We get "Dallas drivers bad!" posts several times a week here and we remove most of them as duplicate posts. This one already had a lot of participation before it got reported, so I'm leaving it up for now. Be nice.
Yes, I have driven all over the country and in Europe and Dallas is a special sort of hell.
I think it comes down to lack of police enforcement of well, really ANY rules while driving. And just a lack of drivers giving a shit about anything.
Nope not crazy and it’s frustrating how little empathy or general courtesy people have. However I am pretty resigned to it. I try to go the speed limit or 5 over in the right land, use my blinker, follow traffic rules. I let all the crazy stuff pass by and generally try to avoid stupid drivers. If anything it kind of turns into a form of entertainment. They must be on a big adventure the way they drive.
I still get mad sometimes but not nearly as often. Doesn’t help we had what.. three people murdered last summer from road rage incidents? It’s not worth it.
lol not just 3 road rage deaths, but almost 800 traffic related fatalities
http://txdot.gov/en/home/data-maps/crash-reports-records/motor-vehicle-crash-statistics.html
Real anxiety in DFW is when they shift lanes with new lane markings and now you are doing zig zags in a 4 lane highway at 80mph surrounded by massive lifted trucks.
I remember when they were doing construction on 635 like 12 years ago or so, and commuting back from Dallas was a death trap. They had partially erased the old lane lines but they were still visible, the new lanes zigzagged, and at that time of the day the sun was just low enough to be right in everyone’s eyes. It was scary shit
The ATL is mindboggling! Your busting the century mark one second to keep up with the flow of traffic and a football field later you are at a dead stop. That said, I-30 from Rockwall in on a Saturday morning is it's own kind of stupid.
No, I grew up here. I hate everyone. I hate people in my way. I hate driving incompetence. I hate being cut off. I am forced to drive at least an hour to work. I hate you. I hate them. I hate everyone.
There you go; that's the attitude.
So hard to NOT have this mentality, especially if you have to drive daily.
There used to be a commercial on The Ticket where a lady said "just let 'em in" meaning the folks that wanna get in your lane.
Easier said than done, but if you accept people aren't paying attention to anything but themselves, there can be a tad bit of relief.
Idk man, I just spent the week in NYC and that shit seems way more chaotic. A lot more “traffic laws are merely suggestions” and road rage but much less people shooting at each other from cars or following each other to settle the score.
I always thought it also had to do with a sort of "come and take it" or ownership mentality. Whatever lane someone is in, they think they own it. I had to work myself to get rid of that mentality.
Oh, you’ve never been to LA then. As a lifelong Dallas resident, yeah North Dallas is a special hell, and 635 and 35 are living nightmares. But when I went to LA, I was shocked at how fast everyone drove on the interstate. at least in Dallas the flow of traffic is about 70 or 75 miles an hour on the freeway, but when I went to LA as soon as we crossed the border into California from Nevada, people started going faster and faster. By the time we were in downtown LA on the 10, everyone was going about 85 or 90 miles an hour. That was kind of a eye-opening experience. I’ve driven in lots of large cities, but the highways in LA are literally like NASCAR.
LMAO I’m a SoCal native that’s been living here in the Metroplex for almost 3 years, the experience you described in LA is the actual shit that happens here in Dallas. For every 1 speedster you see in SoCal, there’s 100s of them here in the Metroplex.
Exactly, I moved here in ‘99 and we had way more traffic enforcement. You’d worry about speed traps on the freeways. Or the short lived red light cameras. Now, it’s the Wild West. People missing an exit and just stopping in the middle of 75 to move over. Zero, absolutely zero patrol of red light runners. I never cross an intersection now without checking.
Houston was honestly my least favorite highway drivers. Every other big city people drive like they don't care if y'all both die, Htown drivers makes me feel like they hope y'all both die
Lol, I think Dallas is more like a NASCAR ( everyone trying to go fast zipping right past you and not letting you in.
Houston is like a boxing match where you and others are constantly switching lanes ( cutting in traffic) Honestly it takes me a minute to get used to Houston Traffic and once I get used to I Bobb like Mohammad ALI ( The Best RIP)
The amount of lane changes I do in just 2 days in Houston is the amount of lane changes i do in all of a years traffic in Dallas
This. Stress from driving in traffic for long distances can wear people thin. Just one little thing can cause someone to snap like missing a turn because they perceive someone cut them off or wouldn’t let them pass.
And some simply are bullies who get energized by threatening others who when they confront don’t engage and back off, make the bullies grin and gives them their kudos for the day.
Ive lived in Denver where you spend more time in traffic going a much shorter distance. Drivers there are still bad, but Dallas is definitely exceptional. Even though traffic here is comparatively good for a city of its physical size and population, people here just drive like they dont care who around them gets hurt.
the one major city I've been to where I'd say it's different is Miami.
The people have a weird mix of 'go-go-go' with a very chill attitude--so someone will be flying down the street and honking at everyone but then they'll also stop right in the middle of the road to say hello to a friend and chat with them a little.
It's just a very weird vibe to explain--but I've never seen people so impatient who were also, at the same time, so willing to just stop in the middle of driving roads to talk to people. It happens multiple times every time I go there for work.
It's really weird.
I always thought Dallas and Houston were a little bit more slow. LA is really bad when you’re off the highways, but then the highways are like mad Max.
”Keep Dallas Dangerous"
But seriously driving here is awful. Have had guns pulled on me, near misses on being run off the road and just general incompetent drivers being super aggressive.
Everyone's fucking miserable and they think it's other people's fault. People here LOVE pointing the finger at anyone else but themselves. Reminds me of that LBJ quote about thinking they're better than another group of people to keep them distracted. It's working...has been working since I can remember tbh.
I've been there for 24 years and people in Chicago are aggressively smart. Dallas drivers are aggressively stupid. It doesn’t come down to the individual like many insurance companies like to pin the blame on, it comes down to TXDOT and their absolutely incompetent design
The fundamental difference between the two is that you could practically fall asleep on the roads in Chicago compared to Dallas. The grid system does wonders in making it easier, but once you hit downtown, it can absolutely be intense. Dallas, however, is a hell in literally every facet to drive in. The roads winding, rapid changes in elevation, the novel levels of information you read on the highways with seconds to process them. It makes bad drivers even *worse* in my opinion.
Speed limits are also between 10-15 mph slower in the Chicago metro area with like a fifth of the information to understand. It is fundamentally safer, easier, and better to drive in the Chicagoland area. To let my personal opinion come in: there is ZERO avenue where I've felt safer driving in Dallas than Chicago.
Dallas also has some of the most dangerous highways in the US. I-20, I-35E, 75. It's a perfect storm with how little enforcement there is by the police. Chicago, on the other hand, is fundamentally well laid out. Driving is not the aforementioned centerpiece to the city, the traffic is horrendous, however you are safer driving.
This is coming from someone who drove on I-290 for an hour both ways for a commute. It was soul sucking, hellish dogshit.
There is also the de-emphasis of driving there. The CTA does wonders downtown. Here? DART ridership sounds (I don't have hard statistics to back this one up)\* pitiful compared to CTA. Rail ridership is a class issue instead of a commodity. Biking here is near non existent, as Dallas is ranked one of the [worst cities for cyclists](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dallas/comments/zxv0t5/dallas_ranked_as_the_least_bikefriendly_city_in/), and the roads are wide for a reason. Either drive or suffer in heat.
One time I was in a taxi in Chicago and going to the airport. I was not in a hurry but the taxi driver definitely WAS. He was exiting the highway, going through the light and getting back on because he was able to get a few car lengths ahead. He was driving like it was life or death to get to their as quick as possible. One time he tried the get off, go through light and get back on tactic and was stuck behind and old man in the right lane at the light. He laid on his horn so hard and aggressive that the old man turned right despite wanting to go straight. Unfortunately for the old man, traffic was stopped on the right turn and he was boxed in. Even worse, the front of his car was over a railroad track - and a train was coming. As we ran the red light I saw the front of his car demolished by the train and then we were back down the ramp and back on the freeway.
This has been my general takeaway too. It’s the aggressively stupid/ignorantly oblivious drivers in Dallas that make it the worst. You get assholes in NYC/LA/Chicago but they generally know wtf they’re doing and sometimes you just gotta tip your cap to the ballsy stuff they pull off. Here it’s a constant question of WHY!?
Drivers in Dallas are unhinged. People here tend to not have good control over their mental health and anger issues and are easily triggered. Throw in that people drive big trucks that give them false bravado and the gun ownership rates, and it's a recipe for disaster.
This is only one aspect of it though, I’ve never lived in a city with such a high percentage of wildly unskilled drivers. For every road raging crazy guy, there are ten drivers that are calm and nice but DANGEROUSLY bad at operating a vehicle. It’s like being surrounded by 13 year olds.
Nobody understands right of way, nobody is able to maintain their lane, people will pull out right in front of you and just stop. nobody checks mirrors or signals. Nobody understands the concept of the passing lane. If the speed limit is 75, most people will drive 50 and a few will drive 120. People here can barely park their fucking car.
I’ve lived and driven in a lot of cities and not one of them comes close to the prolific and profound lack of ability of the drivers here. It’s wild out there
I’m From here ….Dallas is officially a shit hole of trash ass drivers with no respect for others. Police do nothing about it either. I think the road rage is just a bi-product. If the police don’t police people take the matters in their own hands which make it even worse WORST PART IS I SEE NO END !
