According to the 2007 Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report™, Austinites get into more crashes than drivers in any of the 20 other Texas cities on the list. Austin ranked 179 out of 197 cities nationwide and Austin drivers are 31% more likely to get into a crash than the average American driver. Motor vehicle traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans aged 4 to 34.
Why is Austin so bad? Sorority sisters sporting SUVs? Road-raging Round Rockians? Hopped-up hipsters in hybrids? Californian carpetbaggers? Let's group Austinites into vaguely offensive generic groups and assign blame for our city's ills (alliterative categories only, please). Ok? Go.
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I'm going to hazard a guess that it has a lot to do with the horrible design of our freeways, specifically the on/off ramps, huge traffic loads for roads that were not designed to be thoroughfares (like 2222 between 35 and Mopac, or 38th St too), and a big drunk driving problem.
oh hey, neat, that's my building in the background.
I hate driving on Oltorf...anyone else?
One of the main problems is the Lance Armstrong wanna-be's that crowd the road with the hypocritical "Share the Road" mantra. Riding 2 or 3 wide during Rush Hour on the busiest of streets, these moronic riders haven't taken the time to check out alternative routes. They are out on 2222 and 360 cruising at 15 mph and disturbing drivers with their skin-tight padded spandex.
Also, obviously I-35 is bad, but I have a particular pet peeve about I-35 South. One of the main causes of traffic jams is the on ramp just north of Oltorf on I-35 South. The ramp itself is probably 1/10th of a mile and drivers never get up to the appropriate speed causing a massive backup daily.
I'm sure the ranking can mostly be attributed to Austin's large population of young people, who are statistically much more prone to accidents.
milwaukee is ranked pretty highly (for safety, not for accidents), and they have on-ramp traffic lights there that limit freeway entrances to one car at a time. i don't know if that has anything to do with it, but you never know. it's pretty annoying to wait at those lights, but it does make merging easier.
I'm sure the ranking can mostly be attributed to Austin's large population of young people, who are statistically much more prone to accidents.
There's a "I'm gonna get mine, and screw you" attitude among Austin drivers. People cut each other off and speed through yellow lights without courtesy or any sense of apologizing or even acknowledging that other drivers are there. Even pedestrians and people with shopping carts act this way. Someone needs to do an Austin-specific social marketing campaign related to this. On a recent trip to NYC, I saw pedestrians and drivers who were more polite than they are here.
If you don't like this comment, screw you.
Too many Asian girls with coke-bottle glasses who can't see past the dashboard, refuse to obey signs like "No Right On Red" and stop in the middle of the road for no reason.
hey spackler you ahole... when was the last time you read about a big accident caused by a biker in the road?
It's our high tech literacy. Everyone in town seems to be on a cell-phone, crackberry, or laptop. It's gotten to where I'd rather drive at 2am with the drunk drivers than at noon on a Sunday with the chatty Cathys. Even the worst drunks generally can stay in their lanes better than you jackasses on your cellphones.
Although frankly it probably is the youth of our populaton. Having tens of thousands of teenagers in town can not be a good thing statistically.
If 16 year olds can understand it, I don't know why you can't, Michael. From the Texas Driver's Handbook:
YIELD THE RIGHT-OF-WAY TO PEDESTRIANS
Avoid turning your car into a deadly weapon. You should always be on the lookout for people on foot whether or not they have the right-of-way. Drivers must yield to pedestrians in the following situations:
Situation 1—Uncontrolled intersections.—At an uncontrolled intersection no traffic signs or signals if the pedestrian has entered the crosswalk, you the driver should give him the right-of-way.
Situation 2—Controlled intersections.—If the pedestrian has a “WALK” signal, or, if no pedestrian control signals exist, at a green light, you should give the pedestrian the right-of-way. If the light changes after the pedestrian has already entered the crosswalk, you should still give the pedestrian the right-of-
way.
I'm sorry, the answer we were looking for was "pubescent punks in pickups." Pubescent punks in pickups. We also would have accepted “’burban brats from Buda.” Some of you got close with “young people,” but you’ll notice that answers were required to be in alliterative form. No one gets the prize.
