How does good Texas engineering make REALLY BAD roads? 

Nice video footage 520 miles away in Lubbock at 9:47 when talking about Houston, haha.😄

Road guy rob: Texas roads don't serve pedestrian traffic well. Texans: what the hell is a pedestrian.

"cheating" the lights is definitely a feature, not a bug

Former Houstonian. I grew up thinking that flooding in neighborhood streets was commonplace. The streets became rivers with the curbs as embankments.

I had literally no idea that feeder roads were a feature unique to the Lone Star State. And yes, as a wheelchair user I can attest to the shitty sidewalks or in most cases a complete lack of any sidewalk, or my personal favorite the sidewalks that begin and then erode into nothingness.

half of these "problems with Texas Roads" have nothing to do with the roads and are really "problems with Texas City Planning."

You should be aware that "feeder roads" aren't necessarily so much an intentional feature of the texas freeway system, but actually a result of a clause in the texas constitution that states that all property owners have right to access any road that abuts their property. The frontage roads were the way the state resolved the issue of limited access roads. When the interstate system was being built, they needed to build frontage roads to account for that texas constitutional right.

Having lived in Texas for 20+ years now, the thing that pisses me off about our roads is our on-ramps and the people that don't know how to use their right foot to get up to speed.

Rob sees Texas building freeways like 1970’s Los Angeles: “Wonderful!” Me: Why do we live only to suffer??

Dallas is in the region of the US with the highest obesity rates - ain't nobody trying to walk anywhere

I've lived in Texas my entire life, I actually had no idea other states did it differently.

European: "How do I get to the subway?" Texan: *Slowly pulls out handgun*

Texas doesn't need more roads, it needs rail based transit

"Texas roads unfinished" I 35 - "😥😆😅😳"

85 MPH or not, it's worth every penny to not sit in stop and go traffic in Austin.

The “feeder roads” you mentioned are actually only called feeder roads in and around Houston. The official term is “frontage” road, but service road is more commonly used in most of the state, with access road being used often as well. If you say feeder then you definitely are from houston.

2:41 being from Texas I’m more worried about the 10 fire ant hills that r within 5 feet of him about to ruin his day rather than what he’s actually doing

Most of the dirt paths on the medians and shoulders are where cops do u-turns or park waiting on speeders

Very interesting video Rob although I think if Houston had invested in heavy metro train lines back in the 50s and developed higher density housing along those it would be a far far better city, personally I see all those houses and suburban roads being abandoned in the centuries ahead

I lived in San Antonio in my youth. We called those frontage/service/feeder sections of the freeways "access roads". I thought those access roads were the best idea ever and was surprised when I moved elsewhere and discovered Texas was unusual. Now, when I have to go back to Texas for a visit, I dread it. In the early 2000s, it took eight hours to get from Dallas to San Antonio. On the way back, I thought maybe traveling on Sunday would be better. Nope, eight hours to cover what ought to take five. Ten years later, I returned-- and it was even worse. I think that unique freeway design is a big part of the problem. Most stores and restaurants my family and friends want to visit are to be found along one of these access roads, but since the freeways are packed most of the daylight hours, even on weekends, we take winding alternative routes to get to our destination. Along the way, we travel plenty of roads that look a lot like "one of the main non-freeway roads" at 5:30 in Rob's video. Notice the lack of traffic and businesses on that 'main' road in the middle of the day? Is making your freeway your Main Street really a good idea? In two other cities where I have lived, which are at least as large as San Antonio, businesses are on those "main non-freeway roads" instead of the freeways. So we don't have to go anywhere near the freeways to visit our local businesses. When I need to go across the metro area, good chance I can make decent time on the freeways, except during morning and evening commutes, and even then it's only like Texas is all day long. And Rob's right about the look of Texas. Texas roads are not just inefficient, they are also boring, if not outright ugly. From the north side of Dallas to the south side of San Antonio, Texas is the most monotonous drive I have ever experienced. And that's assuming you can drive in Texas. Most of the time, it's not a monotonous drive, it's an even more monotonous sit. You know a place is bad when it makes traveling through Nebraska seem like a treat. While dining with friends at a restaurant along I-10, the conversation found its way to driving tests, and an old friend griped about how many parking questions were on the Texas test. I pointed to the stopped traffic just out the window and said, "As much parking as you do on your freeways, the test ought to be two-thirds parking questions." I thought that would get a good laugh, but instead they all just nodded. (edited for paragraph formatting)

