Driving in Dallas

Hi All!

Today I am taking my neighbor to the eye doctor in downtown Dallas. My neighbor is a middle-aged woman who is physically and mentally unimpaired. In fact, she teaches Kindergarten, plays Bunco, and all kinds of things. She does drive - she drives to work and back and to the store, etc. However, she does NOT drive on the highways. Interesting.

Anyway - I can sort of understand her point - and fear - about the highways around here. Dallas is an ever expanding city (Metroplex) and the highway system just never seems to catch up. There are way too many cars and way too few highways so the highways that do exist are always crowded. Even at two in the morning (when Hubby and I sometimes get home from the airport) there is a good deal of traffic on the highways. And the traffic doesn't sedately flow - it races along at what seems like superhuman speeds and then clogs up abruptly to clear out and speed off again.

People don't drive in one lane and then plan ahead about when to edge to the right to make their exit. They dodge in and out of traffic - mostly without turn signals - and usually don't know they are near their exit until they have to swerve through all four lanes of traffic to get off. There are huge rock haulers taking their loads of rock to who knows where while losing about half of their load behind signs which clearly state that they are NOT responsible for windshield damage. Add into that mix the senior citizens who actually do drive the speed limit (or less) and like to think of themselves as speed demons. They drive in the far left lane and generally cause chaos.

It is a bit nerve wracking to make some of the exits - where oncoming and exiting traffic share the same lane which is only about 500 feet long. And did I mention that people in Dallas have a big problem with merging? I won't go into it but - they do.

Add this all together and I understand why my neighbor doesn't do highways. My only question now is . . . why do I??

Trisha

Voice update:
Still holding on. A little more trouble than normal with those darn "h" words (no - not THOSE "h" words!). I am charging up the microphone to use it while Hubby and I walk to conquer the mowing noise and the noise of the hemis in the area. Darn - forgot to massage yesterday!