I'm visiting my hometown of Houston after now having lived in SF for just under 3 years, and my partner and mine most common debate thread as we sit in Houston traffic is - what did Houston do differently, to get these uniquely Houston traffic problems? Is it "Houston's" fault, or the fact that it has an extra 2 million people? Does it actually have 2 million more people, or did it just octopus across the entire region to a ridiculous point and thus inflate its population numbers (really, does Clear Lake count as "Houston?" parts are nearly 20 miles away, and can take an hour or even two to get to on a straight shot freeway).

Here's some questions we argue:

1. Where's the money coming from? We see massive Houston mega-projects, huge new freeways built on top of massive existent ones. Yet there's no gas tax, no state income tax, and I don't remember there even being a city income tax (that was several years ago that I worked here though). So who's paying for the new freeways?

2. Why do cars clump at exits? Why do Houstonians sometimes spend 15+minutes at a total standstill waiting to exit? Is it because of line cutters (culture of driving)? Is it because of people reacting violently to line cutters (culture of driving)? Is it because of poor design? Is it as the Houston Chronicle has argued and due to feeder roads, a feature that doesn't exist outside of Houston/Dallas (and thus is a strong contender)? Is it simply because the population is massive and driving is the only viable option to get around, and thus the roads are always clogged? Is it actually an issue in San Francisco, and we simply don't notice because we drive motorcycles (unlikely, but I will pay extra attention when we return)?

3. Why the fuck did i-45, in the middle of a 50 year construction project, suddenly swap out freeway-going-under-bridge design in the Clear Lake area for freeway-is-a-bridge design? Now it's terrifying to drive the speed limit over those bridges because you might smash at 65mph into a half-mile exit-clump line.