Observations from Texas

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Dougman
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Observations from Texas

Post by Dougman »

So, I've been back from Texas for a week now and although there were many interesting road features (mostly the amount of people of their phone whilst driving!) A few observations (streetview links rather than photos for space reasons).

Overall driving was fine, we made a road trip from Houston to San Antonio along the I-10. I took an extra second of thought at junctions to make sure I ended up in the right place, but it was fairly obvious what was going on. I can’t imagine having driven anywhere without sat-nav though, the advance signing of junctions, lane drops etc. left a lot to be desired. Of course driving a massive Ford Explorer helped; You know cars are big when an Audi Q7 looks average sized!

The short weaving sections on the main roads was surprising, the lane gain quickly becomes a lane drop at junction, you needed to be on your toes for merging and diverging.

It was good to see trucks allowed to do the speed limit, certainly helped where the highways were reduced to two lanes. The amount of road construction is staggering by our standards, many huge multi-level junctions under construction and lots of roadbuilding going on.

By far the most common road sign I encountered was the wordy Bridge may ice in cold weather that appeared on the approach to *every* bridge.

These signals in downtown Houston were the border is red LEDs when the signal is red. Mostly used where the tram lines run across the junction but they certainly were eye-catching.

Americans still have no clue how tactile paving and dropped crossings work San Antonio. This example was outside the young lads favourite park so not ideal if he was in the buggy. The fence had gone but you can see the obvious error!

Anyway, if I can think of anything else I'll post up later, still not quite over the jetlag :)
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c2R
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Re: Observations from Texas

Post by c2R »

Yes, I mentioned the Bridge may ice in cold weather or similar in another thread - these appear in many states. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38442



I thought this sort of thing was poorly signed in general (from all directions): https://www.google.com/maps/@35.2272386 ... 328!8i1664

but luckily there's naff all traffic compared to south east england, so it never was a problem...
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RichardA626
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Re: Observations from Texas

Post by RichardA626 »

From my times visiting the USA they are many "wordy" signs that are a lot harder to understand than a symbol & arrows, especially when travelling at speed.
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ScottB5411
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Re: Observations from Texas

Post by ScottB5411 »

But did you fuel at a Bucee?? :wink:
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Dougman
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Re: Observations from Texas

Post by Dougman »

ScottB5411 wrote:But did you fuel at a Bucee?? :wink:
We did indeed (at Katy and the one outside San Antonio on the I-10), I made it 152 pumps? I was also impressed at: the shop; the car wash and the fresh deli. One of the best things I had to eat on my trip was the brisket sandwich from the gas station!)

For those of you who don't believe everything is bigger in Texas, this is the petrol station shop and this is the larger pump island (note there was another one!)
IMG_20180418_120841.jpg
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Andy J
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Re: Observations from Texas

Post by Andy J »

Dougman wrote:For those of you who don't believe everything is bigger in Texas, this is the petrol station shop
Mmmmm dippin' dots and fudge.

:no:
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