Houston is enormous, and has a vast road and highway system to get everyone from point A to B. We've also never really embraced public transit systems in the Houston area. Sure, we have the buses and a rail system that doesn't really do much as of yet, but Houston is definitely a city where most people are driving their own vehicles to get around.
This puts a lot of cars on the road, and Houston has the dubious honor of being one of the most dangerous cities in America for driving. All of us come across certain types of drivers who make commuting around town risky, and we'd probably collectively applaud if they were magically banished from Houston's roads.
I'm not even going to touch on drunk drivers or people that text or jabber away on their cell phones while driving. We all know that drunk driving is completely selfish and irresponsible, and apparently texting and talking on a phone can be even more dangerous. People that indulge in any of those activities shouldn't be allowed to drive. But there are others who cause a lot of trouble on our roadways.
9. The Speed King and Captain Slow Ride
Here are probably two of the most common types of terrible drivers the average person encounters on the roads around town - idiots that drive way too fast, or crawl along on the highway at a snail's pace.
George Carlin famously said asked "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" and there's something to that. Most people will find themselves in situations occasionally where they're driving slower or faster than everyone else, then wonder why everyone else is crazy.
But seriously, we have speed limits for a reason. They're not "suggestions," but the legal guidelines for safe driving in a specific area. Going a few miles over or under is probably fine, but routinely driving 10 or more miles around that limit need to either back off or learn to be comfortable driving a little differently.
8. The Teenager with a Sports car
The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention writes that drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are three times more likely than older drivers to be in a fatal crash. Teens as a whole are pretty bad drivers, according to the current data. Lack of experience, and a lack of better risk assessment skills are a couple of reasons this is true, but there are others. Society accepts that the risks involved in allowing teens to drive are somehow OK, but every time I see a teenager behind the wheel of a sports car, I have to wonder what idiot of a parent allowed that to happen?
Let's be serious. There are no really good reasons for a 16 year old to be driving a Challenger RT around town, unless a parent is holding down the front seat passenger spot. I have friends in the funeral business, and trust me, they see the end result of that kind of idiocy a LOT. Many teens end up driving recklessly no matter what kind of car they have access to, but there's no reason to make dangerous driving easier for them.
7. The "Punisher" Rage Driver It's a sad bit of human nature, but plenty of people have short fuses and bad tempers. We all have seen or know folks who fly off the handle whenever they think someone in another vehicle has slighted them in some way. Yes, we all encounter crappy drivers, but doing brilliant stunts like driving up on them really fast, or pulling up to them at a stop light to yell at them? That's a really stupid thing to do. Escalation doesn't help, all it does is make matters worse, and raise the rager's blood pressure. Most of us have cell phones these days, if someone else is truly driving like an idiot, call the cops.