After browsing these comments, I would like to encourage fellow Dallasites to read László Krasznahorkai's short story "Nine Dragon Crossing", available in the collection The World Goes On. It's the most accurate thing I've read about being human amidst our freeways.
Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
181–190 of 352 posts
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Houston native here. I still guffaw when I see a massively lifted truck (but with a pristine bed, no scratches - so not even a work truck). Everything's bigger in Texas, including egos.
Texas is the America of America.
For me, this will always be Las Vegas. Walking the strip my first time while at a conference was enlightening. Seeing all the American tropes that I'd seen in foreign media within a square kilometer and with my own eyes left me speechless.
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#183"the worst symbol of our car-obsessed culture" Nothing against the article, which covers an interesting topic. But this refrain gets tiresome, the railing against our "car obsession." We have a big-ass country. We like to move about it. Many of us don't want or need to live on top of each other. That is all.
My main complaint is that the people who like suburban density went ahead and made zoning codes to basically prevent building anything but sprawl, so now the few remaining places that don't require a car are rare and super expensive.
I'm even a car guy—I own a stick shift BMW—I just don't have much interest in getting into it to do literally any activity or errand other than walking around the neighborhood.
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#184First time I visited the US it was Houston, Texas. My host was perplexed because I laughed out loud while we were driving. Experiencing highways and those massive gas stations felt like someone had made a state that mocked America by taking prejudices we have about the American traffic and making them 200% larger in real life. My mind was blown.
From european drivers perspective, what surprised me the most (aside from peculiar traffic rules - some actually good) was concrete highways instead of black asphalt. I was especially careful during rain, it "looked" slippery; Later I was told it does actually have some asphalt in it.
6-year Texan who grew up in New England here. Yes, those roads do get more slippery than regular ones. Unfortunately, many Texans drive worse in light rain than most New Englanders drive in the snow... and don't even get me started on how Texans drive in the snow, lol.
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Corrective comments mean nothing specifically in the case where the author has no interest in correcting their behavior in the future. I realize may fall into this case, but it isn't universal. Some people seek to improve their grammar and avoid mistakes. Pointing them out doesn't have to be viewed as an attack. Alternative responses are as simple as "thanks" or "you are correct, of course"
They mean something to readers, though, regardless of whether the author is amenable to taking in the information or not. People learn by reading, so we all benefit by giving them correctly written material to learn from.
Agreed, that too
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#186First time I visited the US it was Houston, Texas. My host was perplexed because I laughed out loud while we were driving. Experiencing highways and those massive gas stations felt like someone had made a state that mocked America by taking prejudices we have about the American traffic and making them 200% larger in real life. My mind was blown.
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Maybe for late 90's, but major metro areas like ATX, DFW, Houston, and SA have grown much more progressive in the last quarter century.
Also, statistically speaking, you're less likely to be shot in a Texas LGBTQ-friendly venue than a Colorado LGBTQ-friendly venue.
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what you think the alternative is. The US is huge compared to any similarly developed country. Is the answer huge cities right next to thousands of square miles of untouched nature? That hasn't happened in any society on the planet. It sounds like you just want everyone to live in a city and take public transit everywhere but cities are awful for your mental health[0] and most people in the US do not wan…
The US being huge has no bearing on the requirement that I have to own a car to get to work every day, or to go to the grocery store, or to take kids to school. I live in a more suburban area than I used to and having to pilot a huge deadly vehicle everywhere is vastly more stressful than just walking to handle my groceries. Note that the study you link to there is from 1994 and only controlled for the following crit…
>having to pilot a huge deadly vehicle everywhere is vastly more stressful than just walking to handle my groceries.
That's a nice luxury to have. I take it you're fortunate enough to live in a very temperate area with palatable weather year-round, rather than somewhere that gets 110° F in the summer, or ice storms in the winter?
Not everyone can afford to live on the beautiful, comfortable, and exorbitantly expensive cities along the west coast.
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#188"the worst symbol of our car-obsessed culture" Nothing against the article, which covers an interesting topic. But this refrain gets tiresome, the railing against our "car obsession." We have a big-ass country. We like to move about it. Many of us don't want or need to live on top of each other. That is all.
The problem is the planning is the same everywhere. People who like walkable cities don't have a choice but to buy a car. It would be nice to have some areas where residential and non-industrial businesses are more mixed to lessen the amount of driving.
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#189It’s a shame this country is so obsessed with cars. There’s so much land yet we devote it to destroying lush ecosystems (that help reduce effects of Mother Nature) and replacing it with massive highway projects that end up costing everyone more in taxes/indefinite maintenance costs. Then the effect is 10X’d when useless suburbs are built. More car dependence. More time spent on roads. Traffic slows to a halt as subur…
Houston is currently planning its fifth loop. They already have four, and they need a fifth, which mean converting many more square miles of marshland into pavement. Meanwhile there are hundreds of square miles of abandoned real estate in the middle of the city. It's cheaper to just buy and build new than the tear down the old building first. And they can't figure out why each hurricane season is more destructive than the last .... huh. I grew up in Houston and I hated it. I refuse to even visit family there now.
Re: Why are Texas interchanges so tall?
#190As somebody who lived in Dallas and drove on the high five with some frequency, I had actually a lot of questions about the design of it. If somebody who understands this could explain I’d be happy. For one, a lot of the overpasses had two lanes. But then they merged down to one right before you got on the highway… What’s the point in having two lanes on the overpass that merge just before you get onto the highway? T…
Depends on setup, but if the alternative is to merge before splitting off, that can slow down the main highway. Get the two lanes separated first, then merge.
Around here, two lanes split, then they split into two north and two south, and then they merge again before rejoining the cross highway.