(Also not from California.) The thing I noticed the most in Texas wasn't a "rule", but just how the highways are constructed...so many frontage roads. Using frontage roads for almost every highway really seems to be specific to Texas.

@user3067860 Common in Montana and the Dakotas. Think it's just a rural thing

@AzorAhai-him- Texas has them in the middle of cities, like downtown Dallas has frontage roads...split so that it's two one-way roads with the highway in the middle and ramps on and off the highway every few blocks. On the really big highways the "frontage road" is practically its own highway with several lanes each way, I almost expect them to put another frontage road for the frontage road. It's worth looking up a satellite map of Dallas or Houston just to see it.

@user3067860 I saw this in Arkansas where the frontage roads were two way. The off ramp from the freeway onto the frontage road cuts straight across the oncoming lane of the frontage road at an angle, so you can easily exit the freeway without slowing down. The oncoming traffic has a stop sign, but it always freaked me out exiting the freeway like that,

We don't have frontage roads in Texas. We have feeder roads.

FWIW in the UK we have "merge in turn" signs, with an illustration that's more variable than most of our road signs - but note the URL for that link; some in the UK do refer to it a zip merging, though that's very rare.

Texas, it's a whole 'nother country.

Frontage roads are because the freeway was laid on an existing roadbed, and the existing road provided access to all the properties, and the freeway does not. The owners are entitled to the access they had before, otherwise it's a regulatory taking (rendering their land inaccessible) and the state would have to pay for their loss-of-value like a normal eminent domain taking. So what is cheaper? Eminent domain what will now be a landlocked property (ideally sell it to adjacent landowners), or build frontage, er, feeder roads?

The Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that zip merging is the most efficient. Americans: "Well, good for the Vulcan Science Directorate".

@Harper-ReinstateMonica Not sure where you're going with this. My main point about the access/feeder/whatever road thing was that it's a different driving experience if you're used to most/all highway access being through another type of interchange (in my area, cloverleaf-style interchanges), so someone who's traveling to Texas may want to familiarize themselves with the frontage road type of interchange. Just like someone going to New Jersey should prepare themselves for jug-handle style intersections.

Yeah, that link goes to a site that requires disabling your ad blocker, which I'm not going to do; but that said, I'm kind of wondering how appropriate that remark is. At least some people might interpret it as racist. Personally I don't know one way or another, because I'm not going to mess with that site to see. But if it is, just know that most such racists, in my experience, have a problem separating what they see on TV from reality and are actually quite ignorant themselves. They just "learn" from things like TV, FB memes, and what they hear their friends say, not legitimate sources.

And personally, I am getting sick and tired of seeing it on Stack Exchange. When I worked in Japan, I suffered fairly severely from anti-American racism and discrimination - not from Japanese themselves normally, but generally from other expats instead. These people thought they were perfection itself, but at the same time, they lied to, manipulated, and cheated their own customers, and they were horrible with how they treated children.

They had no problem calling us Americans "ignorant and stupid", but they themselves knew fairly little about the world, they were only in Japan so they could take advantage of it, and they treated my students like animals. I am potentially going to start making a big issue on SE about this apparent surge in racism directed at Americans that's getting littered throughout comments and so on. Still, I'm not really sure whether this specific comment is racist - this one may be perfectly fine; it's hard to tell - but I'm certainly seeing it in much more clear-cut cases elsewhere throughout SE.

Virtue signaling much? Look at you, whipping yourself into a frenzy about racism. I run adblocks too and the site didn't block me. But my link was actually about the trope where high-falooting academics say something must be a certain way, and those in the field have a completely different experience. It has nothing to do with racism. And you started this palaver @panzercrisis, and shame on you. Apologize.

People, remember, keep it on topic (the answer) and keep it nice.

In fact here is 100% of the relevant content on that page: It's a quotes page quoting from a Star Trek episode: "Sub-Commander T'Pol: The Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that time travel is impossible. Captain Jonathan Archer: Well, good for the Vulcan Science Directorate." The point being, Archer has recently had experiences which contradict the highest academic community in the galaxy.

Well, that's why I left a disclaimer for your comment and said that your comment may have not had that problem, and I did so towards the beginning and the end. I said that I couldn't tell one way or the other where yours stood, but that SE in general was having a problem recently

No @Panzercrisis you DO NOT get to "disclaimer" that. Calling someone racist is calling someone racist. There's no halfway setting on that.

In terms of virtue-signaling - I was simply saying it was a problem that needed to be dealt with, and that the people who do meet that description need to think twice about their opinions.

Bottom line you had no reasonable basis for assuming AND SAYING what you assumed AND SAID. You say you couldn't see the page, OK, but you could've googled "The Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded" to see what that trope was really about. Or you could have simply asked me.

Instead, you chose to attack me as a racist.

No, there is no halfway on that. You have admitted you have a huge "pet peeve" here, and you have stated a masterplan to go around doing this all the time on StackExchange. Well I certainly hope this experience has told you to f'in stop, or at least get your facts straight before you run your mouth.

The simple fact that you had no capacity whatsoever go give me the benefit of the doubt is what I find most offensive, honestly.

And yes, you damn well did call me a racist. You didn't rant "into the wind generally" about some issue you had on SE. You attached it to MY comment. You targeted it AT ME.

I feel like, to you, I'm not even really a person, you don't care about the personhood within me, to you I'm just a punching bag. Isn't that exactly the kind of "othering" that bothers you so much?

SMH again, you can't just stick some weaselwords in front of an accusation and make it not one. Your words matter. Your words hurt.

I haven't reported you to the mod team, but I'm fairly sure they're aware of this discussion. I note that you did report me entirely falsely.

The reason I didn't report you is that my tactic is to persuade in debate, not use force.

Well, I have come back after all, just to say this one thing: I am sorry I was not more clear that I wasn't ranting about you. Sorry for the lack of clarity in the way it was worded. And I certainly didn't raise a flag, if that's what you mean. But unfortunately the lack of clarity is the main thing I can apologize for.

Well, let me edit that, sorry

If I had a sense that your comments were truly general, that I wouldn't have minded. If there's anything to take from this, it's that you cannot say enough that "it's not about them". I've tried and tried, trying to steer novices away from electrical mistakes, and it's really hard.

I have just taken to a Kanye-West-snatching-mic approach, and say "Hey, I know it's unrelated, but just give me a minute and let me rant my rant" and then I go into it lol.

Sorry, I'll try to keep this in mind moving forward.