Whenever Roadguy takes a trip, he’s always interested in how the locals do the transportation thing. A couple of weeks ago, he was in Texas, where he took more than 100 pictures and visited two cities — Austin and Houston — that he’d never been to before. Below is a mere fraction of what CrapCam captured.

First, let’s start with something we really couldn’t have in Minnesota:

These colorful reminders were quite helpful in clarifying where a certain lane would take you, but one snowstorm worth of plowing and they’d be scraped into oblivion.

Speaking of weather, here’s something else we don’t have here:

The blue circle and arrow indicate that, during a hurricane evacuation, both sides of this freeway are used for traffic heading inland, in what’s called a contraflow. Also of note in this photo: Texas is starting to use the new freeway-sign font.

Texas’ reputation for mixing drinking and driving apparently doesn’t extend to the world of transit. Witness this sign at a bus stop:

Perhaps the authorities don’t want to make things more difficult for whoever’s driving the …

(Roadguy did not climb behind the wheel.)

Houston’s light rail trains were very much in evidence:

They were sleek and not nearly as noticeable as our more brightly colored rail cars. Perhaps that’s why there have been so many vehicle-LRT crashes in Houston. Plus, the tracks sometimes veer across lanes of traffic and make use of left-turn lanes. Kind of exciting, and not in the best way.

There was more evidence of a multimodal mindset, Southern style:

By the way, y’all, this plate was on a very large truck. But not everything in Texas is bigger:

Could Smart cars be any cuter?

But getting back to big — Texans love their flyover ramps:

Not a cloverleaf in sight. Massive ramps make it easier to go fast, although the speed limit depends on the position of the sun:

Also along the freeway was a little something that would bring joy to many a Minnesota driver:

Such a radical concept. Perhaps Roadguy could’ve purchased such a sign at the sign store inside the visitors center at Houston City Hall:

Prices ranged from twenty to thirty bucks; Roadguy was bummed that Christmas was over. Of course, he could’ve bought one for this signpost several miles away:

Another sign, in Austin, was less mysterious, and quintessentially Austinian:

(Relatedly, Roadguy did try to get a shot of an Austin city limit sign but did not succeed.)

Finally, a few shots of that perennial Roadguy favorite, parking meters. Houston has moved to centralized pay stations, which are often solar powered and are styled to look like parking meters:

Of course, to really give drivers the true parking-meter experience…

…the stations malfunction.

OK, your turn. What, if any, of these Texas transportation concepts should we consider here? Nighttime speed limits? Special musician parking? Have you ever been tempted to drink at a bus stop? Would you ever drive a Smart car on our semi-plowed roads? If you have any thoughts, or some Texas transportation memories of your own, please share below.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Main, Scenes and stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.