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Comment by pix128 | Hacker News Reader

> One company’s product lead pointed to thick traffic and unreliable public transportation. Another transplant cited the city’s 100-plus-degree heat, in what was one of the city’s most brutal summers since 2011, when only two days in July didn’t hit triple digits.

Clearly not the brightest bunch it seems.

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I was in SFO 2 weeks ago during a layover and overheard a guy talking about being on his way to Austin to do a final walkthrough of the house he was building there. As a Texan with with over 30 years of living in Austin under my belt I asked him how much time he's spent in Austin before building a home here. "A few days he said." I asked him if he's aware of the temp difference between SF, where he declared being born and raised, and Austin and his response was, "Yeah, but it's so much cheaper."

This was a week after eavesdropping on a man at a concert venue talking to someone about recently moving to Austin from SF and being stunned at how little there is to do here. How when he lived in SF he could easily get to the mountains and the beach and there were museums and events outside of Austin's limited music and BBQ scene.

All of that to say none of them are the brightest bunch. They move here because it's cheap and they visited during SXSW or ACL when it wasn't 120 degrees and they they thought "it's so cheap and fun here" without looking at the big picture.

They don't realize that outside of those festivals the music scene is mostly dead and has been replaced by comedy since the pandemic.

Lived in Austin 8 years. Music scene is great over on east 6th.

I've lived here (in Austin) for three years. My partner and I decided to move to smaller city in Washington state come November. There is a lot of things to like about Austin (and even Texas), but as someone who was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, I don't think I can live here longterm.

It's not just the heat, but there's definitely more unnecessarily oversized vehicles on the road with only a single occupant driving. I'll admit it may be all in my head and I only notice these things because I'm in a different environment, but it seems many people here don't user turn signals, run red lights, and are regularly looking down at their phone while driving their truck or SUV, all while driving 10-15mph over the speed limit in a residential area. /rant

> are regularly looking down at their phone while driving their truck or SUV, all while driving 10-15mph over the speed limit in a residential area.

I live in TN and this has been my everyday experience since I got my license in 2015.

Might simply be the new normal in all US cities then. Though more terrifying when it's someone doing it in a larger vehicle.

My dad lived in a Memphis, and his parents lived in Murfreesboro. I've done extensive driving in both of those areas, and the stretch of I-40 between them. My dad passed away a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen crazy drivers in TN that are as bad as the ones I've seen here in Texas.

Somewhat crazy, yes. But not as bad.

Regarding driver behavior, I feel the same way about the SF Bay Area for the past three years. I think the pandemic really did something strange to us. Whether it gave us faulty memories of a better time, or caused a regression in civic-mindedness, it is hard to tell...

I remember two things in the 80's.

People drove faster and more aggressively. That seemed to fade over 40 years but now it's back but the people doing it are reckless and stupid.

Drives in San Francisco drove fast with great awareness and competence. Now they drive fast without that.

Off by one error: Pedestrians have gotten really stupid.

Ehh I dunno about that. I’ve lived in Austin for 15 years and in Spokane before that. A lot of people in eastern Washington drive pointless gigantic trucks just like Texas lol, especially because of the snow.

I see a lot of those same driver behaviors in Washington, especially since 2020.

I don’t think it’s in you’re head. I’ve driven across most of the U.S. and have lived in major cities that are known for their traffic/bad drivers, and Texas, by a long shot, had some of the worst drivers I’ve seen across the U.S. Same experience as you, reckless speeding, drivers running red lights and making unsafe lane changes in massive pick up trucks.

This might have to do with an old law that was changed around 2008-2010ish that allowed permitted drivers to skip the physical driver’s test if they opted to learn through the parent taught driver’s ed program (the driver’s parents could essentially just sign a form saying the driver had enough hours of driving experience which would allow them to waive the in person driving test).

I've lived in the DC area, the Bay Area, visited NYC, and various other cities in the US. I lived in Brussels, Belgium for almost eight years, and in that time we visited many countries in Europe, including London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Paris, Rome, and Naples, among many others. I've also lived in Austin since 2006.

I wouldn't say the drivers here are the worst in the US. In my experience, that would be DC, NYC, and the Bay Area. The bigger cities seem to attract the worse drivers, and those are like bad apples that spoil the bunch. Because Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio drivers are all worse than Austin drivers.

But US drivers are not anywhere remotely as close to the bad drivers in Europe. My skills learned the hard way in Brussels stood me in good stead when we went to Paris and Rome, the two places where I've seen the worst drivers I've ever encountered.

Yes, Texas is the land that inspired the Canyonero, and other giant size SUVs. Today, I'd be terrified to drive anything that wasn't nearly the same height, even if it's not nearly as long. And yes, Austin has the worst stretch of Highway in the country, known as I-35. Anyone who has driven in Austin for any reasonable period of time knows to avoid I-35 like the plague. But MoPac and 360 aren't all that much better -- especially with all the construction that is and will continue to be happening on 360 for the next several years.

IMO, the drivers aren't the big problem here in Austin. The big problem would be the combination of the extreme temperatures (both hot and cold) and the continuing piss poor performance of ERCOT, the organization responsible for running the Texas electric grid.

There are plenty of good things to do here, except when things like SXSW comes to town. That's when you want to make sure to take your vacation and get at least 50-100 miles away. And good live music is happening all over town, not just down on the tourist-happy 6th street.

It’s said only people who can’t successfully live in SF move there.

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