I lived in Texas for almost 50 years. Recently, my son in law pointed out something interesting about Houston's freeways. Ever need to stop for gas when your tank is REALLY low? You'd think you could find a gas-station on the frontage road just off the freeway, but no. That land is too valuable for other commercial use. To find a gas station, you need to drive down one of the side streets and hope you can find fuel.

I would lose my mind without feeder streets.

Interstate 10 is an interesting highway you should do a video on every state it passes through....just from Texas to Florida it changes so much

The US must be such a terrible place to live if you can not afford a car.

Texans view pedestrians as an anomaly or a target, depending on how they look

I live in San Antonio, no toll roads(yet) but I really hate the way access roads encourage so much traffic along highways. Highways aren't supposed to be a destination, businesses shouldn't be located along highways. It compounds the traffic, people traveling home, to work and to go eat or shop. Commercial businesses should be located on avenues in between residential zones. That way, people don't have to get on the highway to go to the store or go out to eat. I also hate shopping centers, and their oversized stores that attract a lot of traffic. So much wrong with the way cities in my state plan, but almost nothing I can do but complain and hope my city council rep will hear me out.

I moved out of texas and now really miss the feeder roads...also the non-toll interstates that have exits more often than every 80 miles D:

Having lived in Lubbock for the past 2 years, I can attest to the fact that the roads are generally, big, ugly, confusing and feel very rushed. Not only that but they are very dangerous, with random signs splattered throughout roadways its easy to get confused, and people speed in Texas, so there is an accident just about everyday in Lubbock, not even joking. Why? Because its impossible to go ANYWHERE without a car, if you try, you have to take crappy unfinished sidewalks built right next to cars going 50-60 MPH with no barriers and half the time sidewalks just randomly end causing you to walk through unpaved area which is exponentially more dangerous. Navigation is impossible because there are literally 3 or 4 seperate exits for the exact same road and randomly placed intersections on a road that's limit is 50 IN A SUBURBAN AREA. It literally sucks and I never feel safe on the road. Texas needs to get its transportation under control.

While driving in California, I missed my exit so I figured, hey, get off at the next, make a U-turn, get on the frontage road, and go back. Oh NOOO, I exit, I have to get onto the local road, that puts me into a neighborhood with little signage, and I have to guess which street is not only going to take me back to the freeway but that doesn't end there. What should have taken perhaps 10 minutes took about an hour. And this happened more than once. I was so happy to get back to frontage roads and turnarounds,

Feeder roads do have a function in rural areas. They are a place to divert two lanes of traffic off the freeway at the same time for road work.

It’s funny seeing people’s reaction to service roads lol

Texas: Lets expand and not think about our actions. Hurricance Harvey: We'll see about that.

As a Houstonian, please continue to tell us of how terrible our urban planning it is. I need more people here to understand.

Yea I agree, We here in Texas is doing horrible with our roads. I think everyone should stay away because of our bad roads. :)

As someone who lives on the first parallel street from I-35 in Austin, the feeder roads and businesses do provide a little extra distance (inverse square law!) and an imperfect sound wall from the constant rumble of the traffic lanes. One of Austin's freeways (Loop-1) does not have a feeder and the residents live right "on" the freeway...They just recently started to get a noise barrier. Feeders also provide the alternate route when there is a crash on the freeway. And Texas Turnarounds are THE BEST.

4:50 no, those are desire paths, they are really big in Scandinavia right now, in many parks the council won't even build any paths at the beginning then wait until the desire paths become apparent, then pave them, Texas is just doing it writ large for cars. :)

You are the first american I stumbled upon actually being critical of the urban sprawl ....