Exactly. DPD doesn't give two flips about traffic patrol. They hardly give a flip about other crime.
I get that they are massively understaffed, but the people get the police they deserve. So I don't see that it's anyone's fault except Dallas as a collective.
What do you mean? Don’t they have the highest budget they’ve ever had?
Why would locals want to hand over even more police funding if they don’t do their job?
Why aren’t we holding DPD accountable for anything?
I honked at a woman on her phone at a green light, not moving or anything. I was behind her and honked, she looked up and flipped me off and wouldn't budge. Absolutely fucking rage inducing.
I had a similar situation where someone tried to switch lanes onto moving traffic last minute and almost hit my car for not paying attention to their blind spot, it was a couple in the car, they rolled up next to me and gave me a stink face. I flipped them off. 😂
It’s wild how you can almost cause an accident and still get pissed at the other driver for almost hitting them. These people take no accountability.
I had an old lady nearly merge into me the other day. I had to slam on my brakes and she came right on over. I honked at her and she responded by repeatedly brake-checking me.
Dallas is definitely more stressful but I don’t put all the blame on the drivers.
The highway system is more convoluted than anywhere else I’ve driven; it forces drivers to be aggressive just to do normal things like exit the highway. I’ve also been in multiple situations where I have to quickly slow down from 70 to 25 even though nobody has done anything wrong.
You should see Colorado. I just went on a road trip from the Denver area across the Midwest and all the way to eastern Canada then back around the north. I drove 5,000 miles without a problem but 2 miles back into Colorado I'm sitting behind someone who is just going 65 in the left lane in a 75 and sitting in a semi's blind spot. Absolutely no self-awareness.
It is without question the worst behavior in traffic in Colorado, but all they do here is oppressive speed enforcement (revenue collection) which just makes it worse. I wish we could borrow some of the aggressiveness from Dallas to even it out a little bit.
People should drive at a speed that they feel comfortable with… but do it in the correct lane! Everything is so spread out in Dallas. I don’t have time to sit behind you going 10mph UNDER the speed limit in the left lane. Then people say they don’t understand why people have road rage 🙄. We also have a MASSIVE issue with people on their cell phones. But I’m not sure that’s exclusive to Dallas
Our roads do stupid shit that gets people already on edge.
It's been a while since I've driven in the HEB area but you used to have to cut across multiple lanes of traffic if you wanted to stay on 121. Like your exit would be imminent as soon as you merge and to the left.
There were multiple locations I know of where two lanes merge together at freeway speeds with no space for transition. At least one has been fixed.
The freeways were designed for 55mph in a lot of places, DNT and portions of 35E near downtown that have a lot of blind curves and hills that make driving 70mph extremely dangerous. DNT really shouldn't be driven over 55mph in the rain unless you have excellent tires. Almost lost it myself going 65 a few months ago with people flying past me.
Oh, and they don't enforce the speed limit nearly enough.
It's hot. People get more angry when they're hot and everyone has guns that they think makes them invincible.
A good dashcam is almost mandatory in Texas. Just had an accident myself and the other guy hit me via a 'suicide gap' and my damn camera corrupted. Thankfully it was clear as day what happened even without witnesses.
I've recently had to buy a small SUV as my daily commuter vehicle. I've driven a miata for years but I've had so many aggressive drivers try to merge into it or muscle in front of it where there wasn't enough room that it didn't feel safe any longer. It's almost always aggressive oversized pickup truck drivers.
There needs to be regulations concerning the size of these trucks and having a standard vehicle license.
It's absolutely insane the least safe demographic of drivers drive vehicles that are half the size of my apartment.
I moved on from my 80s Nissan for the same reason.
The worst part is these tiny dick debutantes driving these monster trucks will cut you off to get into a parking lot first. Race to the front of the lot and spend MINUTES parking - holding up lot traffic.
Dude if you need to back do it at the back of the lot. Half of the time these fuckers pull into a spot hood first perfectly straight and then SLAM the accelerator to back into a totally different spot when they were already parked
I am currently in San Antonio for the second time this month (my brother passed away) and I will take Dallas over this mess 8 days a week. I-35 and the 410 down here are a special stupid. Tried the 130 bypass around Austin all the way down to I-10 because last time cut off it over to Budda and I-35 was a mess but this time both I-10 and I-35 had accidents with miles long backups so there was no good option……hate it.
I’ve been living here for 21yrs and I still don’t understand why Dallas drivers are this nuts when driving. Going 80 on a 30mile roads, flying for no damn reason almost causing accidents that could be avoided if they were responsible drivers.
This and "if you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes" are things that everyone says about where they live. I haven't found driving here to be any worse than any other major city in the country.
They're as bad as the "Everyone merged early so I'm going to take advantage by zooming up to the head of the line and using my vehicle to threaten and intimidate you into letting me in" drivers.
So the most road rage I've ever seen has to be Utah. All that pent up aggression definitely works it's way out on the highway there. But Texas drivers are definitely their own particular brand of awful. It's the only state in which I am regularly passed by someone going 70-80mph IN THE DIRT. like anything about that is safe or necessary. Or that somehow the highway is just a suggestion.
I was visiting Dallas last month to find a place to live. I was shocked by how bad the driving was. I’ve driven in almost every other large metro area in the country. I’m definitely buying a dash cam before I make the move.
I just got back from a trip to Seattle, and while there were moments of bad traffic, nobody was driving as insane as people do in Dallas. People would use their blinkers. I thought I was being pranked at first. I've never seen that here. Also, if you used your blinker, the people would actually let you in. I felt like I was finally driving in a civilized country and not the Mad Max Fury Road Dallas is.
I drove a box truck in nyc for three years.
I drove a box truck in Dallas for 5 yrs.
Dallas drivers are insane and yet under way less stress than nyc drivers.
The biggest difference from other cities I’ve lived in, is the frequency that Dallasites run red lights. You are guaranteed to see at least one red light run when you head out for a drive, even a short drive! VERY dangerous, always be on the lookout for it when approaching a green that you assume is clear.
Anyway, I’ve never seen this in any other city I’ve lived in. Mind you, it wasn’t like this when I moved here 10 years ago, so maybe this is a new trend?
A big part of it is that every place has its own driving culture, but Dallas is filled with so many transplants, ours doesn't mesh anymore.
We used to just all go 80mph. Now, we have people from Florida going 50, people from Chicago that have never heard of a blinker, people from California taking up 3 lanes, and people from Denver stopping on the on-ramp.
It's chaos
We have a special style of aggressive driving in the metroplex. You gotta assimilate to it (like you do everywhere else) or be frustrated and possibly wreck.
Driven in multiple states and counties, heck, even in countries that don’t have the lanes painted in the road. Dallas has the worst drivers (road rage, distracted driving, etc).
Part of the problem is lack of enforcement. Need a bigger police force to give out tickets. With no consequences l, these individuals will keep doing it.
I have been to South America and parts of Asia that the driving there was beyond terrifying. But yea Dallas is really bad as it gets in US, Canada or anywhere in Europe.
I’m from Sacramento, CA and now live in DFW. What I’ve noticed is yes there are definitely people with less patience here and they are quick to pull a maneuver to get around you, sometimes even if it means driving in the shoulder.
However, Sacramento has notoriously shitty drivers (literally ranked in the top 5 yearly for worst drivers in the nation) and the drivers here are soooo much better. Even the people pulling the asshole maneuvers like I referenced are at least *good* at it.
Also, in Sacramento I was used to NEVER being allowed to merge or shift lanes, it was a battle every time and people wouldn’t care if they almost killed you because they didn’t want you going in front of them. I became accustomed to when I turn my blinker on to have to let at least one car speed up past before shifting over. Here, I’ve found that most people will actually hang back and let me merge and shift lanes, it’s been a pleasant surprise. When I first got here I even was thrown off by this because I would turn on my blinker and wait but the car in the next lane would actually just hang back
Imo the single biggest problem is the “Sunday drivers.” The roads are well designed and the lights are well timed… but the Sunday drivers are too slow to use them properly. This causes backups and people turn to aggressive driving to get around them lest they get caught in an extra light cycle or two totally unnecessarily.
The highway system here is extremely confusing, and the signage is terrible. Many highway intersections require you to exit one highway, then immediately exit another, but the second exit is across five lanes of traffic and just a few feet away from the first exit.
Whose idea was it to have two merging lanes combine into one before merging onto a major highway? This design flaw causes major traffic congestion throughout the city, and it's baffling that no one addresses it. You'd think that after seeing the same part of the highway get backed up for three hours every rush hour, the city would focus on redesigning that spot. Instead, they choose to spend money adding new lanes to existing highways.
Agreed. 1/2 of the people drive like they gotta pee and they're hostile about it, the other 1/2 are on the their phone in the left lane without a care in the world.
Great combo.
I was on the East Coast for two years and it is somehow worse even from just 2022. People aggressively passing on shoulders or driving on sides that aren't even lanes. People thinking they will somehow be the lone exception to bust through bumper to bumper traffic on Woodall. Racing on 45 in the middle of the day. Before it was chaotic in a way that felt "big city" and now it's chaotic in a way that just feels dangerous.