Perhaps it's because Austin drivers seem unaware of what a turn signal is for, that the reason for a fast lane on the highway is passing other cars, and that not everyone is capable of holding a conversation on a cell phone while controling their vehicle at the same time.
It's because of the Mexican immigrants. It's because of liberals. All that stuff; that's why.
- Pissed in Buda
No man, its because like there are like bad drivers around here man. People not respecting the rules of the road and stuff. Yeah, they are like bad drivers. Everyone should just chill.
whatever, you stinking, bean-eating hippie
i listen to Pantera and drive a truck. i'll mess you up good, you know.
every man for himself on the road; life is war.
- Still Pissed in Buda
So much hostility man. The road isn't safe with all the hostility. Bad drivers. Man, driving is like making sweet love in a field of flowers on a spring day. You've got to be gentle and caring. War is not the answer. Driving with love is.
It's because people live too damn far away from where they work.
you don't know what it's like, you hippie SOB. i drive 4 hours to work every day, and besides all that i got this stupid wooden leg. yes. i hate my life.
- Asking Why in Buda
hey dumbasses it's cause of walmart, remember?
i mean, those jerks who didnt' vote for light rail.
Man, don't hate. I was in 'Nam, brother. War makes you do evil things. You gotta turn that away, man. Use love and positive influences. Drive with the positive, man. You still have one good leg. Put on some good tunes, man, let your hair blow in the wind. Those can be wonderful times, man. Drive with the love.
well, how about i drive over your face? you are an embarrassment to the Marine Corps.
-Semper Fi in Buda
IT"S BECAUSE OF TEH CONDOS!!!!!!!1
The war has consumed you, brother. Relax, man. This agression will not stand, man. Love is all around you. Embrace it. Why would you run over your brother? I love you, man. Don't forget that. You may run over my face, but you'll never run over my love. Love, man, love.
Two factors - lots of young drivers (college + teens) on the road, and an inadequate road system to handle the city's growing population. Plain and simple. The cell phone issue may also contribute, but that's a problem anywhere they're aren't cell phone use while driving restrictions.
I don't know which alliterative group is to blame, but they all drive insanely slow and are scared of any amount of rain. This causes accidents when people like me who enjoy driving AT THE SPEED LIMIT instead of 20 below try to make our way through the streets and freeways.
OMG. Funniest comment thread evar.
The answer:
Stupid, slow-driving striplings sporting cell-phones and spliffs.
Ahhh!
The #1 Daily Idiotic Driving Spot in Austin goes to...
The idiots traveling southbound on Lamar between 6th and 5th when the turning lane is full they just wait it out in the actual moving lane till the turning lane clears up. All of this for a $3 bottle of water at Whole Foods.
People in Austin drive with their head up their ass. It seems like everytime I am merging onto a freeway the person in front of me is going about 30 mph and drifts across several lanes into the fast lane with no signal and continues to drive about 20 mph under the speed limit, then will repeat when it is time to exit.
Why doesn't anyone understand what right lane ends, merge left means?
where to start... I have lived here 20 years. It has not always been as bad as the last 10 years. In the last 10 years, it is a calculated risk getting on the road everyday.
1. is it because everyone here is on allergy meds and groggy all the time?
2. is it because of cell-phones? and how many dumbasses have I nearly been hit by as they drive and TEXT!
3. perhaps it is the lack of yield signs on the access roads, which make it really hard to exit the highway when drivers on the access road actually seem to speed up and aim for you.
4. how about those stop signs, people? it is a directive to actually STOP. Not gun it to see if you can beat the person in the oncoming lane with the right of way.
5. does anyone in Austin realize that a parking lot is not a racetrack? it's a freaking parking lot. Slow the f*#k down.
6. and those of you on Mopac during morning and evening rush hour who drive the shoulder the entire length of Mopac - going 50 MPH while all other traffic is crawling. OMG. No-one deserves to die because of your selfish idiotic behavior.
7. I hate to say it because I am an alum, but whenever (99% of the time) I encounter a horrible driver in town, they have a UT longhorns emblem on the back of their car... it's an epidemic. apparently they need to offer driver training at UT.
8. is it the combination of teenagers and cell-phones? LETHAL.
