Day 5 of the 5 Days Of Consumer Pet Peeves - TxDOT and DPS Troopers

Posted on June 16, 2007
Filed Under Things That P*** Me Off |

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Here is Day 5 of my 5 Days of Consumer Pet Peeves. If you missed them, here are Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

Since both TxDot and the DPS Troopers are so closely related, I decided to lump them both together.

As someone who has to drive in the Houston Metro area daily, I’m on the receiving end of a lot of TxDot’s utterly stupid decisions. These have to be some of the most incompetent road planners in the country, perhaps the world. It’s my opinion that their road construction decisions are based more on kickbacks from contractor rather than the public good.

In a former career, I crisscrossed the country several times a month in a truck. I saw what other areas of the country did when they needed to expand their infrastructure. Many major cities will keep their roads open during the day and work on them at night, when traffic is the lightest.

Not TxDot! Hell no!

I can not tell you how many times I’ve seen 1 or 2 lanes shut down on a busy highway and there be no one working on that section. Just Orange barrels keeping traffic out of those lanes. Or how about their latest decision to shut down one of the busiest intersections in the State, if not the country, at Beltway 8 and the I-10 Intersection? You have to be smoking or drinking something really wacko in order to think that was a good idea. Or be taking kickbacks from contractors.

If memory serves me correctly, TxDot is made up of appointtees, not elected Officials. I also believe the Gov. appoints these individuals, but I could be wrong, let me know if I am. (this would make perfect sense though!)

Anyway, let’s move on to DPS Troopers.

As stated before, I’ve been to every State in this here Union and I’ve dealt with Law Enforcement in most of them. So when I say Texas has some of the rudest, most unprofessional State Troopers I’ve ever seen, I know what I’m talking about.

Now some of you are getting your panties in a wad because you think I’m issuing a blanket statement on ALL Texas State Troopers, I’m not, just the 1 to 2 dozen I’ve dealt with over the last decade.

Out of the dozen or so I’ve dealt with, about 8 have been because of a traffic violation (real and imagined on the Troopers part). Out of those 8 I can honestly say there were only 2 that were professional. One gave me a ticket and one didn’t.

The last 4 times I’ve been stopped, it’s been because of a seat belt violation. 3 out of the 4 times I had my seat belt on. When I tried to explain to the Troopers that I had a light grey interior with a light grey seat belt and that I was wearing a light grey shirt that matched the color of the seat belt, all but one understood.

The biggest jerk of the bunch was a tall, black Trooper who stopped me on Rayford Sawdust road last year for “not having my seat belt on”. His last name was something like Burreal or Burden it seems like. He virtually came unglued when I said that I did have it on. He made a real A$$ out of his self.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that I would have lost a lot more than the $135 fine by missing jobs, I would have gladly taken it to court.

Yes, I know the State uses this as an income generating tool, but it doesn’t mean the Troopers have to be so gung ho about enforcing it when it falls into a grey area.

Unless the have a “quota” to fill?????

I know it may seem like I don’t have respect for law enforcement, but anyone who knows me knows that isn’t so. But it takes a helluva man or women to wear a law enforcement uniform, especially a Texas State Trooper uniform, and not let it go to your head. Unfortunately for the good people of Texas, I don’t see that we’re getting the cream of the crop of Trooper graduates. And that’s all I have to say about that…..

Since I enjoyed this little 5 day series (yes, I know I missed a day, I was tired after getting home yesterday..lol) I’m going to give you fine readers one more day of my Pet Peeves, yes, that’s right, a BONUS Day!

So tune in tomorrow when I’ll give you Day 6 of my Consumer Pet Peeves - Self Check Out Kiosk

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Comments

One Response to “Day 5 of the 5 Days Of Consumer Pet Peeves - TxDOT and DPS Troopers”

  1. Death by Big Truck on January 17th, 2008 10:39 pm

    [...] Chicken Coops as truckers call them…has been an age old game between truck drivers and state police. This reporter acted like it was breaking news, I’m surprised they didn’t break into [...]

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