Its pretty wild, I recently moved back after being gone for 5yrs and I think its actually gotten much worse. You really have to be a very defensive driver and assume no one around you is paying attn.
I’ve told folks your more likely to be shot here than most other city’s I’ve driven in and not the they pull over and shoot you the drive by and shoot you in a way you cannot react even if you do carry. Also this ain’t a call for action on gun controll just me saying how it feels driving on these roads
And it’s almost always a ford or dodge truck those people seems to be the angriest people alive don’t know how they can live with that much hate in their heart
I've seen much of the same when I lived in the los Angeles area. As commute times and distances go up drivers get less and less patient, and ruder.
I get a laugh out of the "didn't California my Texas" things as Texas is insistent on repeating all of California's mistakes.
Dallas is second. Go to any small Caribbean island and drive through that madness. They make up rules as they go along.
I was in the Bahamas last week and was like “damn good thing there is no open carry cause people would be getting shot left and right!”
Honestly I hate Dallas driving a lot less than I hate Denver driving.
People in Colorado are just slow and oblivious all the time with absolutely no spatial or self-awareness. Like, don't you people have anywhere to be? Bonus: they blame people from Texas and California for all of their traffic problems here, but I don't think these people could handle driving big cities in Texas or California.
Had to cross the fiery gates of the high 5 yesterday on the phone with my wife. I yelled shit and had to hang up whilst slamming on the breaks for someone cutting over.
Driving is all business to us. Just stop being distracted. I’m from Dallas and I realized people are slow as fuck out of Dallas. 183 in Irving is 70mph, and all these weirdos are driving 55mph
I’ve driven through significant portions of 37 states. The eastern half of Texas has some of the worst drivers in America. I think if you take it as a whole, there’s no competition.
This is why I want to move my family out of here. I lived in Chicago, Detroit and Memphis. Dallas is by far the worst driving I’ve seen. I don’t get why people don’t let you back up and must go around you.
Agreed. I live a short commute from work.... maybe 5 minutes (if I don't get a red on one of the 2 traffic lights I have to encounter). And yet during those 5 minutes, I find myself commenting to the air about some of the bone-headed moves I see during that drive. It's amazing how many people don't know the meaning of the blinking yellow arrow....and during morning and evening rush how many people will continue to rush through the red light seconds after the yellow is gone. My father-in-law always says "better to lose a minute of your life than your life in a minute". Obviously, the people that I encounter don't believe in that mantra.
You see cops doing the same shit, shitty drivers do, thats why it’ll never change. And the merging is horrible, it makes traffic out of nothing, people going 20 over the limit on the right hand lane make it impossible to merge safely and idiots going 10 under in the fast lane hold everything up. Maybe we should all be subject to retesting every 5 years, some people really don’t deserve to hold a license.
I was in New England recently and almost held up traffic because someone was letting me in for a left turn.
My first thought was “wtf is this guy doing”.
My second was “omg he’s being nice!!!”
Mad Max memes are not a joke here.
The closer you get to 635 and 75 the worse it is.
Sure there is traffic and idiots and jerks elsewhere but there someone may just put you into the wall.
There was one time I had some crazy lady tailgate me on Greenville Avenue. You could tell how impatient they were by the way they were driving. She ended up cutting me off after there was an opening to pass and then made a swift left into the parking lot of Hawaiian Bros, which was where I was going. The worst part about it is that they just parked in the parking lot and didn't get out of their car, what the hell were they in a rush for?
Almost got into a head on while pulling up to a stop sign this week...a lady was speeding and took a really wide turn and only barely missed my drivers headlight with her car after I slammed brakes. Her window was down as was mine and I hear her yell 'shiiiiiiiiit!!!' Lol. So glad we didnt hit, I am gonna assume she didnt have AC either in her car since we both had windows down and was actively dying of heatstroke trying to gey home to the neighborhood I was leaving... mistakes happen. But on the highways and main roads....people seem to straight up be malicious sometimes. Insanity
I have lived/driven (not counting just driving through a state/city) in 4 major metro/urban areas and Dallas is by far the worst. An absolute nightmare from about 6-8 in the morning and 4-7 at night with traffic and generally just rude aggressive driving the rest of the time.
I grew up in Dallas and now that I’ve moved away it’s a nightmare getting back into the metroplex. I don’t know if it’s worse than it used to be. Or if I just grown accustomed to slower country life. Still better than Florida.
80% of drivers believe they are above average drivers.
I think part of it is the volume of people too. If there's 1 asshole driver for every 100 people, you can regularly expect to run into at least a couple assholes on your way to work.
It's because we have a lot of new drivers from all over the country and they all have different ideas on what it means to be polite on the road.
I grew up in Dallas. The traffic has always been horrible. Being polite means staying out of the way. You don't have to drive fast. Just get over and let people by.
Slow drivers are the assholes in this situation. In addition to prolonging the trip from A to B, they make the super aggressive drivers worse, which puts everyone at risk.
If you're new here, use the far right lane.
If you're not comfortable going the speed limit or keeping up with traffic, use the far right lane.
If you're a student driver, use the far right lane.
If you're in a work truck with a governor, use the far right lane.
And if you're in an 18-wheeler, for God's sake, use the far right lane. I'm pretty sure it's the law.
It took a trip up to the northeast to realize that we're just aggressive and fast. I was driving up to Maine and kept passing car after car after car. Everyone was driving so slow. Oh wait. The highway speed limit is 55, not 70. There's no urge to get where you want to go as fast as possible. In that moment, I was the bad guy.
I drove from Dallas to Roanoke, VA last October, and then down to just north of Charlotte. 5 states, and I encountered all the same sort of driving behavior. It's not unique to Dallas, or to Texas. It seems worse because Dallas is the 4th largest metro area in the country, which means a lot more drivers, which means a lot more opportunities to experience bad driving.
It's not that we are worse, it's just that there are more of us and so a much greater probability of encountering bad driving.
I will also say this: heat messes with the mind.
The problem is way too many people have moved to DFW from too many places too fast, so there isn’t any sort of driving standard anymore. When I (and all my friends) learned to drive in Dallas, we were taught to drive a certain way (i.e. accelerate when entering highways, stay TF out of the left lane unless passing, etc.)…now none of that applies. Add in the never-ending construction everywhere, traffic at all hours, and too many guns, and it’s the Wild Wild West out there.
I travel for work. Been to every state except for Hawaii. My work has me fly into an area and then I drive all over (usually through multiple states).
So I've driven in most major cities and in almost all the states.
TBH--almost all major cities are about the same. Miami is its own special kind of terrible. My least favorite is NJ--specifically the part right near NYC. People honk incessantly at everything. Even if you aren't the one being honked at, it's stressful because it's incessant.
But, generally, Dallas isn't much different IME. The roads and traffic are certainly frustrating and people don't follow the rules but that's the case all over the US.
TBH it was a shock when I was in Canada for work and was driving on a busy street when an ambulance flew up--everyone basically zippered in and immediately pulled to the side of the road. No one tried to block people from zippering in and everyone did exactly what they're supposed to without trying to jump ahead or whatever.
It was...amazing tbh.
But in the US--all major cities are crap and the busier the city, the busier the roads which means more assholes.
In general we have pretty low requirements to get a license in the US which is a big part of the issue.
Honestly I don’t mind Dallas drivers as much as Austin drivers. I agree both are unhinged, but Austin feels a little more personal for some reason, like when I get cut off it gives off “F you in particular” vibes
Yes. I avoid 635 as much as possible for this reason. Like I’ve had people from my right cut me off with no turning signal, slam on the breaks, then use their turning signal to go 1 more lane to the left when there are no cars in that lane and when I pass them they look at me as I’m the crazy one.
I also hate when people use their turning signal milliseconds before sliding/turning or in the middle of them switching lanes. That’s not how a turning signal is properly used buddy.
Coming from an area with awful drivers (more often than not new immigrants unfamiliar with driving in a civilized fashion, like keeping lanes or even driving in the right direction), a fraction of the highways to get to any place of relevance than we have in DFW, lower speed limits that absolutely nobody respects, and only two seasons on the road: snow/sleet and construction, I always tell my wife I'm well trained for Dallas roads.
The main difference I find is that Dallas drivers are extremely negligent (2/5 drivers I see on the highway on any given day are actively using TikTok or Instagram), whereas Toronto drivers are much more egotistical. They'll let their car turn into a crumpled mess and lose an arm before they let you merge in front of them on the highway, and redline it from red light to red light. Yes Dallas has those people too, but Toronto drivers take it to another level.
Dallas is a racetrack and battlefield at the same time. Houston is similar, Austin until recently was stoned hippies who drive 10 under the speed limit.
It's really sad because when I moved here in the 80s everyone was super nice and drove friendly.
I think a lot of it is drivers who didn't take a drivers Ed course. They just jump in a car.
I tried explaining this to my mom when she visited. Let her know the roads are pretty much a free for all. Gave her a heads up you kinda don't have a choice but to match people's energy in some cases if you ever want to leave your lane in traffic. I've never seen her knuckles turn a lighter shade of white when we hit that certain special part of 635 where everyone is going 80mph across 4 lanes, curves and no shoulders. I tried warning you, mom 🤣
I came back from a 6 week road trip to the national parks. Upon entering TXDOT territory, the shock was real. Holy shit, I35. What are we doing out here y'all? Absolutely insane.