After a downtown flood in the early aughties, Tulsa started replacing a lot of downtime sidewalks with a different kind of pavement that allows rainwater to trickle directly down into the dirt beneath. All those square miles of dirt that, except for holding up what we built on top of it, wasn't doing a thing for us... now it can help hold that rainwater. (I wonder how much of the grasslands' ability to absorb and divert the water was just the fact that the soil was open to receiving the water, not necessarily because of the particular plants.)

Sidewalks in Texas are almost just there for visuals than actually walking. The walkabilty of Texas is really poor. They do a good job of putting miles long tracks under power lines but never any effort in practical walkways

The weirdest part of moving to Texas is that they don't seem to understand what drainage is Texas civil engineers be like "ROAD IS AQUADUCT"

Hey! A new Road Guy Rob video! Great way to start the week. Great to see you uploading again, Rob! Always love your content.

Texas road engineer one: Ya sure of this? Texas road Engineer two: Hey look buddy, I'm an engineer, that means I solve problems.

When I first moved to Texas I found that the feeder streets were a good idea but they were too short and sometimes I had to go from 0 to 70 mph within 300 feet.

These are fantastic! Well produced and fascinating info for anyone interested in the highways and byways of America. Please keep em coming!!

I’m from Texas and I have so many opinions. 1 I didn’t realize so much of this was just in Texas. 2 I think the feeder roads keep things safer and I’m happy to have them. 3 a lot of those little dirt paths along country highways are places where cops camp out. 4 Downtown Dallas is just ugly in general when it comes to their roads. Downtown Houston and Austin are more accommodating of pedestrians. 5 THE DAMN TOLL ROADS. It’s a plague and hasn’t done anything to help us in the slightest. I live in Houston, where traffic is a major issue. 99 hasn’t done anything for us and normally isn’t very crowded. 45, which is the free highway in Houston is very dangerous and needs so much work, giant sink holes have opened up twice in the last year. But they spent all the energy on 99.

I was hoping for a more technical video explaining the design flaws of Texas roads rather than issues like urban sprawl, aesthetics of feeder roads, and flooding in Houston. What would you do differently to improve Texas roadways to relieve congestion? Is this a funding issue or is the growth of Texas too much to reasonably accommodate?

Your videos keep getting better and better I have subscribed. I enjoy watching and learning things. Great channel. Keep up the good work.

There’s a reason why the rest of the country is toning down Highway construction. Car dependent development pattern is entirely fiscally unsustainable lol

Rob, I learn so much from your videos. You're inimitable style and knowledge are a pleasure to watch!

3:52 shhhhhhh! Stop telling people my secrets!

As a Texan in a west Houston suburb very interested in this topic, I have a few words: 1) It saddens me to report that the Grand Parkway (99) is not expected to be completed, at least for a long time, which really sucks because the part they aren't finishing would be a hurricane escape route. 2) Feeder roads are amazing, we love them - especially since lots of times they are easy alternatives when the highway is too inconvenient (ie getting on near a large interchange) 3) Highway projects are very slow in Texas, and very frustrating as a result. I travel 59 going from Houston to the SW towards Victoria, a future interstate 69 ALL THE WAY to the border, splitting into 69E, 69C, and 69W after Victoria. The problem is they have been doing construction in ONE county for like 8 years now and probably won't be done with the 59>69 conversion till I die (I'm 17 for reference). 4) Going faster on the feeder road than people on the highway, while almost always illegal, is one of the best feelings 5) We all wish the new roads were not tolls, but it's almost inevitable at this point. The Westpark Tollway (W of Houston) goes so much farther out than what you'd expect for a paid road, even into country-acre neighborhoods. If you read all this, thank you, that is all for now.

Really enjoyed this video! Part of the reason TX regions have chosen to build toll roads is the lack of state/federal funding for "needed" projects. Planners and engineers see missing links in forecasts and tolls give them an option to keep the "free" roads less congested, at least in theory.

Florida freeways also contains feeder roads while in this case like with US 19 in Clearwater, Florida they mostly are smaller and are about six to eight lanes and the feeder roads which are just known as frontage roads also have retails on the side, however another major difference is that they mostly are just started out as normal roads turned into Texas style like highways.

@2:00. It is called a Texas-Turn-Around. Very handy.

