30 minutes even with moderate traffic. We live in OKC and while DFW has more people than the entire state, our metro is growing and planners have built up and over the older interstate and turnpike systems in this manner. It used to suuuuuck commuting to and from downtown OKC but it’s cake now and the new headache is getting to the north & south suburbs of Edmond and Norman during rush hour. Good job on the video! You got a new subscriber for your content and flow and please be sure to hit me up here if you come to OKC. The wet indulgence of your choice is on me!
I grew up as the son of a state highway engineer in New York. In the late '70s I moved to Texas and was amazed at the difference. Since then Texas has been busy paying everything in sight, and they are far from done. Be sure to visit during one of our rare winter ice storms when people still try to drive 70 and all the elevated cloverleaf intersections turn into spare parts bins.
They determined some of the cars were going over 90 on that bridge pile up in Fort Worth
Facts. Or when it rains
Now building only pay as you go highways. Toll ways that should have been payed for decades ago are charging more than ever to build new ones. Well, In DFW and Austin at least.
@@iamchaunceman When I moved to the DFW area I-30 between Dallas and Ft Worth was a toll road. Stop at the booth and pay your quarter. After the debt was retired in the late '70s the toll booths were taken out. We have forgotten how this all was supposed to work.
Much has changed in the easy-goin' live & let live attitude since then.
They don’t go into those intersections doing 70, but with almost no experience driving on ice don’t realize what happens when you hit it. By then they go flying and there isn’t a damn thing they can do.
Being in Dallas its hard to understand how slow the posted speed limits are in other states. I just got back from a trip to Maryland and around Bethesda there are some divided 4 lane highways with speed limits of 35 and 40 mph. In Texas our residential feeder roads are that fast and if you're on a farm-to-market or state highway you get at least 55 and then 65+ on real highways with exits.
But its also true in reverse.
I'm from NY where the speeds are generally:
Village street: 30
Stroads: 45 (unofficial road type)
Rural roads: 55 (backroads & state highways)
Highways (interstate standards): 65
The 3 main caveats are that for anything over 45mph you can safely add 5mph without risking a ticket, i try to stick the the exact limit for 30 and less.
Physics on rural roads often slows you down, the yellow sign saying go 15mph around the corner is based on commercial vehicle tilt, a normal car can add 5mph but any more and you risk rolling over/and unplanned offroading trip. (Also weather, don't fuck with black ice)
And on the highways (interstate standard roads) the poated limit is the minimum safe soeed of the rightmost lane, the center lane is for 72-76, and the left lane goes 78-82 but i wouldn't go over 80 in it.
I used to think was was standard behavior but then i moved to CT where things are a bit weird but the biggest sin is the Connecticut special: the left hand exit.
And then i visited Rhide Island for work, and my god i don't think they have a single non-interstate signed for more than 45mph. 4 lane divided highways and rural route NY would have signed for 60, RI signed for 45. (If i couldn't stand it i think it would kill a Texan)
Anyway, being used to the Northeast i find the speed limits in Texas to be unbelievably high, and if the same treatment to the soeedlimit exists there the left lane is probably unsafe if you are under 100 mph. This video made me realize the speeds stated in country songs about going 90 on back roads probably isn't an exaggeration, and instead is just Texans speeding only a little bit.
I'm in Dallas and the drivers are aggressive asf 😂
I found Tennessee to be the sweet spot of speed and lanes when I drove from OK to Maine. 2 lane minimum, 70mph (if you go 70 you will get run over so its more like 80) literally straight across the whole state. Once I got closer to the east coast I was in 5 lane 55mph roads for miles, it was hell. I hate driving in Texas, but at least they actually know what a gas pedal is
That sounds awful
@havek23 dude I just moved back to Dallas from Bethesda, MD and I’m with you… I couldn’t believe how low the damn speed limits out there were… all of their “highways” had speed limits under 60🤣🤣 meanwhile back in Dallas I’m flying on IH30 going 80💀
Very nice video. I live in Austin and drive to Tucson for the holidays and absolutely love I-10 and the 80 mph speed limit. I just set the cruise control to ~ 88 and folks still pass me and my BMW M4 (I let them get the tickets as troopers are usually out in force around the holidays). They’ve made great improvements to the roadway surface and it is a joy to drive in west Texas.
Great presentation....Thank you 😁👏
There are a couple "Texas turn-arounds" on I-55 N in Jackson, Mississippi. That highway was updated in the 1980s and I think the engineers were from Texas because it does somewhat remind you of a smaller version of Texas freeways.