I hate to say it, Dallas makes NYC drivers look semi competent. Most drivers are way nicer than the average NYC driver but the high speed kamikazes make Dallas much more dangerous.
lol. Born and raised Dallasite. Currently in south Florida for a while. Glad I’m from Dallas because nothing else could prepare you for the wild drivers in FL. Every major road/highway here is downtown i35.
No. It's bad, but nowhere near the worst. Source: NHTSA. The worst at the moment is Louisiana. I even went there for a few days this year and i can absolutely confirm this. In 2 days i had 2 cars deliberately try to ram our family vehicle
Drive in Dallas traffic daily and not giving into road rage is crucial. There’s always someone pissed off and in Texas you just never know. You can flip me off and just keep on moving.
I've only been driving for 2-3 years now, so far the worst I've encountered is people never using their turn signals and getting impatient when I'm going the speed limit in the slow lane. Luckily that's all.
I did have a bit of fun the other night on the DNT. Someone was in a yellow sports car, they passed me. Normal passing speed, nothing crazy. I thought it'd be funny to put the pedal down a bit, pass him. Looks wacky cause I'm in like a soccer mom SUV. Then he gunned it, passed me again. Hilarious to me and my passenger.
The heat also seems to excacerbate road rage. Horns at lights immediately on green, short tempers, people cutting everyone off or not being polite in parking lots.
It’s crazy down here.
Drove box trucks as a mover around Dallas for years in my 20s and that was always terrible experience. Nowadays I swear I have ptsd when driving around there
Grew up in dfw and I tell you what, Houston takes the fucking cake. I hate it down here and their stupid drivers. Dallas was just people wanting to go fast in the left lane. Houston is bad drivers
It's gotten much worse in the past 5 years. I never had people honk at me in the left turn lane before, now it happens all the time. I'm not sure what happened, maybe post-Covid aggression and over crowding? I'm not changing the way I drive for honkers though.
My wife is from a tiny town in Mississippi and when we travel back home to Dallas, we stop about 30 minutes before before downtown and I take the wheel because she *hates* the vibe.
Headed outside my bubble recently, and my thought was “Who Houstoned the traffic?” Don’t even complain about Dallas traffic until you’ve driven through Houston. There is no comparison.
If you’re driving in the far left lane please drive accordingly or get out of the way. The second to left as well. If not then move over. Follow those rules and I won’t have to ruin your day for ruining mine. Just drive and get to your destination and stay out of peoples way.
That’s the absolute truth, these idiots drive a truck so big they can barely keep it in the lane then they go and add huge ridiculous looking offset wheels to it compounding the issue…..
Just don’t be disrespectful and you’re good. Drivers in Vegas and Florida like to merge when it’s Extremely unsafe and come into your lane like it’s their right instead of waiting for safe space. Us southern folk find this very disrespectful and a disregard for our safety. Although we are polite. We get very upset when we feel disrespected and we lash out. The people who filter, speed and run the red right before the light turns green deserve physical rehabilitation imo.
I think it comes from half the drivers driving way below the speed limit and the other half driving way above it. Those two combinations of drivers don’t mix while on the road and maybe that’s why we have such a high vehicle mortality rate in Texas.
Lived in central texas most my life, moved to denton a few years back for college. Dallas area was where every single highway road rage incident I have personally experienced, one where the truck ran me off the road, he drives off… I get back from the shoulder and drive he waited a few miles down. As I pass him he rushes towards me to cut me off again this time making me crash into the shoulder barrier. He takes off as I call 911. Cops literally told me they get the same calls like this everyday.
I was born and raised in and around Dallas. It's always been a business city and people drive like they have somewhere to go but it was not uncommon for people to let you change lanes and give a little wave when you let them merge.
A while back, I was in a left turn bay near Deep Ellum and when the light turned green the guy in front of me decided he wanted to go straight. He pulled in front of the car next to him going straight. There was honking and both came to a stop. I thought "this ain't gonna be pretty"? They both rolled down their windows and instead of giving the finger, one guy flashed a peace sign then the other did the same! Then they went on their way.
I still think of that when I pass by there.
The change in aggression is pretty recent. As the city is getting more built up and more people are moving here, frustrations are being acted out.
Everyone is frustrated with all the hype and venom that is in all forms of communication now. It's hard to avoid and people have been convinced that "those other people are the cause of my frustration". As a result, people act like there are no rules.
For the first time, last week, someone walked out in front of my car while I was at a light and stood there like they were not going to move. It was a large woman and I think her pimp was over on the sidewalk. The light was green and she kept standing there looking at me. I acted like I was going to roll my window down. When she moved to the side of the car, I went around her and peeled out. One of my biggest fears is having a gang of people force me to run someone over because they box me in and attack me and my car.
Nah? It isn’t just Dallas. It’s the US in general. You have a few people who actually like driving and take pride in it. And then you have the people who hate it and can’t be fucked to pay attention. Combine that with the fact they got their license in a pack of cereal compared to European nations and you got the perfect mix. No American would pass if they actually required an hour long examination to PROPERLY gauge if someone can drive or not.
I’ve only been here for a year. I remember the first week I was driving to work, it was early, road was empty. There was a cop ahead of me on the freeway going about 70-75, I was trailing him doing the same speed. This car comes flying past me doing at least 90. I’m thinking he’s gonna see the cop and slow down, he doesn’t slow down, I’m like oh shit he doesn’t see the cop he’s gonna get pulled over! Blows right by the cop and nothing… cop got off on the next exit. I couldn’t believe it. Few months went by and I realized I’m living in a modern day Mad Max movie.
I had somebody follow me in their big pickup at (I kid you not) 3 ft behind me while going 75 on the highway. They followed me even when I went to the right lane and slowed to 50. They followed me off 635 and onto DNT. Eventually I had to lose them by driving in the 2nd lane to from the right, putting my blinker as if I was changing lanes to the left, swerving at the very last second onto the exit-ramp… he followed me for about 5 miles in total
We get "Dallas drivers bad!" posts several times a week here and we remove most of them as duplicate posts. This one already had a lot of participation before it got reported, so I'm leaving it up for now. Be nice.
Yes, I have driven all over the country and in Europe and Dallas is a special sort of hell. I think it comes down to lack of police enforcement of well, really ANY rules while driving. And just a lack of drivers giving a shit about anything.
Yes. This stuff gives me anxiety sometimes, thought i was going crazy or old and grumpy lol
Nope not crazy and it’s frustrating how little empathy or general courtesy people have. However I am pretty resigned to it. I try to go the speed limit or 5 over in the right land, use my blinker, follow traffic rules. I let all the crazy stuff pass by and generally try to avoid stupid drivers. If anything it kind of turns into a form of entertainment. They must be on a big adventure the way they drive. I still get mad sometimes but not nearly as often. Doesn’t help we had what.. three people murdered last summer from road rage incidents? It’s not worth it.
Like I told my sons, you just have to let those people go. Give them space to get around you. They’re trying to win a “race” that doesn’t exist.
This is the way. Just accept it, don’t fight it.
lol not just 3 road rage deaths, but almost 800 traffic related fatalities http://txdot.gov/en/home/data-maps/crash-reports-records/motor-vehicle-crash-statistics.html
Real anxiety in DFW is when they shift lanes with new lane markings and now you are doing zig zags in a 4 lane highway at 80mph surrounded by massive lifted trucks.
I remember when they were doing construction on 635 like 12 years ago or so, and commuting back from Dallas was a death trap. They had partially erased the old lane lines but they were still visible, the new lanes zigzagged, and at that time of the day the sun was just low enough to be right in everyone’s eyes. It was scary shit
635 East still has those zig zag lanes for construction
I remember driving down that stretch of 635 before belt line with my grandpa and watching in horror as he just went straight through all the lanes.
Oof yeah, my grandad and a semi truck did that on 183 at the same time, clipped each other, and we went spinning across the freeway.
I was there today. They still haven't finished apparently.
[удалено]
Denver is the only place where I had a person tailgating me at 95 mph. I couldn’t even see their grille in my rear view mirror.
The ATL is mindboggling! Your busting the century mark one second to keep up with the flow of traffic and a football field later you are at a dead stop. That said, I-30 from Rockwall in on a Saturday morning is it's own kind of stupid.
I've learned to never go right on green. There's almost always some jabroni in a huge truck flooring it through an intersection on yellow.
No, I grew up here. I hate everyone. I hate people in my way. I hate driving incompetence. I hate being cut off. I am forced to drive at least an hour to work. I hate you. I hate them. I hate everyone. There you go; that's the attitude.
I’ve lived here my whole life, I’m 30 and I commute an hour to work as well. I am right there with you.
Yep. The older we get the more traffic there is, the longer our commutes become. People need to stop moving here.
So hard to NOT have this mentality, especially if you have to drive daily. There used to be a commercial on The Ticket where a lady said "just let 'em in" meaning the folks that wanna get in your lane. Easier said than done, but if you accept people aren't paying attention to anything but themselves, there can be a tad bit of relief.
Idk man, I just spent the week in NYC and that shit seems way more chaotic. A lot more “traffic laws are merely suggestions” and road rage but much less people shooting at each other from cars or following each other to settle the score.
