This is Texas - Roads

We went up to the Dallas Arboretum this weekend to take some family pictures for my husband's parents 40th anniversary.  It was beautiful out.  The kids were even fairly cooperative--smiled and stood still and everything (most of the time). Don't have any pictures to share myself because I figured the photographer (who happened to be my husband's cousin) would take more than enough. 

On our way there we spotted something that drove me crazy when I first moved out here....TEXAS sized road bumps.

You know those little safety disks that they put on the middle of the road or the edge of turning lanes?  They're usually about the size of a half a tennis ball...if that.  Well, in some parts of Dallas and Fort Worth, the "safety bumps" in the turn lanes are about the size of salad bowls.  These things are intimidating.

Here's a picture I found on flickr:

Picture by  Diorama Sky 

Here's some other features of Texas Roads and Texas Driving:

• Do Not Drive on Median You'll see these signs on the edges of highways and freeways.  And you know why they need a sign?  Cause people do...frequently.
• Useless Turn Signals.  My biggest pet peeve about Texas driving (specifically Dallas driving) is that no one uses their turn signal to change lanes...they just inch over.    I don't take "inching over the line" as a sign you're about to turn...I take it as a sign you're drunk.  But the reason people don't use their blinker to show they're moving over is probably because if you do people often speed up to close the gap and keep you from coming into their lane.  UG!  Texas civility ends as soon as people get in a car.
• Roads With Multiple Names.  It's not unusual for a road in Texas to have both a name, and and number.  It's also common for one road to change names several times, even in the same city.  I've gotten lost due to road name changes many times, and it makes asking directions really frustrating.