9. I have noticed that Austin has a higher than normal percentage of drivers who don't take responsibilty on the road... if you weren't paying attention and are about to miss your exit, then take your lumps and go the next one and back-track rather than trying to careen across 3 lanes to make your exit.
10. you didn't get the memo that the fast lane is for passing only?
11. and last but not least, stop turning left from a non-turning lane in front of another non-left-turning lane. Freakin' morons.
12. and some people want to blame it on the roads. hahahahahahahahaha. guns and roads don't kill people, people kill people.
I lived in austin for 6 years and then moved to houston. I was surprised that I actually felt safer driving in houston than in austin. I don't know why this is exactly, but my impression is that people in austin seem to drive slower and less assertively...like they're lost or looking for a street address. Driving near them, you never know whether they're going to jump lanes, swerve, or just stop altogether.
Also, street signs are evidently very confusing, as I recall several occasions on I-35 where someone would literally STOP on the freeway at the divide between the upper deck and the lower deck. Seriously, just pick one and keep going!
To be fair, I-35 gets a lot of NAFTA traffic that it was never designed to be able to handle (hence, more 18 wheelers flipping and spilling their loads all over the road). That is enough to make even reasonable drivers flip their sh*t.
Having said all that, drivers everywhere are morons. Show me a city where everyone drives responsibly and I'll show you a city with no cars.
-- Also, my apologies for the appalling absence of alliteration in this comment.
I've had this conversation with several acquaintences of mine, all of whom have moved in from out of town, and here's what we've come up with:
Lots of people move to Austin from lots of different places. They come from California, New York, Indiana, small towns in Texas and pretty much any/everywhere in between, and they all drive the way people do where they're from. Since this varies considerably, you wind up with the wide range of awful driving habits that are visible on Austin's roads.
There are other things that contribute... inadquate signs on the roadways, poor lighting at some intersections, etc. but also, I think it's way too easy to get a driver's license in Texas and have it for a long time (mine won't expire for 5 years from when I got it) without being testing to make sure you're still familiar with some of the basics of the law.
I think both have to do with the fact that about half the cars on the road have the college stickers on them (UT here, A&M in H-town). Chalk it up to sample bias.
The #1 Daily Idiotic Driving Spot in Austin goes to...
The idiots traveling southbound on Lamar between 6th and 5th when the turning lane is full they just wait it out in the actual moving lane till the turning lane clears up. All of this for a $3 bottle of water at Whole Foods.
+1 This man knows
I live 500 yards from my work, Have motorcycle and a large pickup. I sit in my office and drink coffee and laugh at IH-35, Your reality is what you make it.
my submission:
"Lunchtime Lane Changers on William Cannonball Run"
maybe we're just not religious enough? [www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19308664?GT1=10056]
Insuranceless Immigrants?
Senile Senior Citizens?
Text-Messaging Trophy Wives?
Women? (No alliteration needed, really.)
you're right about women! it's hard to please your man and use your turn signal at the same time.
why do women even need to leave home? Can't groceries be delivered??
Groceries can, but beer can't.
Beer can most certainly be delivered. Anything from a keg to a 6-pack. Hell, my boss gets bottles of wine delivered to our office all the time.
Speaking of idiot driving spots. What's the deal with ppl heading north on Slo-Pac in the morning crossing the river? Is there some reason why they continuously drive 20 miles an hour each day going over the river. I know you can't see what's on the other side of the hump, but do you really think they installed a stop light on the other side the night before? Its amazong how traffic quickly gets up to 65-70 as soon as you crest the hump. Idiots.
You guys have no effin idea, I ride a scooter, and have been run off the road TWICE by teenagers. In a residential neighborhood. With my 11 year old son on the back. And they were laughing while they tried to ram us. Little f***king worthless tweekers. My son and I were run into the curb and both ejected from the scooter. And the little c**ksmokers laughed and threw a bottle at us. And no, I wasn't able to get their #, I was too busy seeing if my son was ok. (And no we weren't!)
I think your problem is using a scooter as your primary mode of transportation when you have an 11 year old son. I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be HIS primary source of transportation, not yours. Eventually the Peter Pan hat needs to be put away. You can be green and still be hip at the same time, just by a Vespa or something.