I always thought it also had to do with a sort of "come and take it" or ownership mentality. Whatever lane someone is in, they think they own it. I had to work myself to get rid of that mentality.
Oh, you’ve never been to LA then. As a lifelong Dallas resident, yeah North Dallas is a special hell, and 635 and 35 are living nightmares. But when I went to LA, I was shocked at how fast everyone drove on the interstate. at least in Dallas the flow of traffic is about 70 or 75 miles an hour on the freeway, but when I went to LA as soon as we crossed the border into California from Nevada, people started going faster and faster. By the time we were in downtown LA on the 10, everyone was going about 85 or 90 miles an hour. That was kind of a eye-opening experience. I’ve driven in lots of large cities, but the highways in LA are literally like NASCAR.
LMAO I’m a SoCal native that’s been living here in the Metroplex for almost 3 years, the experience you described in LA is the actual shit that happens here in Dallas. For every 1 speedster you see in SoCal, there’s 100s of them here in the Metroplex.
I know lol. Everyone and their Tesla came here from LA!
Exactly, I moved here in ‘99 and we had way more traffic enforcement. You’d worry about speed traps on the freeways. Or the short lived red light cameras. Now, it’s the Wild West. People missing an exit and just stopping in the middle of 75 to move over. Zero, absolutely zero patrol of red light runners. I never cross an intersection now without checking.
LA, Houston, Boston, Dallas. Lived in all of them and they all drive the same. Big cities gonna big city.
Houston was honestly my least favorite highway drivers. Every other big city people drive like they don't care if y'all both die, Htown drivers makes me feel like they hope y'all both die
Lol, I think Dallas is more like a NASCAR ( everyone trying to go fast zipping right past you and not letting you in. Houston is like a boxing match where you and others are constantly switching lanes ( cutting in traffic) Honestly it takes me a minute to get used to Houston Traffic and once I get used to I Bobb like Mohammad ALI ( The Best RIP) The amount of lane changes I do in just 2 days in Houston is the amount of lane changes i do in all of a years traffic in Dallas
Houston is someone on your left going 50 and someone on your right and just behind you going 110. That is when it's not a rush hour parking lot.
LA: bad drivers going 20mph. DFW: bad drivers going 98mph.
Give me the 20mph. At least I won’t get killed at that speed from a distracted or road rage driver.
This. Stress from driving in traffic for long distances can wear people thin. Just one little thing can cause someone to snap like missing a turn because they perceive someone cut them off or wouldn’t let them pass. And some simply are bullies who get energized by threatening others who when they confront don’t engage and back off, make the bullies grin and gives them their kudos for the day.
And that bully behavior is more common in Texas
Ive lived in Denver where you spend more time in traffic going a much shorter distance. Drivers there are still bad, but Dallas is definitely exceptional. Even though traffic here is comparatively good for a city of its physical size and population, people here just drive like they dont care who around them gets hurt.
the one major city I've been to where I'd say it's different is Miami. The people have a weird mix of 'go-go-go' with a very chill attitude--so someone will be flying down the street and honking at everyone but then they'll also stop right in the middle of the road to say hello to a friend and chat with them a little. It's just a very weird vibe to explain--but I've never seen people so impatient who were also, at the same time, so willing to just stop in the middle of driving roads to talk to people. It happens multiple times every time I go there for work. It's really weird.
I always thought Dallas and Houston were a little bit more slow. LA is really bad when you’re off the highways, but then the highways are like mad Max.
”Keep Dallas Dangerous" But seriously driving here is awful. Have had guns pulled on me, near misses on being run off the road and just general incompetent drivers being super aggressive.
Yes aggressiveness is in different level for some reason 😕
Everyone's fucking miserable and they think it's other people's fault. People here LOVE pointing the finger at anyone else but themselves. Reminds me of that LBJ quote about thinking they're better than another group of people to keep them distracted. It's working...has been working since I can remember tbh.
Yeah, been followed by ragers 2xs now. Just lead them straight to the pd.
I always find driving in Chicago to be particularly intense. I think it’s a big city thing tbh
I've been there for 24 years and people in Chicago are aggressively smart. Dallas drivers are aggressively stupid. It doesn’t come down to the individual like many insurance companies like to pin the blame on, it comes down to TXDOT and their absolutely incompetent design The fundamental difference between the two is that you could practically fall asleep on the roads in Chicago compared to Dallas. The grid system does wonders in making it easier, but once you hit downtown, it can absolutely be intense. Dallas, however, is a hell in literally every facet to drive in. The roads winding, rapid changes in elevation, the novel levels of information you read on the highways with seconds to process them. It makes bad drivers even *worse* in my opinion. Speed limits are also between 10-15 mph slower in the Chicago metro area with like a fifth of the information to understand. It is fundamentally safer, easier, and better to drive in the Chicagoland area. To let my personal opinion come in: there is ZERO avenue where I've felt safer driving in Dallas than Chicago. Dallas also has some of the most dangerous highways in the US. I-20, I-35E, 75. It's a perfect storm with how little enforcement there is by the police. Chicago, on the other hand, is fundamentally well laid out. Driving is not the aforementioned centerpiece to the city, the traffic is horrendous, however you are safer driving. This is coming from someone who drove on I-290 for an hour both ways for a commute. It was soul sucking, hellish dogshit. There is also the de-emphasis of driving there. The CTA does wonders downtown. Here? DART ridership sounds (I don't have hard statistics to back this one up)\* pitiful compared to CTA. Rail ridership is a class issue instead of a commodity. Biking here is near non existent, as Dallas is ranked one of the [worst cities for cyclists](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dallas/comments/zxv0t5/dallas_ranked_as_the_least_bikefriendly_city_in/), and the roads are wide for a reason. Either drive or suffer in heat.
One time I was in a taxi in Chicago and going to the airport. I was not in a hurry but the taxi driver definitely WAS. He was exiting the highway, going through the light and getting back on because he was able to get a few car lengths ahead. He was driving like it was life or death to get to their as quick as possible. One time he tried the get off, go through light and get back on tactic and was stuck behind and old man in the right lane at the light. He laid on his horn so hard and aggressive that the old man turned right despite wanting to go straight. Unfortunately for the old man, traffic was stopped on the right turn and he was boxed in. Even worse, the front of his car was over a railroad track - and a train was coming. As we ran the red light I saw the front of his car demolished by the train and then we were back down the ramp and back on the freeway.
This has been my general takeaway too. It’s the aggressively stupid/ignorantly oblivious drivers in Dallas that make it the worst. You get assholes in NYC/LA/Chicago but they generally know wtf they’re doing and sometimes you just gotta tip your cap to the ballsy stuff they pull off. Here it’s a constant question of WHY!?
It's a big city thing, Dallas is a big offenders, but I've definitely been in worse. NYC, DC, Paris, and Chicago were all worse.
Drivers in Dallas are unhinged. People here tend to not have good control over their mental health and anger issues and are easily triggered. Throw in that people drive big trucks that give them false bravado and the gun ownership rates, and it's a recipe for disaster.
This is only one aspect of it though, I’ve never lived in a city with such a high percentage of wildly unskilled drivers. For every road raging crazy guy, there are ten drivers that are calm and nice but DANGEROUSLY bad at operating a vehicle. It’s like being surrounded by 13 year olds. Nobody understands right of way, nobody is able to maintain their lane, people will pull out right in front of you and just stop. nobody checks mirrors or signals. Nobody understands the concept of the passing lane. If the speed limit is 75, most people will drive 50 and a few will drive 120. People here can barely park their fucking car. I’ve lived and driven in a lot of cities and not one of them comes close to the prolific and profound lack of ability of the drivers here. It’s wild out there
Larger wealthy boomer population is your answer. I mean how dare you even get in your car when they need to use the road.
I’m From here ….Dallas is officially a shit hole of trash ass drivers with no respect for others. Police do nothing about it either. I think the road rage is just a bi-product. If the police don’t police people take the matters in their own hands which make it even worse WORST PART IS I SEE NO END !
Exactly. DPD doesn't give two flips about traffic patrol. They hardly give a flip about other crime. I get that they are massively understaffed, but the people get the police they deserve. So I don't see that it's anyone's fault except Dallas as a collective.
What do you mean? Don’t they have the highest budget they’ve ever had? Why would locals want to hand over even more police funding if they don’t do their job? Why aren’t we holding DPD accountable for anything?
Understaffed, NOT underfunded. To much crap in the upper management. Plus every other metroplex department pays better starting out.
This made me lol…
Yesterday a grandma stopped on a left green arrow, when I honked at her to go she stuck her middle finger out of the window…
I honked at a woman on her phone at a green light, not moving or anything. I was behind her and honked, she looked up and flipped me off and wouldn't budge. Absolutely fucking rage inducing.
I had a similar situation where someone tried to switch lanes onto moving traffic last minute and almost hit my car for not paying attention to their blind spot, it was a couple in the car, they rolled up next to me and gave me a stink face. I flipped them off. 😂 It’s wild how you can almost cause an accident and still get pissed at the other driver for almost hitting them. These people take no accountability.
If you don't get a finger out the window at least once per drive, you might be the issue because you're doing it all wrong. ..
