Because Arlington is between Dallas and Fort Worth, you do not want to be on the highways (I-20 or I-30) during the rush hour traffic. Most of the worst traffic is headed east in the mornings an west in the evenings. Find a way to use the multitude of large side streets to travel parallel to the highways, it can save you hours a month in commute time.

Since there is no public transportation/bus system in Arlington, you will find an abundance of car dealerships on all the main commute worth roads. There are several on both I-20 and I-30 (both run east to west) as well as Highway 360 which runs north and south and connects them. Even some of the larger side streets such as Cooper, Collins and Division have a plethora of dealerships from small mom and pop places to huge manufacturer's dealerships. Finding a car is not a problem, Deciding on which deal to accept from competing dealerships could be.

My driving highlight is during the spring, every spring. The sides of the highways, especially I-20, which is a main thoroughfare, are covered in wildflowers. It is common to be driving down the highway and see cars pulled onto the shoulder of the road and people climbing the sides of the hills to sit and take pictures in the massive stretches of Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush. My favorite memory is when my boys were in their early teens and we first moved to Arlington. I kept seeing people pulled over and taking pictures, so I loaded my three sons into the car one Saturday, took the camera and had them pose for pictures in the Bluebonnets. It is still one of my favorite pictures of them I have ever taken, even six years later.

Arkansas Lane is my favorite, because it dead ends into one of Lake Arlington's boating and fishing areas that has a park for picnics.. Arkansas Lane is a long street that travels East to West through a huge portion of Arlington. It crosses the majority of the main roads, but is never packed with traffic like the main roads. It passes by an amazing Farmer's Market style store named Green's Market, a few streetlights later there is an amazing nursery named Redenta's which caters to plants and trees indigenous to this area of Texas. Continue to follow it west and it dead ends into a beautiful park on the right hand side that has Jungle Gyms, picnic tables, a boat ramp, and fishing area for residents and visitors. There is a community center on the left hand side that is available for rent to corporate groups and even for family reunions, like the one our family had there in 2013.

My advice would be to take care of yourself as a driver first. Know well ahead of time when you are turning and plan accordingly to be in that lane with plenty of time. You may not get a chance to get over at the last minute.

It occurred me that I have not come across an auto dealer in Mansfield so far! I need my car serviced and I was thinking where the closest KIA dealer was, I realized that I had not seen any car dealers. So far I am not educated as to any specific concerns or things to be aware of in buying a car in Texas.

I don't have a favorite memory so much as I have an observation. I recently moved to the Arlington / Mansfield TX area. I have lived here for approximately 6 weeks having relocated from the Kansas City Metro area. Traffic here is hell! Not kidding. It is really all about you. At first I would give gap to allow others to merge onto the highway; however, I soon realized that the other driver was unsure of what I was doing. Did I mean it? Was I really going to let them over? I soon figured it out when I was trying to merge and no one offered the same opportunity. It really is take care of yourself and the rest will follow! I am an aggressive driver by nature so after a day or so I'm pretty confident driving on the highway/toll way/parkway, etc.

Walnut Creek. Within the city of Mansfield itself, this is the only street that I can use as a landmark. Almost everything I need is somewhere along this street or within a few blocks of it. I am severely directionally challenged so this is helpful to me! Mansfield is not built on a grid so navigation by memory for me could be interesting to say the least!