Distracted Drivers Need Remedial Training!

In response to a friend complaining about traffic congestion on Garth road, I offer this vision:
BB's take: I can get on Garth at SH-146 clear down by Park Street and drive almost all the way to I-10 usually without triggering a light change. Sometimes I catch the red light near Home Depot, but then when it turns green, I can go all the way to I-10, so my experience is not the same as yours with one giant exception.

The dead-heads driving all around me appear to be on some sort of mind-numbing Quaalude-ish drug that delays their reaction to... everything. They will get me stuck at the green light 3 cars back while each of them check their phone and this is the prime reason traffic is congested IMO.
Bump in rush hour traffic and you might as well walk.

Adding more lanes or removing traffic lights will have no impact on traffic congestion until people quit driving while distracted. Road rage should become a legal sport where cars are tagged with a sign that reads "Look at me. I need remedial training!" or "Honk if you love distracted driving!".

You can't get there from here?

 

Who would believe it could take almost 30 minutes to drive from Toys Are Us to my dentist on Ward Road? Its a true story. Maybe this is why on the customer survey, transportation ills are at the top of the list. Now I won't blame Garth Road entirely for this particular trip, as it was an unfortunate mixture of mishaps and traffic lights that caused it, besides, there is no direct route to our destination.

I've been an aggressive soul all my life and like I've mentioned many times, the fastest way to attract my unwanted attention is to do something in a car that is... well, stupid. I could say the offending driver is unintelligent, ignorant, dense, foolish, dull-witted, slow, simpleminded, vacuous, vapid, idiotic, imbecilic, obtuse, doltish... or just plain distracted. Incidentally, I have used every one of these words to describe said offenders at one time or another. I was forced to because I don't curse, swear, or use profanity, but believe me, my passionate description borders on those.

I even got very self-righteous when we were on a road trip with a semi-truck congested superhighway. I banged the steering wheel and yelled out to my bride, "They are using our roads for commerce!" I wanted all those trucks to get off the road so I could use it for vacation travel. Of course I wasn't serious... not completely. Have you ever noticed the amount of trucks on I-10? Its astounding and sometimes scary. I think the midday traffic is worse in this regard because the vehicles are usually moving faster.

The other morning we left for the gym and I swear we observed 3 different occurrences of stupid behavior before we got out of our subdivision. One car ran the stop sign. The next drove below the speed limit down E. Baker to Barkuloo Road on the wrong side of the road. The third tail-gated us the distance the car in front of us took to get from point A to B.

My bride appears to not notice these details and maybe that is why she has perfect blood pressure. Never mind, I am happy to expound on each and every one of them. I assure her, I do it for educational purposes only. Let me make it clear that I am not in rage and the one reason is I live a controlled life, but the real reason is I do not understand why people are driving so poorly. Are they simply distracted, or just sloppy in most other ways they live life? I have the same conclusion about litter bugs. Does the inside of their house reflect their trashy ways? I don't want to find out. I just want them to stop.

A real downside to living in Texas is almost all of it is private property. There is no place to take a relaxing drive. You can't just pull off on some dirt road and drive your ATV, side by side, 4-wheeler, dune buggy, or Jeep for fun, so the public roads become our playground. Modern Sunday drivers are everywhere either doing 80 mph, or tail-gaiting you at 35.

Now gas is creeping up and probably won't stop at the $3 mark. My solution is to not drive as much. I am boycotting the higher prices and we've collectively done this in the past until there is a glut in the market. I do predict that the cost of gas will have no effect on the distracted drivers and with my reduced driving, I won't see them as often.

My next question is how come there are so many people on the road during normal business hours? It seems like back in the day after the morning traffic ended, the roads were fairly open. When did that stop? I made an error in judgment when I drove down to Crystal Beach a couple of Sunday mornings ago to geocache and to look at some of the Jeeps that were attending the yearly top off event.