I'm native to the DFW area. I chuckled at some of these, especially the Texit. I've never done one of those myself because I always drive sports cars that just don't have the ground clearance and I'm afraid of getting stuck.
hey fancy seeing you here! love the vids! also a fellow DFW enjoyed! it was really cool seeing him go right by where I live on mockingbird lane (I'm a grad student at SMU)
as a texan, i've never heard of "texit", but of course i've seen many people do it.
i've never done it beacuse i'm not an impatient driver and it sure seemed like it was illegal
@@andy4an ive seen it multiple times, and more than half got immediately ticketed by rangers
@@MinecraftLively but have you ever heard someone call it a "texit"?
@@andy4an oh yea for sure.
Very informative. Thanks. Makes me want to visit Texas even more.
Such a simple but amazing video 👍
I live in the Dallas area and grew up, learning to drive here. It wasn't until a buddy moved here from Nebraska that I realized the double left-hand turn lanes were an oddity. He said that was the scariest thing he'd encountered. We've had them as long as I can remember, so we don't even blink at them.
One of the interesting things about the FM/RM roads is that the state only funds them when not in a larger city. Some of the older roads had cities grow up around them, and to keep the funding in rural areas, they stop funding the FM/RM roads in a bigger town. Also, the ranchers didn't consider themselves farmers, which is why there is a distinction in the name. I only looked into this when Google Maps called out FM as Farm to Market, and it made me curious. Before FM/RM, many rural roads were dirt roads and impassable when wet.
RM has largely been dropped. Most have been renamed FM, and there are no new RM designations.
@@mrblanche
Not necessarily true, FM 2871 was renamed RM not so long ago. It may have something to do with their location though.
Traditionally, West of I35 would be named RM, and east of I35 would be named FM. Of course, there are some exceptions to every rule.
@@fbcstuff3733
Apparently there are a LOT of exceptions. I live well west of I-35 and had never heard of or seen a road designated RM until FM 2871 on the west side of Ft. Worth was changed to RM about a decade ago.
Edit: This is nothing recent, I was a truck driver in the late 80’s and have driven all of these roads from west Ft. Worth to Brownwood many times and had never seen a road marked RM.
Bless your heart, Mike.
Great video brother. I live in deep South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. I got out of the army in 94 and I can’t remember one time when there hasn’t been massive construction on these highways down here. In McAllen, they just tore down a huge interchange that’s gotta be no more than 20 years old for an upgrade of some sort. Great video man, taught me a thing or two which I didn’t exactly realize. Subbed.
The craziest thing about our Texas frontage roads is that out in the rural areas the frontage roads have traffic both ways on either side of the main highway. This means that to merge onto the main highway from the frontage road you actually have to cross the oncoming lane at speed! The oncoming lane has yield signs at this points so they should be aware of anyone needing to do this, but there is still potential for disaster for anyone not paying attention. Luckily there is rarely much traffic in these areas.
That’s not a rural area… rural areas don’t have frontage roads lol
@@Thumper68Interstate highways in rural areas do have frontage roads.
There is at least one place in Texas (Huntsville exit I-45 northbound) where the interstate exits on to a state highway (Texas 75) two-way traffic on the frontage road and the exiting traffic has a stop sign because the state highway takes precedence over the interstate.
@@Brirend madisonville has exit like that if your going south towards Huntsville and take exit right at Walmart it’s real short and you must yells for two way frontage right there.
@@Thumper68 If you've spent any time driving highways in the TX countryside away from big cities then you'd know what I'm talking about. The crossing frontage lanes exist. If you can explain it better then be my guest.
As someone who has lived in the Dallas area for awhile a couple things stuck out to me. On the double left, you are 100% right. Even on a protected green, people still swing wide from the inside to the outside all the time. Number two, the Texas turn around is super nice, since if you are on the opposite side of the highway from where you need to be, it doesn’t not take long and is easy to get to the right side. However, you should be yielding on that u turn, and see a lot of the time the person making the u turn will swing in front of oncoming traffic. Then lastly, the posted speed limit being more of a recommendation for the minimum is nice once you get a feel for the highways. Nothing like getting in the far left lane, doing 85+, and not being worried about being pulled over because you are in a line of car’s doing it.
You always have to be ready to dodge someone on those double left turn lanes if they swing wide.
I love how you pointed out how uncomfortable the flashing yellow light left turns are in Texas. I'm in Dallas and that is my least favorite maneuver. You never have enough visibility.
