Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here.

In the title I'm referring to Houston roads of course. Nowhere else will you find a worse hive of scum and villainy.

The pandemic, and the Government's response to it, fully broke society.

That's it, we're toast. Thank you for playing and please accept your parting gifts as you make your way out.

From road rage to Karen's to porch pirates to pretty much just no one having any respect for their fellow citizens any more. Society is shot.

One of the things that kept society, barely, afloat was the adherence people generally had for the mundane laws. Red lights, rights of way, those types of things. Where is all that now?  Gone. Just this morning, on the commute into work, I watched a truck pull into the empty left turn lane at a red light and just blow straight through the intersection without any regard that a) the other lights were green and b) there were people lined up in both lanes ready to go once our light turned green. He did not even tap his brakes. Blew right through at about 40MPH I'm guessing. (the speed limit on the road in question was 45MPH.)

And you see this more and more. As it stands now, when your light turns green, you have to give it the Houston 5 Second Pause lest you get side-swiped by someone who has suddenly decided that red lights are mere suggestions. When your light turns green, if you just hit the gas pedal and go, buyer beware.

Next to red-light running are the issues of line-cutters.

These people are scum of the Earth and should have reserved for them a special circle in Dante's Inferno. The thing is, they KNOW what they are doing. They drive down in the lane next to the lane that's backed up with their blinker on, telling people that they should just go screw themselves and that their needs outweigh the needs of anyone doing the right thing and getting in line and waiting their turn.

Want to see this in full action? Watch the traffic exiting 59 South onto 610 West. That infamous intersection where TXDOT just spend Eleventy Million dollars to make things WORSE. At some points in the day the line-cutters out-number those waiting in line and the pace is glacially slow. These people in turn cause road rage, too aggressive driving as the poor schmucks who are following the rules try to tailgate one another to prevent them from cutting in front of them (my record is perfect by the way, no one has EVER successfully cut in front of me). Heck, I've even seen Sheriff's drive along, turn their lights on at the last minute, cut in line and then turn their lights back off. When our institutions are not even following the rules.....

Finally you have the Russian Roulette that are the paper tag offenders. Fake registration, no insurance. I think I read somewhere that, should you get in a wreck in Houston, you have a greater than 50% chance of the person you wreck with having no auto insurance. This is why having an uninsured motorist rider on your policy is a must-have, it's also why Houston auto insurance is skyrocketing in price. It's not how you drive, it's how all of the other idiots on the road are driving.

I often have people whom I'm talking to wonder how in the World we got to the position that we're in where all of our elected leaders are trash human beings. I can only assume that there's one answer for this.....

These people that are driving like shit?  They also vote.