I now live in Austin, Texas. Population: 709,000. The main transportation occurs on highways, these things called "frontage roads," and very rare usage of streets.
You can see my culture shock. And the shock poor Derek is going through.
Derek is the alias for the 97 Pathfinder, who has brought me through the last years of college, ridiculous amounts of trips to and from Texas, and close to $3000 in repairs over the years. He is my ally and friend; and I intend on keeping him until he croaks. However, he is going through a particularly rough time because prior to coming to Austin, Derek has been stuck in 4WD, which puts a lot of strain on his engine (and my wallet since it causes gas mileage to SUCK). Now I'm putting all this stress on him, driving on the highways for 40 miles each day, and I feel bad. Anyways, this post is about the highway system.
So, here are a few rules you should know about Texas highways:
1. They are in very good shape and are marked very well. While working at Camp Eagle, I couldn't help but notice that they repaved the road twice in the 3 years I worked there, as well as really helpful signs everywhere you look.
2. EVERY highway has two or more names: a number (e.g., 360, 2222, or 1) and a name (e.g., Capital of Texas Highway, Konig/Northland, or Mopac). This is important because either may be referenced at any time.
3. In addition to #2, the numbers may have an array of letters before them: FM (farm to market), RM (ranch to market), RR (ranch road), or CR (county road). Don't be fooled, because they ALL MEAN THE SAME THING. Again, don't be fooled at the lack of consistency.
4. Frontage roads are like mini-highways you ride on until you get to the entrance you want. They're right next to the highways, which sometimes defeats the purpose of having the highway, but most of the time you use them to save time. I'm actually still uncertain of their true purpose, as they don't exist in Kansas and we did just fine up there!
5. Finally, if you ever fail to follow the above rules or plain get lost, there are these MAJORLY HANDY "u turn" thingies under every overpass that allow you to make a u turn and get back to where you missed your turn or forgot to get on the highway. Lifesaver.
I haven't decided what my official opinion is yet. For now, it gets me to work. And it may be that I'm just not use to the change.
Very cool about how nicely the roads are labeled. Totally different from what Oklahoma has done with their highways.
ReplyDeleteIn Wichita when they made all of the changes on Kellogg (Hwy 400) they added frontage roads. Here it's more like a little road parallel to the highway that you take to get to all of the businesses that aren't accessed from the highway. You just hop off at the exit before your destination and take the frontage road. You could take the frontage roads all the way, but it's a little bit slower b/c of the stop lights.
It sounds like the frontage roads might have a different purpose in TX though since everyone drives on both.