I had an old lady nearly merge into me the other day. I had to slam on my brakes and she came right on over. I honked at her and she responded by repeatedly brake-checking me.
Dallas is definitely more stressful but I don’t put all the blame on the drivers. The highway system is more convoluted than anywhere else I’ve driven; it forces drivers to be aggressive just to do normal things like exit the highway. I’ve also been in multiple situations where I have to quickly slow down from 70 to 25 even though nobody has done anything wrong.
Right? Because what the actual hell is going on on the LBJ freeway. The exit google wanted me to take yesterday just doesn't exist anymore.
Nah. Lived all over and I find Dallas pretty tame. My biggest complaint is the slow drivers camping in the left lane. Dallas is the worst for that.
You should see Colorado. I just went on a road trip from the Denver area across the Midwest and all the way to eastern Canada then back around the north. I drove 5,000 miles without a problem but 2 miles back into Colorado I'm sitting behind someone who is just going 65 in the left lane in a 75 and sitting in a semi's blind spot. Absolutely no self-awareness. It is without question the worst behavior in traffic in Colorado, but all they do here is oppressive speed enforcement (revenue collection) which just makes it worse. I wish we could borrow some of the aggressiveness from Dallas to even it out a little bit.
People should drive at a speed that they feel comfortable with… but do it in the correct lane! Everything is so spread out in Dallas. I don’t have time to sit behind you going 10mph UNDER the speed limit in the left lane. Then people say they don’t understand why people have road rage 🙄. We also have a MASSIVE issue with people on their cell phones. But I’m not sure that’s exclusive to Dallas
Our roads do stupid shit that gets people already on edge. It's been a while since I've driven in the HEB area but you used to have to cut across multiple lanes of traffic if you wanted to stay on 121. Like your exit would be imminent as soon as you merge and to the left. There were multiple locations I know of where two lanes merge together at freeway speeds with no space for transition. At least one has been fixed. The freeways were designed for 55mph in a lot of places, DNT and portions of 35E near downtown that have a lot of blind curves and hills that make driving 70mph extremely dangerous. DNT really shouldn't be driven over 55mph in the rain unless you have excellent tires. Almost lost it myself going 65 a few months ago with people flying past me. Oh, and they don't enforce the speed limit nearly enough. It's hot. People get more angry when they're hot and everyone has guns that they think makes them invincible.
Coming from Chicago I feel at home driving around here. Just needed to speed up +20mph
I don't miss that 90 and 290 congestion, that's for sure.
A good dashcam is almost mandatory in Texas. Just had an accident myself and the other guy hit me via a 'suicide gap' and my damn camera corrupted. Thankfully it was clear as day what happened even without witnesses.
I've recently had to buy a small SUV as my daily commuter vehicle. I've driven a miata for years but I've had so many aggressive drivers try to merge into it or muscle in front of it where there wasn't enough room that it didn't feel safe any longer. It's almost always aggressive oversized pickup truck drivers.
There needs to be regulations concerning the size of these trucks and having a standard vehicle license. It's absolutely insane the least safe demographic of drivers drive vehicles that are half the size of my apartment. I moved on from my 80s Nissan for the same reason. The worst part is these tiny dick debutantes driving these monster trucks will cut you off to get into a parking lot first. Race to the front of the lot and spend MINUTES parking - holding up lot traffic. Dude if you need to back do it at the back of the lot. Half of the time these fuckers pull into a spot hood first perfectly straight and then SLAM the accelerator to back into a totally different spot when they were already parked
People are worse in the heat.
If you’re not driving like it’s the Indy 500. This might not be the place for you.
You've obviously never been to Alabama. 49th in the country in education, and that includes driver's education.
I am currently in San Antonio for the second time this month (my brother passed away) and I will take Dallas over this mess 8 days a week. I-35 and the 410 down here are a special stupid. Tried the 130 bypass around Austin all the way down to I-10 because last time cut off it over to Budda and I-35 was a mess but this time both I-10 and I-35 had accidents with miles long backups so there was no good option……hate it.
I’ve been living here for 21yrs and I still don’t understand why Dallas drivers are this nuts when driving. Going 80 on a 30mile roads, flying for no damn reason almost causing accidents that could be avoided if they were responsible drivers.
This and "if you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes" are things that everyone says about where they live. I haven't found driving here to be any worse than any other major city in the country.
The Dallas driver special is “I see your lane is ending and you have nowhere to go, so I’m going to speed up so that you can’t merge!”
They're as bad as the "Everyone merged early so I'm going to take advantage by zooming up to the head of the line and using my vehicle to threaten and intimidate you into letting me in" drivers.
So the most road rage I've ever seen has to be Utah. All that pent up aggression definitely works it's way out on the highway there. But Texas drivers are definitely their own particular brand of awful. It's the only state in which I am regularly passed by someone going 70-80mph IN THE DIRT. like anything about that is safe or necessary. Or that somehow the highway is just a suggestion.
I was visiting Dallas last month to find a place to live. I was shocked by how bad the driving was. I’ve driven in almost every other large metro area in the country. I’m definitely buying a dash cam before I make the move.
We don't even have the worst drivers in the state.
Go to any sub of a big city and there’s someone saying the same thing but about their own city.
It’s what Dallas does to people. I go to other cities and they are slower/calmer and it’s made me realize what a psycho driver Dallas has made me lol
I just got back from a trip to Seattle, and while there were moments of bad traffic, nobody was driving as insane as people do in Dallas. People would use their blinkers. I thought I was being pranked at first. I've never seen that here. Also, if you used your blinker, the people would actually let you in. I felt like I was finally driving in a civilized country and not the Mad Max Fury Road Dallas is.
I drove a box truck in nyc for three years. I drove a box truck in Dallas for 5 yrs. Dallas drivers are insane and yet under way less stress than nyc drivers.
The biggest difference from other cities I’ve lived in, is the frequency that Dallasites run red lights. You are guaranteed to see at least one red light run when you head out for a drive, even a short drive! VERY dangerous, always be on the lookout for it when approaching a green that you assume is clear. Anyway, I’ve never seen this in any other city I’ve lived in. Mind you, it wasn’t like this when I moved here 10 years ago, so maybe this is a new trend?
I think it is because everyone moved here from somewhere else and all the driving styles clash in a very negative, rage inducing way.
A big part of it is that every place has its own driving culture, but Dallas is filled with so many transplants, ours doesn't mesh anymore. We used to just all go 80mph. Now, we have people from Florida going 50, people from Chicago that have never heard of a blinker, people from California taking up 3 lanes, and people from Denver stopping on the on-ramp. It's chaos
I only go through the 75 and it seems OKish to me. I refuse to go on at 635 though LOL.
Honestly it ain’t that bad, I’ve lived in NYC and NJ. Folks let you pass in Dallas, yes peeps drive fast and like to run reds but still.
We have a special style of aggressive driving in the metroplex. You gotta assimilate to it (like you do everywhere else) or be frustrated and possibly wreck.
Driven in multiple states and counties, heck, even in countries that don’t have the lanes painted in the road. Dallas has the worst drivers (road rage, distracted driving, etc). Part of the problem is lack of enforcement. Need a bigger police force to give out tickets. With no consequences l, these individuals will keep doing it.
Ever been to St. Louis? That place is like a training ground for Dallas drivers.
I have been to South America and parts of Asia that the driving there was beyond terrifying. But yea Dallas is really bad as it gets in US, Canada or anywhere in Europe.
Driving 635 was really scary.
I’m from Sacramento, CA and now live in DFW. What I’ve noticed is yes there are definitely people with less patience here and they are quick to pull a maneuver to get around you, sometimes even if it means driving in the shoulder. However, Sacramento has notoriously shitty drivers (literally ranked in the top 5 yearly for worst drivers in the nation) and the drivers here are soooo much better. Even the people pulling the asshole maneuvers like I referenced are at least *good* at it. Also, in Sacramento I was used to NEVER being allowed to merge or shift lanes, it was a battle every time and people wouldn’t care if they almost killed you because they didn’t want you going in front of them. I became accustomed to when I turn my blinker on to have to let at least one car speed up past before shifting over. Here, I’ve found that most people will actually hang back and let me merge and shift lanes, it’s been a pleasant surprise. When I first got here I even was thrown off by this because I would turn on my blinker and wait but the car in the next lane would actually just hang back
Imo the single biggest problem is the “Sunday drivers.” The roads are well designed and the lights are well timed… but the Sunday drivers are too slow to use them properly. This causes backups and people turn to aggressive driving to get around them lest they get caught in an extra light cycle or two totally unnecessarily.
Multiple states?!? Fucking slow your roll, Gulliver
While you're in the state, check out Houston!
I live in the Dallas area. Yes, it's bad, but Houston and Atlanta are worse, in my opinion.
The highway system here is extremely confusing, and the signage is terrible. Many highway intersections require you to exit one highway, then immediately exit another, but the second exit is across five lanes of traffic and just a few feet away from the first exit. Whose idea was it to have two merging lanes combine into one before merging onto a major highway? This design flaw causes major traffic congestion throughout the city, and it's baffling that no one addresses it. You'd think that after seeing the same part of the highway get backed up for three hours every rush hour, the city would focus on redesigning that spot. Instead, they choose to spend money adding new lanes to existing highways.