As a city gets larger its traffic problems grow its normal. Too bad Austin decided its going to be weird and keep the roads just as weird. Its like those in charge of road construction are designing with crayons and contruction paper rather than any sense of logic or reason. Oh well... they've made our bed and we have to lie in it. Even if it means risking your life daily to get on the road.
Ham-
What's the difference between a scooter and a vespa?
Well Hambrig, why don't you just jump up and buy me a car then??? And as for the Peter Pan issue, I'm female, you jerk, and you probably drive a Hummer in the hopes of attracting some woman who'll over look your you know what. If I chose to walk or ride the bus, I'm sure you'd have something stupid to say about that too. Were you one of the teens that tried to run me over? And are you saying that it would OK for a kid on a scooter to be run off the road? You are ignorant, stupid and a jerk. Oh, and while you're out buying me that car, how about footing the bill for insurance and gas? You are a total moron.
Hambriq, my daughter showed me this website and your comments about her. I am a law enforcement officer. I am also what you would call a 'motorcycle cop'. Would you like to comment about that? Would you perhaps instead prefer myself and my fellow motorcycle officers to stop protecting you, your family and your rights because you deem us to be "Peter Pans", as you put it? My daughter is a responsible adult, which you, sir, are obviously not.
this long list is proof of our primary problem with austin autos: few of our fellows find in themselves any blame.
most of these say this group or that condition is the root cause of the problem. will any of us admit that we, too, have been guilty of uncivil driving? or is it all about blaming others and patting ourselves on the back that we're not "one of them"?
doctor, heal thyself...and call 911 immediately if you see someone driving unsafely or too aggressively (be sure to get their plate).
and for goodness' sake, please refrain from posting epithets or unproductive arguments here. shouldn't we think about the problem and use this site to offer sincere ideas for solving it in a courteous tone?
Most people blame the bad drivers in austin on young people or allergies. Every time you drive in Austin people do strange things that I dont see very often in other places. When someone almost hits you or drives into your lane, look at who is driving. Its all ages and all races in Austin who drive terrible like they are on drugs or drunk.
I am a 38 year old mixed race professional male. I have lived in three states and Puerto Rico. I have never seen people drive like they do in Austin unless I am in Mexico. The cars in mexico are full of dents and so are many vehicles in south austin. Many people dont get them fixed because they dont have insurance.
Austin is the only place where people constantly swerve over and drive on the dashed lines or into your lane and over the lines instead of between them. They also hit their brakes for no reason when there is nothing in front of them. Drug hallucinations?
Also, in most areas, the city does not paint the lines on the roads. People really need to ask the city why they dont paint the lines on the roads. When it rains you cant see the lane lines at all on many roads. The roads in San Antonio are so much better and Austin is the capital city.
There are laws that you cannot drive too slow. So why are bikes allowed to go 20mph in the lane of a 40mph or 60mph road? They say in driver ed that bikes have to follow the same rules as cars.
Many Austinites are social illegal drug users AND prescription drug users. Almost every professional I met who has a University education uses illegal drugs on weekends and some weeknights and take antidepressants and they wonder why they feel depressed.
Austin has a very large population of liberals who support a sanctuary for illegal aliens. As a result, Austin has a very high population of illegals who learned to drive in Mexico where most people are catholics and believe its gods will if you get in a crash and die.
I lived in Austin for seven years and was hit five times. Each time, I was sitting at a red light or in traffic that was not moving and some idiot just drove into the back of my vehicle. There was nothing I could do. I was partially disabled the first time I was hit by a 35 year old pregnant white female driving an excursion. The next two times where black men. Another time I stopped at a stop sign and a car full of hispanic men in south austin just hit the back of my car. I didnt get out that time. They just sat in their car glaring at me. I saw cars get hit on a weekly basis in south austin where the drivers seem worse than the north burbs.
In downtown and south austin every time you drive there are very rude drivers who dont care if they might cause an accident and injure others. If you live in Austin you can expect to be hit once a year on average. I have seen these statistics in the news. Its not just my experience. Even the ex-mayor of austin runs over pedestrians. Check it out in the news where he ran someone over and they died.