Just Got Back From Visiting Seattle. I'm Thinking About Moving There But I'm Very Confused? (insurance, college)

[TwoByFour]

In Seattle proper, going North-South is much easier than going East-West. The geography of the area is all oriented N-S due to the way glaciers slid down from Canada in the ice age. So always try to live North or South of where you work.

[Kayela]

I really feel for directionally challenged people here. I seem to have a built-in compass, so I can pretty much always get there as long as I know which general direction I need to go. I'll admit though - a GPS can come in handy when traversing some of the more complex routes. Personally I hate depending on GPS, so I've made it my mission to get to know the streets as well as possible. I'm originally from South Dakota, so I was initially as shocked as you (maybe more - I'm a farmgirl from the edge of the rez), but with a little time, a lot of calm, and a willingness to just get lost - it's not so bad. Once you know where you're going - it takes a lot of the stess out of it.

What's taken a lot more time is just getting used to the mental weight of being surrounded by 3x more people (in this one metro area) than are in my entire home state. When you grew up at the intersection of isolation & desolation - the sheer mass of humanity contained here is overwhelming at times. I typically deal with it by getting out in the mountains on weekends and hitting the trail. Even then I encounter more people on one hiking trail, in the space of a few hours, than I used to see in a week.

[SabrinaAne]

Originally Posted by st3mpy

What is it with East Coasters and their horn fetish? I'm serious, any problem they see on the road and it's "Aha! I know how to fix this problem! I'll honk at it!" *Hoooonnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkkk* *honk* *honk* *honk* *Hoooonnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkkk*

No different than a yappy chihuahua...

AND THEN, they have the audacity to say "I like Seattle because it's quiet."

Your post made me laugh. Living in Arizona (and being native to the state) I witness the annual influx of snow birds, many of them from the east coast, Oregon, and northern California. I have to say that I find the east coast out-of-towners to be pushy, impatient, and horn-happy. I used to like driving in my home state and, compared with living/driving in northern and southern California, Oahu, and England, Arizona drivers, though slow, were polite. Not so, anymore. I get honked at for going just over the speed limit. For not taking a left turn when the driver behind me thought I should (I've even had a few New Jersey plates actually GO AROUND ME on the RIGHT in a single left hand turn lane. My jaw hit the floor the first time that happened. And, yes, each time that's happened it has been a vehicle with a Jersey plate.) I've been honked at for not getting off the line 'fast enough' after a red light. Our state has a serious problem with red-light-runners. No way am I risking my family just to be first out of the gate! Anyhow....I've read a good deal of comments on the board about Washington drivers being polite. How refreshing! I should fit right in

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

It's actually illegal to honk the horn in WA state unless an emergency. The fine is $124.

it is legal to honk if you prevent an accident.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Botev1912

it is legal to honk if you prevent an accident.

Yes, that's considered an emergency.

Polite drivers? Yes. We have a 4 way stop a couple of blocks from the house so I go through it often, and you would be surprised how many times several cars are there an no one goes, waiting for someone else to go first. On the other hand, the recent installation of "roundabouts" drives me nuts. If you are going with the bulk of the traffic they work great, but coming in from the side you wait forever, and politeness doesn't
seem to apply on them.

[MamaRed]

Originally Posted by SabrinaAne

Your post made me laugh. Living in Arizona (and being native to the state) I witness the annual influx of snow birds, many of them from the east coast, Oregon, and northern California. I have to say that I find the east coast out-of-towners to be pushy, impatient, and horn-happy. I used to like driving in my home state and, compared with living/driving in northern and southern California, Oahu, and England, Arizona drivers, though slow, were polite. Not so, anymore. I get honked at for going just over the speed limit. For not taking a left turn when the driver behind me thought I should (I've even had a few New Jersey plates actually GO AROUND ME on the RIGHT in a single left hand turn lane. My jaw hit the floor the first time that happened. And, yes, each time that's happened it has been a vehicle with a Jersey plate.) I've been honked at for not getting off the line 'fast enough' after a red light. Our state has a serious problem with red-light-runners. No way am I risking my family just to be first out of the gate! Anyhow....I've read a good deal of comments on the board about Washington drivers being polite. How refreshing! I should fit right in

This made me laugh! Growing up in Palm Springs, we also get our annual influx of snowbirds. Washington and Oregon drivers are polite, but something happens to their turn signals when they come through our pass, and they stop working. Come to think of it, it's probably the snowbirds who caused the acceptance of the "California Stop." We tend to roll through 4-way stops because we know the NW license plates tend to not go until somebody else goes first.

We don't get a lot of Jersey drivers. Our "big city" drivers are from Chicago, but it seems they've gone to similar driving schools.

