Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Dallas/Fort Worth Drivers 2nd Most Angry Road Ragers

I don't know who did the survey, but the results somehow determined that New York City drivers are the worst Road Ragers in America.

25 Metropolitan areas were surveyed. The #2 location for angry, aggressive, tailgating, horn honking, overreacting, temper losers is my current location of Dallas/Fort Worth.

I have been accosted by a Road Rager or two in Texas. Just a few days ago someone got quite agitated at me because I'd stopped in the middle of an intersection to take a picture of a spouting leak.

If I'd been taken that picture in Baltimore, Sacremento, Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Portland I likely would not have gotten yelled at, due to those towns being the top 5 with the most courteous, considerate drivers.

I don't know what makes these Texans in D/FW so angry. It could have something to do with the heat. We are expected to hit 100 tomorrow.

I'm feeling a bit angry and aggressive today. I have not felt any rage on the road though. I did get a bit agitated at Wal-Mart due to seeing this woman in super short shorts and a top barely covering her top, with a big belly button adorned by a piercing. She was not fat, but she was super homely, with a pimply face and stringy hair. Why does such a person bother to get a belly button pierced? I don't get it.

I'm also agitated due to having been up since 4 am. I was in the pool this morning while it was still dark. That was a bit odd. Then I turned into a webpage making machine again. Then around 8 am I realized I needed to alter every page on my humongous Eyes on Texas website, removing elements that only Internet Explorer displays, which look odd on other browsers.

To make the fix involved 5 changes on each page, with each change involving multiple mouse clicks. I figured I could go through the entire website in 2 hours. I was wrong. It took til past noon. My mouse clicking hand is worn out. If I were to drive anywhere right now the slightest little thing might set me off with an explosion of Texas-worthy Road Rage. I say might, because it's never happened before, no matter how cranky I am.

7 comments:

Gar said...

You need to get you some script writing skills. Making the same modification(s) to multiple pages would take about 20 minutes to write a script and execute it.

Or you could just hire someone.

Durango said...

I think if you saw the changes that were made you'd realize that no script could be written to make them.

Gar said...

I determined on the way to work this morning that this study is all wrong. It should be titled, "Metropolitan areas with the largest percentage of stupid drivers".

As in, it's no wonder they are angry. They have to deal with this ineptitude on a daily basis.

So, DFW has the 2nd largest percentage of stupid drivers in any metropolitan zone.

Now that should scare you!

Durango said...

Ever since I've been in Texas I've wondered why the concept of right of way does not seem to be understood. Is it not taught in Driver's Ed here? Four way stops, with Texans, is a torture of confusion.

Gar said...

It's funny you should mention that. My bout of road rage this morning was a a four way stop.

I've decided to keep a notepad of invitations for the stupid people that don't seem to know when to go. I'll just walk over to their car and hand them an invitation to cross.

On a side note (and being driver educated in the Texas system) I didn't know about the person to your right having the right of way until I went to Germany (about 6 years ago). A German taught me about that.

Durango said...

So it is actually true? They don't teach the right of way concept when you get taught to drive in Texas? It's been annoying me for years going through a 4 way stop here. It's just completely random when Texans decide to go. Up in Washington, where such things get taught in Driver's Ed, going through a 4 way stop works like clockwork. You know it is things like this that cause the rest of the country to think Texans are stupid. Which is totally unfair. It's not that Texans are stupid, it's that the Texas education system does not do a very good job.

Gar said...

I think they do teach a version of it: The one with the largest vehicle has the right of way. If two vehicles are equally large then the bravest driver has the right of way.

There is actually a bill in the state right now about updating the driver's education system.