I’ll put a value judgment on people in town for SXSW. They appear to have no idea how to drive in a city that is unfamiliar to them. SXSW takes over part of downtown Austin for a week with music, movies and conference events at all times of the day and night, except a few hours in the wee of night.

Last night, I was driving home from work along Guadalupe Street at 10 pm. Usually people are starting to go out around that time, traffic would decent, but most importantly, it is a rather thoughtless drive. Stay in the middle lane, pay attention to the lights and nothing weird will come your way.

Not during SXSW. I almost hit a crowd of people after they walked into the intersection against the light with traffic heading toward them at 40 MPH. The next block, a car had stopped in the second lane from the left waiting for the two lanes to the right could clear so he could make a right hand turn, cutting off two lanes of traffic.

This continued most of my way home. I love SXSW, but don’t try to drive. Just walk or take a pedicab.