I went to Dallas for the first time a few years ago and was amazed going from the airport to downtown. There seemed to be two dozen lanes going each way. I’ve never seen a wider roadway than I did then.

I really appreciate the enthusiasm with which you approached the pros and cons of our road infrastructure!

Very informative like always, keep it up my man!

Feeder Roads is actually a good thing in my country and we call them service road.

Harvey was the worst rain event in recorded US history. Many places flooded for the first time in the history of the city. And in the two years beforehand, we had severe flooding events in the spring, not associated with any tropical/hurricane system. Given that we're in the crosshairs of hurricanes every year, and they're going to keep getting worse, Houston needs to really shore up its water and drainage works. Residents have been pushing for better infrastructure and public drainage works, and there's some progress being made, but it's an uphill battle. We need to look at countries like the Netherlands to see how they've adapted to keeping the water at bay. 2021's winter storm was also an unprecedented event. The state government pointed the finger at ERCOT, but they're just the energy controllers. The real source of failure was the energy facilities and connections, which weren't designed to handle severe ice. Those are owned and controlled by the energy companies. So a consistent trend around here is that we're finding out how inadequate our infrastructure is in the face of severe weather.

Jesus christ the highways literally make up 90% of the state

The hesitation when you said "Applebee's" has me dying haha

We have frontage roads in Michigan but we call them service drives and they are very useful.

I read a study that widening roads don’t actually reduce traffic much.

For the record with Hurricane Harvey I'm sure some parts of Houston only received 30" of rain, but on the south side my house personally got closer to 60". I think it was around 54-56" in the first 24-36 hours or so.

I see your point on a lot of these, but you have to realize the cultural differences between our states. I somewhat agree that the lack of sidewalks is an issue, but no one bikes or walks everywhere. Especially not parallel to major highways. That's an easy way to get heat stroke.

Can’t wait to see your video on the monstrosity that is I-69 and it’s multiple branching freeways

Born and raised in Texas. I thought this was how everyone in the states did it.

I had to take a "what American accent do you have?" test a while ago for a com class and one of the questions was something like "what do you call the road that runs parallel to a freeway?" And I legitimately had no clue what it was on about as I've never driven through the great state of Texas. Luckily "I have never heard of this concept" was an option. Ever since then that question has stuck in the back of my mind and now I finally got an answer.

by not having fences the highway can suddenly develop a by-pass to the congestion. when theres a 6-lane crash, the paved paths cant function due to the congestion - even for emergency vehicles

Native Houstonian here. I love our feeder roads. It makes it really easy to navigate and to get to business. You don't really want to build your home next to a freeway like in LA. Plus exits in LA, usually dump you into some neighborhood where you get lost trying to find the road that you are trying to get to. I like how with feeders that if you missed your exit, you can easily navigate back to the road you just went by. Try doing that in a city without feeders like LA. And just like LA, here in Houston, who really walks in the City. It's a car-centric city, plus the weather is too bad to walk.

5:19 WTF, it looks like a car is about to fall off the trailer in the background, texas is really a mess

As a resident Texan there is another problem he didn't mention. Once those tolls are paid off...they do NOT stop charging the tolls. It becomes a cash grab for the state.

Yea, that's the world needs. More freeways and induced demand. Who needs livable cities with quality public transit when you can drive along concrete wastelands and even get the pleasure of sitting in traffic... Now, I do like driving, but I also really love the option to not have to drive, but instead use trolley systems and subways that are clean and efficient (provided managed and properly funded). Of course, that's something the wealthy, the car industry and fossil fuel industry really don't like I lived and worked in the DC for a long time. The city finally came to their senses and realized that putting back the trolley system that was torn out by the car industry many decades ago was a good thing. It helps revitalize the city and brings back small and medium sized businesses and encourages walking. An activity we humans evolved to do

The reason for the lack of sidewalks is that most of the boulevards were built around the 50s, and were widened later on to make room for bus/bike lanes newer car body styles. I'd be willing to bet more of them had sidewalks back in the day

I'm just finding ur channel and I gotta say I love this episode so far really thorough

When I was driving through Texas and was zooming down a highway legally at 85mph, It truely felt like a speed LIMIT.