The Texas turnaround is something that I will miss very much when i move out of the state. Been here since 2000 and I appreciate them everytime I use one
I live in Katy Texas I yeah that Katy Freeway is something to see. The drive from Katy to downtown Houston is so much better since they added all the lanes. It's easy to see why they did this. The Houston Metropolitan area just keeps growing and growing. Even areas west of Katy that used to be rice fields, farmland, and prairie, are now massive master planned developments. These come with homes, apartments, strip centers, and lots of schools. Katy has two football stadiums to cover all the high school football games played on Friday nights! Friday Night Lights Baby!
I born and raised in Texas. My sons are Engineers for Texas Department of Transportation- I sent your video to them , found very interesting that our state does things so differently than others
The U-turn lanes on expressways are the best inventions since sliced bread! No waiting for two lights….just make your turn and yield to oncoming traffic. Then bear left back up on the expressway, or go down the frontage road that makes it very convenient to enter businesses. Depending on the location, it can save you probably eight minutes and also fuel. Traffic moves fast and gets much less congested. I’m shocked they aren’t in every state……so practical!
US Hwy 98 in beautiful West Palm Beach, Florida was upgraded to an expressway and they installed Texas Turnarounds!!
Thanks for your love of the road.
Similar to the guard rail notices another commenter mentioned, Texas also seems very intent on making sure you know that any bridge can ice over when it gets cold. Moving here from a colder climate, this definitely made me chuckle a bit - it's not a bad idea at all, just surprised me how every single bridge needed such a sign.
Definitely seen the Texit in Austin, but only during unusual traffic situations (traffic stopped due to an incident) - not as a regular thing.
Absolutely love the proliferation of frontage roads (except on the toll roads, when they sometimes disappear suddenly to keep people from using the frontage roads instead of the toll road) and the turnaround lanes.
yeah we aint used to ice so when it does happen there are always pile ups
I have actually seen ice form on a stretch of road that had a particularly large culvert running under the road, thus turning it into effectively a bridge. So I think its a good idea to have these signs. Not that a Texan knows how to drive on ice....lots of people accelerated too fast and ended up in ditches during that ice storm in '21.
That sign irritated me when I visited a couple of months ago. Here in GA it says "Bridge May Freeze before Road", which is the same verbage used in NM. I always caught my self mentally yelling at the "Bridge May Ice in Winter" signs--"When else do you think it would freeze?????"
This video makes me realize that I have taken soooo much for granted, living in Texas. I didn't realize that a 70 MPH speed limit was considered so high for an urban freeway! 85-90 MPH feels totally normal on most freeways for us locals. One of my cars is very old and struggles to get above 75 MPH in fifth gear, and when I drive that car I have to stay in the right lane or else everything begins to aggressively pass me.
Let's be honest, here in texas, it's a non-literal 85mph limit unless you are in a highway and you see 55 posted. That means "small town and they WILL get you for your money if you do 56mph!" :D
(FYI, I had a 57 on a 55mph ticket in Quanah, TX which I contested and even took the pain of driving there for my appointment date -about a 4hrs drive for me- since it was within margin of error for instrument reading. My approach was successful but most of people don't bother and just do non-contest, pay the bigger fine and get it dismissed)
Loved the part about the double yellow light left turn. My head is on a swivel when i make those turns. Very good show!
Nice job! We moved to Texas 13 years ago from Idaho and were initially shocked by the changes you mentioned. However with time you get used to it and learn how to take advantage of these changes. I don't think you missed anything in this presentation.
As a California native who has lived in the great state of Texas for 18 years now I can honestly say that it was very strange to me when I first got here. There are even more discrete regional oddities that you didn't catch, like in East Texas people tent to drive out of the lane of traffic, onto the shoulder to make right turns and bypass straight traffic. The lack of designated right hand turn lanes in the DFW area is also puzzling to me. You hit the nail on the head though and those are some good ones. Also note, the Texit is typically not legal but people do it anyway.
Same for my family and myself, moving from Calif about 19 years ago to an area about 50 miles above Houston my first couple of trips to Houston was enlightening to say the least, first one needs to lose that Calif 65 mph mentality and second you need to say alert while driving because of all the oversize loads on the freeways, I would say that don't worry about the speed limit just keep up with the flow of traffic and if you can't keep up with traffic don't drive in the fast lane.
Texans like to drive fast, so using the shoulder to slow down and turn right, or even moving partially to the shoulder when someone is passing you is just good manners. The general rule is if you don't want to go fast, get out of the way.
In the RGV, we use the shoulder to make right turns, when there aren't any designated right turn lanes. It keeps us off the road, keeps other drivers from slowing down too much, and in the case of a traffic light, keeps us going and not waiting in line.
