Houston's traffic may make you want to scream, and a new study might just give you a little validation.
The study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Audi found driving a car can be as stress-inducing as skydiving. The study found health vitals, skin conductance and face movements were similar to a person jumping out of a plane.
The study also looked at stress levels during more routine events, such as eating breakfast or attending an economics class at MIT. The study found the stress of driving far outweighed those typical events.
"We found that certain driving situations can be one of the most stressful activities in our lives," Kael Greco, project leader at MIT SENSEable City Laboratory, told The Car Connection.
One of those situations was getting sideswiped while driving through the streets of Boston. The study, which collected data over a year, found getting sideswiped was as stressful as skydiving.
The Road Frustration Index combines real-life data on traffic, weather, incidents and driver sentiments in 30 metros areas, including in Houston. Houston had an index reading of 35, or one point higher than New York.
The index found Houston drivers are far more frustrated than other U.S. cities, and the frustration level was on par with Chicago and Los Angeles. The index measured sentiment by looking at tweets about traffic in the area.