[Adrian71]

Originally Posted by SabrinaAne

Your post made me laugh. Living in Arizona (and being native to the state) I witness the annual influx of snow birds, many of them from the east coast, Oregon, and northern California. I have to say that I find the east coast out-of-towners to be pushy, impatient, and horn-happy. I used to like driving in my home state and, compared with living/driving in northern and southern California, Oahu, and England, Arizona drivers, though slow, were polite. Not so, anymore. I get honked at for going just over the speed limit. For not taking a left turn when the driver behind me thought I should (I've even had a few New Jersey plates actually GO AROUND ME on the RIGHT in a single left hand turn lane. My jaw hit the floor the first time that happened. And, yes, each time that's happened it has been a vehicle with a Jersey plate.) I've been honked at for not getting off the line 'fast enough' after a red light. Our state has a serious problem with red-light-runners. No way am I risking my family just to be first out of the gate! Anyhow....I've read a good deal of comments on the board about Washington drivers being polite. How refreshing! I should fit right in

True story I've shared on here a few times ...

My wife and I moved here from metro D.C., where people will honk at you and scream out their window if you don't jackrabbit your car through the intersection the split second the light turns green. When we came out here on vacation for the first time, we were crossing a street in Seattle and didn't see a car coming around a bend in the road. We were ready to jump back to the curb, but the driver actually CAME TO A COMPLETE STOP AND WAVED US ACROSS. We felt like we'd landed on some alien planet. If we'd done the same thing in D.C., the driver would have honked at us and flipped us the bird as he whizzed past us about two feet away from where we stood.

East Coast drivers, in general, seem really, really rude and uptight. I'll take four overly deferential drivers waving each other through a four-way stop any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[TwoByFour]

Many years ago there was a kid in our neighborhood who was killed at the corner not 100' from our house. He was in a cross walk when hit by a car. I will never forget going out there and seeing his tennis shoes still in the street - he was hit so hard it knocked him right out if his shoes. It was very sad. I try to stop for anyone trying to get across the street, in a cross walk or not. Sometimes people honk at me but know what, I don't care. People need to chill out a bit.

[ComputerProgrammer]

Originally Posted by TwoByFour

Many years ago there was a kid in our neighborhood who was killed at the corner not 100' from our house. He was in a cross walk when hit by a car. I will never forget going out there and seeing his tennis shoes still in the street - he was hit so hard it knocked him right out if his shoes. It was very sad. I try to stop for anyone trying to get across the street, in a cross walk or not. Sometimes people honk at me but know what, I don't care. People need to chill out a bit.

I agree they do and this and this is completely off topic here but yes we have aggressive drivers here too and I feel like I have to get this out of my system. As one person said here WA has a honk law where it's technically illegal to honk which I respect. Also something I've given thought too; in reality the state could do something about a lot of this if they wanted too in terms of aggressive drives.

In my opinion they should get absolutely brutal and tough on aggressive/road rage drivers. These people are a menace to society, there are way to many of them, and they incite violence on the road, they cause accidents, serious injury to people and even death; they are almost as bad as drunk drivers and people that text/talk on the phone while driving. Driving isn't a joke or a game; it's serious business where people's lives are at stake

They could enforce this by having cops that are out almost specifically to catch aggressive/road rage drivers.

They could do this by driving cars that look 100% normal. Aggressive drivers are easy to spot and they aren't hard to catch. A cop would simply have to drive around normally going the speed limit.

Then when this cop drives normally, when someone flashes their brights and honks at them for not going faster than the speed limit, or rides them 2 inches away from their bumper while going the speed limit, or swerves in front of them almost hitting them, the cop would simply flip on his/her lights in their normal looking car, get out, pop out their badge, and give the offending driver about a 600 dollar ticket for aggressive/reckless/violent driving. Then the offending drivers car should also be impounded until the fine is paid.

This is how you could pay for these "extra cops with no lights and normal looking cars designed to catch these aggressive drivers." Furthermore these fines should double. On your second offense it's 1200 dollars and and your car is impounded again until the 1200 is paid after the fine exceeds 5,000 from multiple offenses you just go to jail for a couple months.

If they were to enforce the law in a similar fashion to how I'm describing here they would soon end most of these aggressive drivers that endanger people's lives.

You can't catch them all, but it would be intimidating and effective at stopping these aggressive drivers if they have to wonder whenever they flash their brights if another one of these hidden cops might just pop out of the blue and give them a 600 dollar ticket and impound their car....so basically don't act aggressive or violent on the road because you'll soon have your car impounded...that's what they should do to enforce this in my opinion.

Speaking of that one thing that I noticed is almost nobody obeys the speed limit of 60MPH on the highways in Seattle like on I-5? Apparently it just isn't enforced or something? I don't know that's why I ask, but a law that isn't actively enforced is worse than no law at all, and it punishes those who DO obey the law in this case the speed limit.

[Botev1912]

If you think nobody obeys the speed limit on I-5 in Seattle, try LA, Miami, Vancouver BC, New Jersey, because everyone there is going 15 over the speed limit and nobody gets caught. I was in Florida recently and I was going 5 over the speed limit and everyone was passing me and was angry that I was driving so slow. Actually I think 90% of the drivers in Seattle don't go faster than 65 because there are so much police everywhere. You can't find a more strict place in the US.