I moved to Houston, Texas in the summer of 2002. This was shortly after the city had lowered the speed limit around Houston from 65 mph to 55 mph in order to improve air quality. Coming from California, known for its oppressive traffic enforcement, I was amazed to see a near universal disregard for the new law. The attitude seemed to be, “I don’t like the new law, so I’m not going to obey it.” It was an outright revolt, and in response, the city raised the speed limit a few months later.
It was during those first few months that I started using the phrase “Driving While Texan”, or DWT for short, to refer to the Texan attitude towards driving that uniquely Texan combination of brashness, independence, creativity, and guts. Let me emphasize that DWT is not intended to disparage Texans. Most of the time, I use it in admiration for a maneuver that my overly regulated Californian mind would never have thought possible (or legal!).
This blog is intended to be a tribute to all the fun, hilarious, and beautiful aspects of driving in Texas. I hope that it’ll have a good mix of stories and photos, rants and raves, art cars and super cars (and trucks!). I have invited a few of my friends in Houston to make their own contributions. We want the entire state to be represented, however, so we encourage submissions from everywhere.
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Awesome. I’m gonna see if I can find any cool examples in the Capital Area this weekend…by car and by boat.