@@redmatrixAlso use the shoulder on 2 lane hwys to go around someone turning left, if you don't we will so don't get offended people in other states will give you a wtf look when doing this 😅
The old Texas Two-Step. We (most of us) also tend to drive on the shoulder to let faster vehicles pass us on two lane roads.
I have lived many places across North America and the Farm to Market roads are what I find most impressive about Texas. It feels like even in the most remote areas, a nice high speed road is not far away. Rural Canada, it feels like the roads might get paved or touched up once every 50 years..
As a Native Texan (Corpus Christi), this is pretty spot-on. Had to take advantage of that 80 mph speed limit "suggestion" once while driving out close to Junction. Never had seen 80 mph before then and IH 37 here in CC is mostly 70 mph except for Harbor Bridge area. The left lane (passing lane) is for faster traffic so definitely stay in the center or right lanes unless you want someone driving up on your rear putting on proctology gloves.
I didn't realize our U-turns & Turnaround lanes were unique, but they are really useful in so many ways I can't imagine not having them nor the Frontage roads. We refer to our Crosstown Exprwy as a loop even though it doesn't go all the way around CC due to being bordered by our Bay. The "Texit" cracked me up because I had never heard it called that...but it fits. Lol. There is one rt near my home because there is no dedicated exit for the main road on my side of the freeway (SPID) like there is on the other & you end up on the other side of a bridge looping back a mile if you don't know to take the earlier exit. Having a SUV or a pickup truck, it is definitely a temptation at times to create an exit and sometimes is necessary in order to get off when there's really backed up traffic from a wreck, etc. Having once lived in Houston (once was enough), it has to be the king of the Loops & Wide Expressways because traffic is such a mess on a good day that traveling through or to Houston you try to gauge what time of day or week it is going to be when you are arriving there in order to decide whether to go through town or around town (or see if you can bypass the entire city😂). Yes, we do often calculate trips by the time it takes not the mileage. That actually was impacted during the "55 Saves lives" frustrating years when it took forever to get anywhere. Never so glad to see that nightmare end.
I hope you had a good time in Texas. Yep our double left turn and glide into the other persons lane is a pain point. YOu analysis of my State was genuine and spot on. I do San Antonio calls them Frontage roads, But they are referred to as feeder, or service or access roads as well. BBQ is pretty good in Texas as well. God Bless you sir.
I live and work in Texas. This video helped me to appreciate Texas more. The state has invested a lot of money into its continued prosperity by facilitating travel and commerce with excellent roads and highways.
I always tell people that growing up in Houston has warped my sense of scale for a city. I still remember the first time I went to Dallas and was surprised at how "small" this major city was. I was on the outer loop, effectively in the 'beltway 8 section' if I were in Houston... and all I saw were trees instead of urban development. Blew my mind.
And now here I am learning about all the things that are so normal and common to me... and learning they are relatively rare or unique to Texas.
The greater metro areas for both DFW and Houston are each about the size of Rhode Island. We spread out a LOT.
Houston is exactly twice the square miles in size yet exactly the same density. If you added our closer suburbs to Dallas the way Houston is they are the same size. DFW is bigger than Houston Metro. The only difference is that extra loop IMO. I used to think Houston was bigger too until I got familiar with both areas. When you go north you really see why Texas cities aren’t that much bigger. Those cities that have half the population are in cities 100 square miles or less. It’s all about density and size.
@@iamchaunceman So..... by "twice the size" you're saying that Houston is bigger than Dallas. Population density doesn't matter when I'm talking about physical size. My eyes can't see population density.
@iamchaunceman I agree. Houston is a larger city than Dallas..... but it ain't that much bigger.
The only reason that Houston proper is more populated than Dallas is that the inner ring of suburbs in dallas like Irving, Richardson, Garland, and Plano would all be counted in the Houston proper population instead of as a separate suburb like they are in Dallas.
The dallas and Houston metro areas are roughly the same.
@@DamianoutlawHouston is definitely way bigger I’m from DFW & Houston is a literal mega city. DFW isn’t. It’s Dallas then FT Worth is its own city with their suburbs. They’re not the same at all.
I've been living in the Fulshear area for about 5 years now. There are double left turn lanes in Katy and Sugar land area as well. On my recent business travel to OKC, I saw a few Texas style U-turn along I-240 between I-44 and I-35.
Awesome video! I'm a Texan, and I've been one all my life. Had no idea how many unique things we have.
This is the Best Travel Blogger in the US.