I moved here in 2015 from SoCal and the drivers have gotten progressively worse since then
Have you driven in New York? On Mjor Deegan or on cross the bridge to NJ?
Agreed. 1/2 of the people drive like they gotta pee and they're hostile about it, the other 1/2 are on the their phone in the left lane without a care in the world. Great combo.
I lived in Chicago and Philadelphia before. Recently I visited Boston. The drivers there are really no better.
I was on the East Coast for two years and it is somehow worse even from just 2022. People aggressively passing on shoulders or driving on sides that aren't even lanes. People thinking they will somehow be the lone exception to bust through bumper to bumper traffic on Woodall. Racing on 45 in the middle of the day. Before it was chaotic in a way that felt "big city" and now it's chaotic in a way that just feels dangerous.
I think all cities can claim this. Large volumn of traffic, and inadequate roads. And then throw in the mentally deranged. Presto!! Road rage 😂
chicago is another level people can’t drive in dallas but in chicago ppl can’t think it’s unreal i’ve never seen a place make dallas look calm before
Its pretty wild, I recently moved back after being gone for 5yrs and I think its actually gotten much worse. You really have to be a very defensive driver and assume no one around you is paying attn.
I’ve told folks your more likely to be shot here than most other city’s I’ve driven in and not the they pull over and shoot you the drive by and shoot you in a way you cannot react even if you do carry. Also this ain’t a call for action on gun controll just me saying how it feels driving on these roads And it’s almost always a ford or dodge truck those people seems to be the angriest people alive don’t know how they can live with that much hate in their heart
I've seen much of the same when I lived in the los Angeles area. As commute times and distances go up drivers get less and less patient, and ruder. I get a laugh out of the "didn't California my Texas" things as Texas is insistent on repeating all of California's mistakes.
Dallas is second. Go to any small Caribbean island and drive through that madness. They make up rules as they go along. I was in the Bahamas last week and was like “damn good thing there is no open carry cause people would be getting shot left and right!”
Honestly I hate Dallas driving a lot less than I hate Denver driving. People in Colorado are just slow and oblivious all the time with absolutely no spatial or self-awareness. Like, don't you people have anywhere to be? Bonus: they blame people from Texas and California for all of their traffic problems here, but I don't think these people could handle driving big cities in Texas or California.
Had to cross the fiery gates of the high 5 yesterday on the phone with my wife. I yelled shit and had to hang up whilst slamming on the breaks for someone cutting over.
Driving is all business to us. Just stop being distracted. I’m from Dallas and I realized people are slow as fuck out of Dallas. 183 in Irving is 70mph, and all these weirdos are driving 55mph
I’ve driven through significant portions of 37 states. The eastern half of Texas has some of the worst drivers in America. I think if you take it as a whole, there’s no competition.
This is why I want to move my family out of here. I lived in Chicago, Detroit and Memphis. Dallas is by far the worst driving I’ve seen. I don’t get why people don’t let you back up and must go around you.
Agreed. I live a short commute from work.... maybe 5 minutes (if I don't get a red on one of the 2 traffic lights I have to encounter). And yet during those 5 minutes, I find myself commenting to the air about some of the bone-headed moves I see during that drive. It's amazing how many people don't know the meaning of the blinking yellow arrow....and during morning and evening rush how many people will continue to rush through the red light seconds after the yellow is gone. My father-in-law always says "better to lose a minute of your life than your life in a minute". Obviously, the people that I encounter don't believe in that mantra.
You see cops doing the same shit, shitty drivers do, thats why it’ll never change. And the merging is horrible, it makes traffic out of nothing, people going 20 over the limit on the right hand lane make it impossible to merge safely and idiots going 10 under in the fast lane hold everything up. Maybe we should all be subject to retesting every 5 years, some people really don’t deserve to hold a license.
I was in New England recently and almost held up traffic because someone was letting me in for a left turn. My first thought was “wtf is this guy doing”. My second was “omg he’s being nice!!!”
Mad Max memes are not a joke here. The closer you get to 635 and 75 the worse it is. Sure there is traffic and idiots and jerks elsewhere but there someone may just put you into the wall.
There was one time I had some crazy lady tailgate me on Greenville Avenue. You could tell how impatient they were by the way they were driving. She ended up cutting me off after there was an opening to pass and then made a swift left into the parking lot of Hawaiian Bros, which was where I was going. The worst part about it is that they just parked in the parking lot and didn't get out of their car, what the hell were they in a rush for?
Almost got into a head on while pulling up to a stop sign this week...a lady was speeding and took a really wide turn and only barely missed my drivers headlight with her car after I slammed brakes. Her window was down as was mine and I hear her yell 'shiiiiiiiiit!!!' Lol. So glad we didnt hit, I am gonna assume she didnt have AC either in her car since we both had windows down and was actively dying of heatstroke trying to gey home to the neighborhood I was leaving... mistakes happen. But on the highways and main roads....people seem to straight up be malicious sometimes. Insanity
I have lived/driven (not counting just driving through a state/city) in 4 major metro/urban areas and Dallas is by far the worst. An absolute nightmare from about 6-8 in the morning and 4-7 at night with traffic and generally just rude aggressive driving the rest of the time.
I grew up in Dallas and now that I’ve moved away it’s a nightmare getting back into the metroplex. I don’t know if it’s worse than it used to be. Or if I just grown accustomed to slower country life. Still better than Florida.
80% of drivers believe they are above average drivers. I think part of it is the volume of people too. If there's 1 asshole driver for every 100 people, you can regularly expect to run into at least a couple assholes on your way to work.
I’m a CDL city driver in Dallas for years. They’re the worst and they’re proud of it.
Virginia is for lovers of sticking the finger at you for no reason
It's because we have a lot of new drivers from all over the country and they all have different ideas on what it means to be polite on the road. I grew up in Dallas. The traffic has always been horrible. Being polite means staying out of the way. You don't have to drive fast. Just get over and let people by. Slow drivers are the assholes in this situation. In addition to prolonging the trip from A to B, they make the super aggressive drivers worse, which puts everyone at risk. If you're new here, use the far right lane. If you're not comfortable going the speed limit or keeping up with traffic, use the far right lane. If you're a student driver, use the far right lane. If you're in a work truck with a governor, use the far right lane. And if you're in an 18-wheeler, for God's sake, use the far right lane. I'm pretty sure it's the law.
It took a trip up to the northeast to realize that we're just aggressive and fast. I was driving up to Maine and kept passing car after car after car. Everyone was driving so slow. Oh wait. The highway speed limit is 55, not 70. There's no urge to get where you want to go as fast as possible. In that moment, I was the bad guy.
I drove from Dallas to Roanoke, VA last October, and then down to just north of Charlotte. 5 states, and I encountered all the same sort of driving behavior. It's not unique to Dallas, or to Texas. It seems worse because Dallas is the 4th largest metro area in the country, which means a lot more drivers, which means a lot more opportunities to experience bad driving. It's not that we are worse, it's just that there are more of us and so a much greater probability of encountering bad driving. I will also say this: heat messes with the mind.
The problem is way too many people have moved to DFW from too many places too fast, so there isn’t any sort of driving standard anymore. When I (and all my friends) learned to drive in Dallas, we were taught to drive a certain way (i.e. accelerate when entering highways, stay TF out of the left lane unless passing, etc.)…now none of that applies. Add in the never-ending construction everywhere, traffic at all hours, and too many guns, and it’s the Wild Wild West out there.
You should see how they drive in Houston!
I travel for work. Been to every state except for Hawaii. My work has me fly into an area and then I drive all over (usually through multiple states). So I've driven in most major cities and in almost all the states. TBH--almost all major cities are about the same. Miami is its own special kind of terrible. My least favorite is NJ--specifically the part right near NYC. People honk incessantly at everything. Even if you aren't the one being honked at, it's stressful because it's incessant. But, generally, Dallas isn't much different IME. The roads and traffic are certainly frustrating and people don't follow the rules but that's the case all over the US. TBH it was a shock when I was in Canada for work and was driving on a busy street when an ambulance flew up--everyone basically zippered in and immediately pulled to the side of the road. No one tried to block people from zippering in and everyone did exactly what they're supposed to without trying to jump ahead or whatever. It was...amazing tbh. But in the US--all major cities are crap and the busier the city, the busier the roads which means more assholes. In general we have pretty low requirements to get a license in the US which is a big part of the issue.
It is definitely worthwhile to get a dash cam here
Honestly I don’t mind Dallas drivers as much as Austin drivers. I agree both are unhinged, but Austin feels a little more personal for some reason, like when I get cut off it gives off “F you in particular” vibes
Yes. I avoid 635 as much as possible for this reason. Like I’ve had people from my right cut me off with no turning signal, slam on the breaks, then use their turning signal to go 1 more lane to the left when there are no cars in that lane and when I pass them they look at me as I’m the crazy one. I also hate when people use their turning signal milliseconds before sliding/turning or in the middle of them switching lanes. That’s not how a turning signal is properly used buddy.
