Uphill braking isn't a term I thought I would ever use in my lifetime. Then I moved to Austin.
I think I've narrowed it down to what exactly is the cause of the bad driving in Austin. Besides being a city where it has grown and grown and there is this melting pot of different driving habits from across the country, one thing remains true.
Austin drivers are afraid when they see another car on the road.
There it is in the simplest of terms. There is another driver on the road and they don't know how to react to seeing that car.
Every morning I check over Google Maps as it gives me a pretty good idea each day about the traffic conditions that I will encounter. I would think that over time, I would be able to see a pattern emerge and could tell the best way to drive around town. No. Each day is different, and I can't tell the rhyme or reason for it.
Flash back to Obama visiting town. Traffic was very, very light. Most people stayed home. You could actually reach the speed limit on the highway. It was amazing.
Is that because more people were off the roads? No, it was because those that have to drive and knew where they were going were the only ones on the road.
I can't describe how many times I have been on the highway and the idea of not even reaching the speed limit when in the fast lane is beyond me. The fast lane is used by everyone for their 10 miles below the speed limit cruise control.
Did I actually say cruise control? That's more times in the past two minutes that I've typed it out then I've actually pushed the button since I moved to Texas. The hope of a consistent speed that didn't involve random braking every two seconds is beyond me these days.
I've also discovered the magic of traffic jam de-congestion. Where it was going 5 MPH stop and go to magically everyone can hit 60. There is no rhyme or reason for it.
People in Austin also aren't aware of the zipper effect while merging. Traffic jams up a lot at any highway entrance and exit and merge point because people slow to a crawl and everyone scrambles to figure out how to move forward. No one gets the idea of every other car blending together in to one line. You have line jumpers, people who just come to a dead stop and tediously try to move forward, and people who just go any where they want.
There is one secret I've found, and that is staying in the middle lane. For some reason, the middle lane is the lane to just jump by everyone feeling like you are going 100 when you are only going 50 on the highway to their 35.
I'm weird and I follow my average MPH on my car. It was at 26.4 when I moved to town, and you would think with all the 45 zones I go through along with the highway that the number would inch upwards. Wrong. 26.3 is what is on my car, and it has been there for months. My average miles per gallon has gone up, but I would think there would be some balance there.
I don't get why traffic has to be so painful to drive around here. I did notice that if I'm not the one driving, it doesn't bother me as much. There is some serious calculations going on in my head of the benefits of just taking Uber everywhere versus owning my own vehicle. Between having a bike and walking everywhere, my only pain point is the distance from work at the moment, but the math may be looking on the side of going car free.
I'm making a mental note to get brakes checked the next available Saturday. Something tells me they are wearing away at a much faster rate than they should be.
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