This is pretty off. The toll road 130 in Austin was actually built by a private spanish company and not build by the Texas. Also the sprawl around highways serves as a buffer from locals and passer-bys and it works great!

The new entrance and exits ramps part is perfect. I remember coming down I-35 in Austin and the traffic backed up because of an accident ahead. Just watched all them jump through the grass. 😂

The toll roads in Austin aren't used because they are very expensive and don't allow you to pay as you get on and off. When you get on them they take a picture of your car and then you have to wait for a bill in the mail , that is normally very late, and they charge you for all of the time it took you to not pay, because it took them forever to send you the bill. It's a nightmare.

I’m shocked you don’t have more subscribers. Your content is top notch.

Great video. As a Soldier I have spent a lot of time in Texas (Fort Hood, Fort Sam, Fort Bliss, etc). I agree, I am not a fan of the effect of the access roads that run parallel to the Interstates. It results in one continuous strip mall.

A new Road Guy Rob video!!!

Pedestrian's sounds like a new barbeque place

Bad would be a massive understatement. Add to everyone who goes for an operators license WILL get one. The bad driving is pervasive....

I live in Texas and I feel really uncomfortable on those 2 way feeder roads.

As a North Dallas resident, I hope you enjoyed your time. :)

Something I didn’t hear mentioned: TX puts the first speed limit sign WAY too close to the intersection. Right about the time you have navigated the turn, dealt with your fellow turners and the traffic with which you are merging, and it’s safe to look for a speed limit sign… that sign is in your rear view mirror. Every time. So then you get to take your eyes off of the road to check a navigation device, or just hope that you meet a sign before you meet a cop.

I like the videos you post. You definitely explain things well from an engineering standpoint. Have you ever considered going over maintenance operations and incident response? It's not uncommon for reporters or researchers to go on a ride along to get a better understanding or make a story on what the crews do.

People: noooo you cant just build 5 separate freeways at the same time TexDot: Haha north DFW go zooom

Moved to Tx few years ago. To me its the insane speeds people drive here. A normal wreck that is survivable in say, Vermont , is deadly here as people love to speed and flaunt the laws. You want to talk bad roads.?. Do a show from Louisiana.

Not gonna lie: this was one of those videos I started with mild interest, with thoughts of, "oh, what's next" already swirling, but, by the end, I was wanting for more. Well done!

Many places around DFW don't have sidewalks on purpose. Lots of cities wanted to purposefully discourage walking & zoned land near highways as commercial to encourage automobile traffic. We'd love to have sidewalks now (and many places are slowly building them), but historical zoning practices mean that there are not a lot of employment or shopping opportunities close enough to where most people live for there to be a lot of demand for sidewalks outside of recreational purposes (ie, they get put in in newer neighborhoods and in older ones with the tax base to afford it). Almost every main road near where I grew up has a well-worn dirt path from all the people who had no choice but to walk anyway.

Sitting in the drive thru of that whataburger shown at 3:38 watching this for the first time like hold on wtf! 😂

The layout of Texas highways is actually quite smart. Having frontage roads along the highway intentionally encourages the commercial development to stay along the highways. It means that trucks don’t have stray very far from the highway to access businesses. It also discourages residential developments being placed directly along the highway. Since the highways are buffered from residential areas by the commercial zones, there’s less need for noise walls to be constructed.

God, this urban design is so depressing. Mass capacity roads and freeways deliver nothing of the sort. You end up with these vapour ware exurbs. Where you cannot get anywhere except by a car.

Thank you. Your video was clear and to the point and you made it even a little entertaining somehow. Good video transitioning between yourself and other clips (I feel too many youtubers are either lazy or self absorbed by keeping the camera on themselves the whole time)

I've lived in Texas all my life and I was not aware that feeder roads were just a Texas thing

I’ll be real with ha. I haven’t even watched even a minute of this video. I’m from Louisiana and driving in Texas is like driving on velvet for us.

I agree. Those feeder roads are a pain in the ass, especially when using a GPS on the freeway. The feeder is so close to the freeway it can't always tell which one you're on. Fun to be on the freeway and get an announcement, "turn left at the intersection". 😅

This is such a good video, both for info and intertainment.