Learn to drive Seattle

[catbirdseat]

This evening around 9:30 pm, I saw one of the streetcars getting hooked up to a large tow truck.

[Dechristo]

mass transit husbandry?

[ClimbingPanther]

#2) Freeway traffic flow is proportional to how many cars can fit on the freeway. Save a tree and leave 1/8 mile space in front of you to teach the people behind you about environmentalism.

[archenemy]

#9) before changing lanes on the freeway, be sure to put on your blinker so you can watch fourteen people (all of whom were previously quite content in the lanes they were occupying) suddenly rush toward that spot you were intending to move into.

[ClimbingPanther]

#10) exception to rule #9 is when the car is cutting in line or entering out-of-turn. in those cases, graciously make room for it.

 

[yeah chucK, I agree, people are TOO nice in SEA!]

Edited December 21, 2007 by ClimbingPanther

[chucK]

I haven't noticed the blinker attractant thing in Seattle at all. In fact, totally the opposite. In Nothern Cali #9 was very applicable. Up here, most people are pretty polite about it. Sure, you get the occasional dickhead aggro numbskulls who feel the need to control as much area as possible, but compared to other places I've driven, PNW is relatively free of this type.

 

My sister moved from Portland to the Bay Area a while back and she remarked that she wondered if her blinkers were broken, as in Portland, you put your blinker on and people actually opened up a space for you. No such luck in Oakland.

[Hugh Conway]

[yeah chucK, I agree, people are TOO nice in SEA!]

 

#576 - When at least 40 cars are backed up behind you and the light has just turned green you must stop to allow the person heading the opposite direction to make a left turn.

[ClimbingPanther]

 

#576 - When at least 40 cars are backed up behind you and the light has just turned green you must stop to allow the person heading the opposite direction to make a left turn.

 

#577 - unless you are already stopped in the middle of the intersection, which is where you should be in the first place.

[archenemy]

exactly.

[chucK]

How about those folks that yield for you when you have a stop sign and they don't? Simultaneously unbelievable and incredibly annoying.

[Hugh Conway]

How about those folks that yield for you when you have a stop sign and they don't? Simultaneously unbelievable and incredibly annoying.

 

It's up there with Seattle Stoplight Chicken "you go first" "no, you go first" "no, no, you go first"

[EWolfe]

 

You know you're in trouble when all you see from behind the ballard driver you are following is a mop of grey and two gnarled knuckes well above said mop.

[catbirdseat]

I haven't noticed the blinker attractant thing in Seattle at all. In fact, totally the opposite. In Nothern Cali #9 was very applicable. Up here, most people are pretty polite about it. Sure, you get the occasional dickhead aggro numbskulls who feel the need to control as much area as possible, but compared to other places I've driven, PNW is relatively free of this type.

 

My sister moved from Portland to the Bay Area a while back and she remarked that she wondered if her blinkers were broken, as in Portland, you put your blinker on and people actually opened up a space for you. No such luck in Oakland.

Years ago, I took a ride with a fellow who'd recently moved here from New Jersey. His method of lane-changing was to steer into the adjacent lane and then hit the turn signal about half-way into the lane change. It was a sort of afterthought, just to make it legal.

 

I asked him why he did it that way and he said that in New Jersey if you signaled first, the driver next to you would see it as his cue to accelerate into your intended slot. He said PNW drivers would never be able to change lanes in Jersey.

[marylou]

How about those folks that yield for you when you have a stop sign and they don't? Simultaneously unbelievable and incredibly annoying.

 

That maneuver makes me violent. As does the "courtesy stand-off" at four way stops and unrestricted intersections.

 

Is there really anything so bad about the "right of way" rule? So simple and easy to follow!

 

See, I'm one of those people who thinks there should be some sort of testing and licensing program before people should be allowed to drive.