Recently moved to DFW area. I love the turn around and frontage roads. So much simpler and not having to get on and off a freeway which where I came from would be going 30 at best is such a time saver. Love it here. Been in DFW rush hour several times and saw average speeds over 45. Wide highways and so many ways to avoid freeways really works.
I just moved to Dallas from Ohio in July and when I got here the rollercoaster looking freeways and speed limits SHOCKED Me!! I was afraid to drive anywhere near downtown 😂. But I’m finding my way now! ❤ your video
I absolutely hate the double turn lanes with yellow lights. I've seen so many accidents near where i live in Richardson (also where he shows his example clip from). I also had no idea the "Texas Turnaround," was called that or that it was unique to Texas. Those are as natural as walking to me although they still pose some level of danger as well. Great video!
Edit: 130S is the best. I havent been on it recenently but there used to be very little traffic and you could easily cruise over 100 for a while.
Edit2: Some of my sketchiest driving experiences have been from driving down 2 lane highways through east Texas at night. The speed is high, visibility is really low and theres nothing out there except for trees 15-20 feet away from both shoulder and animals to jump in front of you.
As a truck driver I used to love Texas simply bc of the time you could make. The usual flow of traffic was around 85 to 90 mph and when you’re in a 18 wheeler time is money.. My hats off to Texas for their highway traveling and Florida as well. When I used to go to Miami I always came back up hwy 90. The first time I got on it I was going about 80 and everyone was blowing by me. I just floored my truck and got to 106 mph which is all my Peterbilt would go with a speed limiter and for the next 3 hours going that speed I bet at least 1200 cars and several big trucks blew by me.
heh, on I 95 in Florida is where I saw a passenger in a sports car climb half way out the window and yell and shake her fist at a truck driver then the driver try to shove into his lane... at triple digits.
@@relativisticvel Well that’s bad on that driver. I haven’t been that way in almost 25 years. I hope everyone made it ok.
Heh, my car doesn't appreciate going over 80, you can feel the hamsters under the hood straining.
Spot on! You also should have noted how tall the freeway interchanges are....like ridiculously tall LOL. Like the intersection of SH130 and SH 45 just south of Austin between Lockhart and Austin; you could fly a 747 under those bridges...
Yes! I say to myself every day “why the hell are these interchanges so tall”? Haha.
183 and Mopac has long terrified me, and then I heard about the motorcycle rider that did go flying off…. I even have nightmares about those high “flyovers”, combining them with my young childhood memories of going over the I-45 ship channel bridge to Galveston
@@birdnird Yeah, when I was young, going over the ship channel bridge always made me nervous.
Was just in Houston last week and it was my 1st time using a Texas turnaround. Crazy to me that before jumping back on to the freeway the Yield sign and the flow of traffic was to my right, and not to my left...never seen that before
Live in Texas NM area. And its soo interesting to see things that are just common to me being strange or unfamiliar to others.
As you mentioned, slower traffic keep right! It is an everyday occurrence, especially on IH-45 North, to be going 85 in a 60 and have people sailing by you like you're parked. Also, don't stop on yellow! If you do, 2 or 3 people are going to slam into you because they are accelerating to make the light.
You don't know how true the saying is: Green means "Go", Yellow means "Go Faster", and Red means "3 more can cross before oncoming traffic takes over"....
Whenever I’ve driven on the 610 in Houston, I feel like in a NASCAR pack. A car immediately on each side, one tailgating, and you having to do 80 mph so you’re not run over.
I’ve always liked driving in the gaps between packs of traffic, but that’s a thing of the past, there’s just too many people moving here.
@@tedoplinger5479lol
People who gun it to get through the tail end of a yellow light cause so many accidents. Everyone in Texas acts like they'll die if they can't drive 95 at all times as if they have somewhere to be .
One thing I noticed on rural roads is the extra wide traffic bearing shoulders. They are used as passing lanes if a farmer or rancher is driving slowly due to the load on their vehicle. It is common courtesy to pull over and drive on the shoulder until the faster moving vehicle passes by. If the slow vehicle stays on the main road, he absolutely will be passed on the right shoulder
This is so prominent in Texas that surrounding states put up signs, "Do Not Drive On Shoulder."
it is ILLEGAL to drive on the shoulder in Texas
When they pull over give'em two blinks of the right turn signal. Thank you!
@@docyoungblood9521actually, it is not illegal to pull onto the shoulder to allow another to pass. May be a relatively recent change in the law, but here in central rural Texas it is okay to do so!
It is also used to pass a vehicle stopped to make a left turn.
Mike, helpful videos for us business travelers!
An incredible video great work. I rarely comment but I was compelled to. Fantastic effort man. Subscribing.