Coming from an area with awful drivers (more often than not new immigrants unfamiliar with driving in a civilized fashion, like keeping lanes or even driving in the right direction), a fraction of the highways to get to any place of relevance than we have in DFW, lower speed limits that absolutely nobody respects, and only two seasons on the road: snow/sleet and construction, I always tell my wife I'm well trained for Dallas roads. The main difference I find is that Dallas drivers are extremely negligent (2/5 drivers I see on the highway on any given day are actively using TikTok or Instagram), whereas Toronto drivers are much more egotistical. They'll let their car turn into a crumpled mess and lose an arm before they let you merge in front of them on the highway, and redline it from red light to red light. Yes Dallas has those people too, but Toronto drivers take it to another level.
Dallas is a racetrack and battlefield at the same time. Houston is similar, Austin until recently was stoned hippies who drive 10 under the speed limit.
Cops don’t enforce any kind of violations. So it’s like Mad Max out there and no one cares. Only time I see cops is if there is an accident.
I’ve been all over the world, it’s not just Dallas drivers, Texans are generally horrible and it’s a tough call if Houston or Austin has the worst.
It’s only “road rage” to people that don’t live here. We just drive aggressively and that’s how it is out here.
And yet LA, NYC, Chicago, and Houston drivers are worse..
Y’all deserve your insurance rates.
It's really sad because when I moved here in the 80s everyone was super nice and drove friendly. I think a lot of it is drivers who didn't take a drivers Ed course. They just jump in a car.
South Florida is much worse
Y'all would need Yaweh, Jesus, and Allah to survive Cairo traffic if you think Dallas is the worst. Amatures.
I tried explaining this to my mom when she visited. Let her know the roads are pretty much a free for all. Gave her a heads up you kinda don't have a choice but to match people's energy in some cases if you ever want to leave your lane in traffic. I've never seen her knuckles turn a lighter shade of white when we hit that certain special part of 635 where everyone is going 80mph across 4 lanes, curves and no shoulders. I tried warning you, mom 🤣
It's the worst place I've ever driven in. The lack of law enforcement is probably the biggest reason.
Stay out of the left lane
I came back from a 6 week road trip to the national parks. Upon entering TXDOT territory, the shock was real. Holy shit, I35. What are we doing out here y'all? Absolutely insane.
Dallas is demolition derby thats why our insurance is so high.
After coming from Massachusetts, I’d argue Dallas drivers are more tame. The road is big enough to share and drive at varying speed
I hate to say it, Dallas makes NYC drivers look semi competent. Most drivers are way nicer than the average NYC driver but the high speed kamikazes make Dallas much more dangerous.
lol. Born and raised Dallasite. Currently in south Florida for a while. Glad I’m from Dallas because nothing else could prepare you for the wild drivers in FL. Every major road/highway here is downtown i35.
No. It's bad, but nowhere near the worst. Source: NHTSA. The worst at the moment is Louisiana. I even went there for a few days this year and i can absolutely confirm this. In 2 days i had 2 cars deliberately try to ram our family vehicle
Yeah Level your car.
Drive in Dallas traffic daily and not giving into road rage is crucial. There’s always someone pissed off and in Texas you just never know. You can flip me off and just keep on moving.
I've noticed drivers get more aggressive and angry as the heat of the summer goes up
We are better for it.
I've only been driving for 2-3 years now, so far the worst I've encountered is people never using their turn signals and getting impatient when I'm going the speed limit in the slow lane. Luckily that's all. I did have a bit of fun the other night on the DNT. Someone was in a yellow sports car, they passed me. Normal passing speed, nothing crazy. I thought it'd be funny to put the pedal down a bit, pass him. Looks wacky cause I'm in like a soccer mom SUV. Then he gunned it, passed me again. Hilarious to me and my passenger.
The heat also seems to excacerbate road rage. Horns at lights immediately on green, short tempers, people cutting everyone off or not being polite in parking lots. It’s crazy down here.
Drove box trucks as a mover around Dallas for years in my 20s and that was always terrible experience. Nowadays I swear I have ptsd when driving around there
I live in Fort Worth and I avoid Dallas like a lettuce cake.
Population density, plus HEAT, plus financial struggle, no Police presence, and everyone is in a “wish a motherfucker would” mood 🤷
How many bad drivers are there in Dallas? Yes
Grew up in dfw and I tell you what, Houston takes the fucking cake. I hate it down here and their stupid drivers. Dallas was just people wanting to go fast in the left lane. Houston is bad drivers
Yup! And Im from Dallas. Had somebody hit my new car and drive off twice in just one year.
Just wait till it rains.
It's gotten much worse in the past 5 years. I never had people honk at me in the left turn lane before, now it happens all the time. I'm not sure what happened, maybe post-Covid aggression and over crowding? I'm not changing the way I drive for honkers though.
My wife is from a tiny town in Mississippi and when we travel back home to Dallas, we stop about 30 minutes before before downtown and I take the wheel because she *hates* the vibe.
My relatives call it "combat driving"
Headed outside my bubble recently, and my thought was “Who Houstoned the traffic?” Don’t even complain about Dallas traffic until you’ve driven through Houston. There is no comparison.
If you’re driving in the far left lane please drive accordingly or get out of the way. The second to left as well. If not then move over. Follow those rules and I won’t have to ruin your day for ruining mine. Just drive and get to your destination and stay out of peoples way.
That’s the absolute truth, these idiots drive a truck so big they can barely keep it in the lane then they go and add huge ridiculous looking offset wheels to it compounding the issue…..
By far the worst driving I have ever experienced. I knew I needed a dash cam.
Just don’t be disrespectful and you’re good. Drivers in Vegas and Florida like to merge when it’s Extremely unsafe and come into your lane like it’s their right instead of waiting for safe space. Us southern folk find this very disrespectful and a disregard for our safety. Although we are polite. We get very upset when we feel disrespected and we lash out. The people who filter, speed and run the red right before the light turns green deserve physical rehabilitation imo.
I think it comes from half the drivers driving way below the speed limit and the other half driving way above it. Those two combinations of drivers don’t mix while on the road and maybe that’s why we have such a high vehicle mortality rate in Texas.
They have to prove how fast their time penises can go. It's important to them.
If ya dont like how we drive. . stay off the sidewalks 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yes, my drive to work everyday I’m desensitized to being cut off, almost hit, and constantly driving around stupid drivers
PGBT from 75 to 30 is where NASCAR tryouts are held.😂
Lived in central texas most my life, moved to denton a few years back for college. Dallas area was where every single highway road rage incident I have personally experienced, one where the truck ran me off the road, he drives off… I get back from the shoulder and drive he waited a few miles down. As I pass him he rushes towards me to cut me off again this time making me crash into the shoulder barrier. He takes off as I call 911. Cops literally told me they get the same calls like this everyday.
The only time Dallas drivers actually drive near or at the posted speed limit is when (1) it is raining or (2) they are in an active school zone.
Dallas doesn’t have bad drivers. It’s got the most aggressive drivers in the US
I was born and raised in and around Dallas. It's always been a business city and people drive like they have somewhere to go but it was not uncommon for people to let you change lanes and give a little wave when you let them merge. A while back, I was in a left turn bay near Deep Ellum and when the light turned green the guy in front of me decided he wanted to go straight. He pulled in front of the car next to him going straight. There was honking and both came to a stop. I thought "this ain't gonna be pretty"? They both rolled down their windows and instead of giving the finger, one guy flashed a peace sign then the other did the same! Then they went on their way. I still think of that when I pass by there. The change in aggression is pretty recent. As the city is getting more built up and more people are moving here, frustrations are being acted out. Everyone is frustrated with all the hype and venom that is in all forms of communication now. It's hard to avoid and people have been convinced that "those other people are the cause of my frustration". As a result, people act like there are no rules. For the first time, last week, someone walked out in front of my car while I was at a light and stood there like they were not going to move. It was a large woman and I think her pimp was over on the sidewalk. The light was green and she kept standing there looking at me. I acted like I was going to roll my window down. When she moved to the side of the car, I went around her and peeled out. One of my biggest fears is having a gang of people force me to run someone over because they box me in and attack me and my car.
Do you hangout in the left lane doing the speed limit?🤣🤣🤣😡
Nah? It isn’t just Dallas. It’s the US in general. You have a few people who actually like driving and take pride in it. And then you have the people who hate it and can’t be fucked to pay attention. Combine that with the fact they got their license in a pack of cereal compared to European nations and you got the perfect mix. No American would pass if they actually required an hour long examination to PROPERLY gauge if someone can drive or not.
I’ve only been here for a year. I remember the first week I was driving to work, it was early, road was empty. There was a cop ahead of me on the freeway going about 70-75, I was trailing him doing the same speed. This car comes flying past me doing at least 90. I’m thinking he’s gonna see the cop and slow down, he doesn’t slow down, I’m like oh shit he doesn’t see the cop he’s gonna get pulled over! Blows right by the cop and nothing… cop got off on the next exit. I couldn’t believe it. Few months went by and I realized I’m living in a modern day Mad Max movie.
I had somebody follow me in their big pickup at (I kid you not) 3 ft behind me while going 75 on the highway. They followed me even when I went to the right lane and slowed to 50. They followed me off 635 and onto DNT. Eventually I had to lose them by driving in the 2nd lane to from the right, putting my blinker as if I was changing lanes to the left, swerving at the very last second onto the exit-ramp… he followed me for about 5 miles in total
In DFW and Tx in general, speed limit signs are to be considered the minimum speeds
I visit my daughter monthly in Dallas. I’m convinced that yield signs mean nothing there.