Houston Traffic

[Kryst51]

So, I am anticipating it taking me an hour and a half to get home from work today. Why? Because there is so much rain that not only are roads flooding, but people do not like to use their accelerators in the rain. So, even if the roads weren't flooding it would be bad... But that factor makes it all the worse.....

What kind of weather/traffic do you guys usually have for a commute?

 

[mitchem1]

I am out the door at work and in my garage in 6 minutes or less.

 

[Kryst51]

I am out the door at work and in my garage in 6 minutes or less.

Lucky.... I'm jealous

 

[rustyCrVx]

Also in Houston. My usual 15 minute commute has often turned into 45 minutes on rainy days and for the same reasons - missing accelerators. It's like everybody's driving goes from reckless and ignorant on sunny days to absurdly cautious in the rain (including slight drizzles). It might just be some bad luck but I've also noticed I get stuck behind a stalled car every time it pours when coming home from work. I hope this weather doesn't stick around for the 4th. It can go celebrate elsewhere.

 

[pbaldy]

I also have about a 6 minute door-to-door commute. If I have to slow down, I feel like the traffic was bad.

What is yours normally, without the rain?

 

[Kryst51]

Also in Houston. My usual 15 minute commute has often turned into 45 minutes on rainy days and for the same reasons - missing accelerators. It's like everybody's driving goes from reckless and ignorant on sunny days to absurdly cautious in the rain (including slight drizzles). It might just be some bad luck but I've also noticed I get stuck behind a stalled car every time it pours when coming home from work. I hope this weather doesn't stick around for the 4th. It can go celebrate elsewhere.

Plus with all the construction on I-10.... I'm SCREWED....

 

[Kryst51]

I also have about a 6 minute door-to-door commute. If I have to slow down, I feel like the traffic was bad.

What is yours normally, without the rain?

Well, if there weren't construction going on as well, about 45 mins to an hour.....
With construction an hour- and hour and 15...
With rain... an hour and half....
with the torrential flooding downpoor we've had an hour and a half (definitely)or longer, depending.

 

[pbaldy]

I'd have to have a combination of a really great house and a really great job to make me drive that long to and from work. That must really eat up your day.

I should have added that we get snow in the winter, so that can gum up the works. In fact worst is when it's warm enough for rain/snow to melt during the day, but cold enough for it to freeze when the sun goes down. The whole city turns into an ice skating rink.

 

[PNGBill]

2 seconds from the office to home. Always home for lunch but then can be back in the office all hours.

Very spoilit and when we do have to go out get a shock when we get caught in Traffic. Here, long traffic delay is 10 mins?
Small city.

 

[Kryst51]

I'd have to have a combination of a really great house and a really great job to make me drive that long to and from work. That must really eat up your day.

I should have added that we get snow in the winter, so that can gum up the works. In fact worst is when it's warm enough for rain/snow to melt during the day, but cold enough for it to freeze when the sun goes down. The whole city turns into an ice skating rink.

Well, More its what I found when I moved here, and I need the job, so.... I do it.

 

[pbaldy]

Bill, 2 seconds sounds like my brother's commute. He walks from his bedroom down the hall to his office.

 

[PNGBill]

yes, can be drag sometimes if you get slowed down by having to switch on light or fan

 

[kevlray]

I have a very short commute (in a medium sized town). It takes me 10 minutes for me to ride my bike (through a variety of side streets).

 

[rustyCrVx]

I have a very short commute (in a medium sized town). It takes me 10 minutes for me to ride my bike (through a variety of side streets).

I'd like to be able to ride my bike to work but it just seems like I'd be asking to get hit with the usual traffic I have to go through. It'd be a good way to get a daily dose of exercise without wasting too much time.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Normally, my commute is 10-15 minutes. However, after Katrina messed up the city, the Army Corps of Engineers and the City of New Orleans have been working on roads and levees and such. I know why they do it and don't want them to stop, but they MIGHT have coordinated their efforts a bit better.

Right now I have to avoid the picturesque drive along the shore of Lake Ponchartrain in order to take an inner road. This is because the Lakeshore Drive roads must cross levees in a couple of places so they have to be built up higher. Which means new foundations and new roadways with steeper slopes etc. BUT - the drive on Robert E Lee Blvd. (the next major street that goes where I want to go) is messy because THAT is under construction as well. The flooding in that neighborhood undercut many of the road foundations, leading to huge potholes from the weight of the trucks carrying the construction materials. So I have to pick my way through potholes that would swallow a tire whole.

Going further south from there isn't an option because of City Park and Bayou St. John, through which no major roads offer any decent passage. It is literally a couple of miles to the next reasonable crossing point.

I can hardly wait for the day when Lakeshore Drive opens up again. I'll be able to drive on a shore at sunrise or sunset depending on the season. It is always a pretty sight. But right now I can't get there from anywhere important.

I guess I'm spoiled because the commute is only about 5 minutes longer right now. But if I had to head over towards the Mississippi River area, potential flooding there would easily add 30 minutes to my time. It's a good thing that the pumps were upgraded first so that flooding now occurs less often.

The ultimate nightmare traffic jam was the Sunday I had to evacuate ahead of Katrina that hit on Monday. I went I-10 west to Lafayette, LA. That was bumper-to-bumper and maybe 40 mph tops. Once I hit the I-49 junction and could turn north, I could hit 70 mph easily. But that first leg was murder. Lots of overheated cars, lots of lines at the gas stations... a total nervous breakdown just waiting for someone. That one, I survived. I hope to never again have to face that kind of evacuation.

 

[Fifty2One]

I no longer have to struggle to get to commute to work and home - a lot less stress without it. My drive to work is 15 minutes to 25 minutes depending on the weather, if it is nice weather it takes longer because I tend to take my time more, lots to see on the way and if neighbours are outside I may stop and chat a bit. If it is raining hard then I just stay home, same if it is snowing or freezing rain in the winter, and if the weather is really nice then I will just stay at home anyways because I do not want to spend all my days home with lousy weather.

 

[statsman]

I changed jobs with the same company two years ago. I now have a 15 min. walk to work at the location I moved to over the former 40-50 min.
I have been with this company for 24 years and it took me that long to get a job at the location I was supposed to have started at.

 

[oumahexi]

I changed jobs with the same company two years ago. I now have a 15 min. walk to work at the location I moved to over the former 40-50 min.
I have been with this company for 24 years and it took me that long to get a job at the location I was supposed to have started at.

Same here, 10-15 minute very pretty walk through the park, depending on what I'm listening to on my MP3 (increased beat = increased pace ).

 

[Alc]

Also in Houston. My usual 15 minute commute has often turned into 45 minutes on rainy days and for the same reasons - missing accelerators. It's like everybody's driving goes from reckless and ignorant on sunny days to absurdly cautious in the rain (including slight drizzles).

Move to the GTA. You can have 'reckless and ignorant' 365 days a year, regardless of the weather conditions.
Never driven anywhere where the people are so oblivious to anything outside their own vehicle (incl. weather, other cars, etc.). The number of accidents on the first snow day every year is incredible for a place where it snows every year.
Amendment: I've managed to switch my hours so I only need to commute three days a week, these days. Still a way longer journey on the train than I'd like, but it does make a real difference.

 

[statsman]

I remember my father teaching me to drive when I was a teenager. One of his pearls of wisdom was that the ability to drive in the snow does not survive the summer. It must be re-learned each winter.