This was a mistake on my part because there must have been 10,000 vehicles trying to get across the Boliver ferry, or make their way back to SH-124. After finding the last geocache 22 miles down the peninsula, it took me 2.5 hours to get to the High Island metroplex. Other than being speed throttled, it was a peaceful 8 mph hour drive. Driverless cars are the only answer outside of a catastrophe of some sort. Its inevitable and my blood pressure will welcome them with open arms. If you can think of a viable solution to all of this craziness, I am all ears.

We are not the same old place anymore

I would like to say "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore", but that would sound corny, even though it's an accurate quote from The Wizard of Oz. Our tri-city community is gone forever, being replaced by an ever-emerging agglomeration of new businesses, storage units, trailer parks, apartments, and even a few new houses. We've lost that loving feeling of a small community and driving west on I-10 from Beaumont, you enter the city of Baytown and don't stop seeing what is essentially Houston until you pop out on the other side of Katy, 60 miles later.

We are being swallowed up by the expansion of Houston, as the metropolis has ran out of room north, west, and south. Mayor DonCarlos (who I have voted for at least 6 times) told us that we should plan for a quarter of a million people over the next five years or so. If you remember, I predicted a growth of 200,000 a few years ago and a couple of the local righteous curmudgeons basically called me a dreamer and a prognosticator of fake news. If my rememberer is working correctly, they both claimed there was no way Hillary could lose the election.

Well, here's a hard cold fact and maybe you've heard of it or not. Up SH-146 before you get to Dayton and almost directly across the road from the large white rice elevator, they are going to build 14,000 homes. It will be a city in size with police, fire department and a proliferation of support businesses. It is also asserted, but unconfirmed that there will be a major airport built close-by.  I'm not talking a Gum Island expansion either, but a major airline investment. More on that as it progresses.

I was at the VA Medical Center the other day and my PA was telling me about her daily commute from Manvel and how it has become a traffic jam. Well, hello! The entire Houston area has become worse than Garth road at lunch time. Fixing Garth Road will be temporary at best, as more people flood to the area. The only salvation we have is more roads. SH-146 out past Pinehurst will only be remedied when they build an elevated road from the trestle to Maranatha Temple with flyovers for I-10 east and west.

Only driverless cars, trucks and mass transit will make our roads safer when all the stop lights are removed and there is no longer a need for car insurance. Everything will be scheduled and you will get where you are going when it is time to go. What about leisure driving you ask? Maybe you will be able to push a button to take the scenic route. What scenic route? There's nothing scenic left and out in the country is, well, it's a long ways off.

I remember 25 years ago when people left Baytown to live out in the country. They chose The Woodlands. Then everyone wanted to really get out there and they moved to League City, Pearland, and Katy. Seriously? The other day we were at Red Lobster and I drove over to Ward Road and it took almost a half an hour and like Rain Man, I'm an excellent driver.

I tend to get around the entire Houston area either geocaching or visiting the gyms I cover and about the only locale that still has that hometown feel is... La Porte. The east side specifically and I find the slower pace there very refreshing. During the weekday there is almost no traffic, as folks who live there are either retired, working, or sleeping due to shift work - and there are deer over there in the woods near Wharton Weems Boulevard.

Am I being critical of Baytown or its planners?  No, I don't mean to sound like I am. It is what it is and Houston has to grow somewhere. What I am suggesting is we be very careful how we go about accommodating all these new people and businesses. It is far too late to be anything approximating a planned community, but we can be smart about what we allow to be built. I've heard the question raised one time too many of just how many storage units, donut shops, cookie-cutter apartment complexes, and taquerias do we need and yet these very establishments are under construction right now.

It is also extremely important to maintain green spaces and enforce landscaping rules. Expanding the court-driven community service to do more and longer litter abatement punishment would be a positive and encouraging more community efforts toward improving our image would be wonderful. We can indeed take our tri-city area and make it not only better looking, but a draw for quality newcomers by progressive planning.

Like it or not, we are now a major city. Stop griping about Garth Road because we have more Garth Roads coming and Kansas is gone forever.

.