Traffic Awareness Month 2026: Changing Roads & Increased Traffic in Texas

Texas roads change in August. School zones switch back on, commuters return to offices as summer vacations end, and your evening drive steadily starts losing light as days grow shorter.

Every August, during National Traffic Awareness Month, safety organizations and government entities across the country band together to encourage drivers to be aware of the road around them, especially as they start to fill up and change with the season.

However, Texas roads have been changing outside of their annual cycles, too. Corridors throughout the state are seeing far more traffic than they did just five years ago, and that leads to increase congestion, sometimes exacerbated by ongoing highway construction across the state.

To recognize this event, we have been running a monthlong awareness campaign on our social media profiles, highlighting some key Texas crash statistics from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and what we can learn from them.

Texas Traffic Is Outgrowing Its Roads

Traffic volume across Texas metro corridors has climbed hard since 2021. TxDOT estimates roughly 330,000 vehicles a day now travel along I-10 through Houston, about 10% above the 2021 count. If your commute feels worse than it did four years ago, the numbers back you up.

The pattern holds in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, too. I-635 now carries about 273,000 vehicles a day, up 21.6% from 2021. SH 114 has become Tarrant County’s busiest road at roughly 277,000 daily vehicles, a 31% jump.

Austin’s stretch of I-35 handles about 188,000 vehicles a day. San Antonio’s I-410 sits near 251,000 as of 2025, holding roughly flat since 2021.

However, the sharpest growth is off the main freeways, and that’s where it is the most visible for everyday drivers as well. SH 249 in northwest Harris County jumped 235% in five years, from about 24,000 daily vehicles to now more than 81,000. San Antonio’s US-281 rose 129.7% over the same period.

Fort Worth’s Business 287 almost doubled with a 95% increase, Dallas County’s SH 161 gained 73%, and US-183 in North Austin rose 77%. If these roads are part of your daily commute, you’re sharing all of those lanes with thousands more drivers today than you did just five years ago.

Speed Makes Heavy Traffic Deadlier

Speed can turn a crowded road into a deadly one. TxDOT’s 2024 speed-involved crash report counted 118 fatal speed-related crashes in Dallas County and 86 in Tarrant County. That’s more than 200 fatal crashes in a single year from just two counties, all at least partially attributable to driving too fast on crowded roads.

Higher speed shortens your reaction window and stretches your stopping distance at the same time. The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Driver Handbook estimates it takes about a second and a half to see an obstacle or changed condition in front of them, process it mentally and decide to hit the brakes, and then move their foot to press on the brake and start the process of stopping their vehicle. The amount of distance it takes to do that changes drastically with a vehicle’s speed.

Traveling at 70 miles per hour with that reaction time, a car travels 154 feet, or 51 yards, before your brain can process the need to brake, and then another 233 feet to actually get the car to stop. That’s a total of 387 feet, nearly one and a half football fields, to bring your car to a stop. At 100 miles per hour, your thinking distance jumps to 220 feet (more than 70 yards), and your stopping distance increases to 475 feet, for a total of 695 feet (more than two football fields).

At those speeds, an increase of 30 miles per hour nearly doubles the total distance needed to stop a car. If your car is heavier (like a large pickup truck or SUV), or the roads are wet with rain, those stopping distances increase even further.

On a corridor moving 273,000 vehicles a day, you rarely have that kind of room to recover. Speeding that crosses into willful disregard for safety can be charged as reckless driving in Texas.

What the 2024 Fatality Numbers Show

City-level TxDOT data for 2024 shows how unevenly the toll lands across Texas metros. Houston, the most populous city in Texas, recorded 318 fatal crashes, 339 lives lost, and 1,519 people seriously injured. San Antonio logged 162 fatal crashes, 170 lives lost, and 686 serious injuries. Austin recorded 91 fatal crashes, 98 lives lost, and 400 serious injuries.

In each city, the death count runs higher than the crash count because one collision can take more than one life. This goes to show the importance of driving defensively and cautiously, whether you’re near your home or away traveling. Staying alert and making safe decisions behind the wheel could save both your life and the lives of others around you.

Why August Raises the Risk

Local schools going back into session, our state’s colleges reopening for the fall, and commuters heading back to the offices all happen within the same two-to-three week stretch. Safety groups and emergency service organizations use National Traffic Awareness Month to push road safety outreach during exactly that window.

School zones reactivate across Texas in the second half of the month. Buses stop and start on the residential routes you use, and student drivers rejoin the morning rush. NHTSA back-to-school safety guidance centers on stop-arm laws and child pedestrians for that reason.

Nature itself also contributes to this crash increase. Sunset moves earlier through August, so evening commutes start losing light as the month starts to draw to a close. A drive home that was in broad daylight for the last several months will start to dip to a low glare, then to dusk.

Distraction compounds all of it. Texas bans texting behind the wheel, and handheld phone use is also strictly prohibited for all drivers in school zones. Some cities layer even stricter hands-free rules on top of state law; Austin, for example, bans all handheld device use behind the wheel at all times unless your vehicle is legally parked.

Help End the Streak

This month is also a sobering reminder that the “streak” of infamy is still alive and well. Texas has not gone a single day without a traffic death since November 7, 2000. Over that stretch of now more than 9,400 days, more than 91,000 people have been killed in crashes on Texas roads.

TxDOT built the #EndTheStreakTX campaign to break that streak and improve road safety for everyone. Ending the streak comes down to the decisions everyone makes on every drive, no matter how big or small.

Here are a few safety tips to help you do your part to #EndTheStreak:

• Put your phone in the back seat or glove box before you start the car.
• Slow to the posted school zone limit during active hours, even when you do not see children.
• Leave four seconds of following distance instead of two in heavy traffic.
• Turn your headlights on for the evening commute as sunset creeps earlier.
• Build ten extra minutes into your morning so you are not making up time.

If a Crash Changed Your Life

Traffic Awareness Month is about prevention. However, if you were recently involved in an accident, we’re here to help you answer the next question: what your Texas car accident claim worth?

At Angel Reyes & Associates, we have spent more than 30 years representing injured Texans, with more than $1 billion recovered for clients. Our attorneys work statewide, take cases on a no-fee-unless-we-win basis, and answer the phone 24 hours a day.

You can schedule a free consultation today, and we can talk it through in English or Spanish.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.