Seattle Area Driver Sins (Kirkland, Mercer Island: school, campers, moving)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by revelated

I admit, I haven't been here long. But I'm appalled at what I've seen so far. Worse than San Diego had in over 30-some years of living there.

I'd like input on why people do these things. Is the driver's ed out here insufficient? Are the teachers just weed-smoking hipsters?

• Car exits, then apparently, suddenly, realizes they have taken the wrong ramp...so they BACK DOWN IT AND ONTO THE FREEWAY despite traffic conditions.
• Cars, bumper-to-bumper in traffic, suddenly hitting the gas and rear-ending each other. You had ONE thing to F'n do - KEEP YOUR FOOT ON THE BRAKE.
• Car, driving slowly, takes major single lane road. Passes 2-4 open parking lots and side streets....only to break down, blocking the major road. IF YOU KNOW YOUR CAR IS DYING ON YOU WHY ARE YOU NOT PULLING OFF ONTO A SIDE STREET?
• Cars catching fire - IN THE RAIN. It's not hard, people...WATER....COOLANT. Every 10,000 miles.
• When the weather changes - ONLY when the weather changes...accidents SPIKE. There were a total of NINE accidents on the way home today....within a 60 mile radius. CLEAR skies.

I've never seen any of this in Seattle. How many times or how often have you witnessed each of these? These are seriously weird. I've never seen any of that in New Mexico, either. California, maybe, but it's very rare.

[revelated]

Originally Posted by NWarty

You do realize you're the only people in the entire country that put "The" before a highway/interstate designation? Most people just call it 18 or 101 or 12 or 5 or 405 or 99.

You realize that Seattle people are the only ones that really care about such minutiae?

Is that why people out here needed weed legalized? To calm the hell down instead of stressing over a word that doesn't affect them any?

[revelated]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I've never seen any of this in Seattle. How many times or how often have you witnessed each of these? These are seriously weird. I've never seen any of that in New Mexico, either. California, maybe, but it's very rare.

Either you lie or you don't drive. Car fires are AT LEAST weekly on the 5 and at least monthly on the 405. Back down the ramp? Seems to depend on your area. Bellevue and that area don't seem to have that nonsense for whatever reason and Seattle doesn't have enough room to do it.

The other stuff, happens consistently.

[Ishbar]

I live in CT but will be moving to Seattle / Kings County area in September. The merging problem is an issue with most highways. I've driven in NY, MA, RI in addition to my home state, all of these areas have this issue. Zip-line merging is the most efficient way, and obstructs the least amount of traffic. Yet people are super adamant of doing it as soon as the dotted line appears.

I am guilty of it too, but only because the person ahead of me is using the Zip-line method, but also going 40mph and showing no signs of increasing speed. I downshift, blast into the lane to the left, and wind up ahead of them where they would have began to merge.

I'm worried about driving Standard (due to the frequent stops). I love my car to death, but stop and go is the worst. Especially if it's right at that 3mph to 10mph crawl where you have to go from 1st to 2nd to 1st, etc.

I drive like ~80mph, so dealing with people going 59 in a 65 is going to be tough...like, really tough.

[su6oxone]

Originally Posted by Ishbar

I drive like ~80mph, so dealing with people going 59 in a 65 is going to be tough...like, really tough.

Actually, we're still dreaming of a 65 mph limit... it's 60 max around these parts.

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by revelated

Back down the ramp? Seems to depend on your area. Bellevue and that area don't seem to have that nonsense for whatever reason and Seattle doesn't have enough room to do it.

I saw this today on 405.

[bad apples]

Originally Posted by revelated

You realize that Seattle people are the only ones that really care about such minutiae?

Is that why people out here needed weed legalized? To calm the hell down instead of stressing over a word that doesn't affect them any?

That and they want to give the appearance of being the most progressive people in the country. It's all smoke and mirrors.

[NCDavid]

I've driven in most major cities in the U.S., and motorists in every one of them claim their city's drivers are the worst. I actually discovered the REAL worst drivers in the country in Western North Carolina. I lived there for two years and almost every day had drivers come at me from the opposite direction driving way over the center line. They either drive 40 in the freeway passing lanes, or they tailgate the 40 mph drivers. Like most drivers these days, they never signal for turns, just make them a surprise for following drivers.
The last thing I saw before moving back to the West Coast was an elderly lady pull up to a stop light going the wrong direction on the four-lane highway, stop and stare with a puzzled look up at the blank BACK of the stop light.
Seattle truly has some of the worst traffic in the country, no doubt about it. But the worst drivers? Nah.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by revelated

Either you lie or you don't drive. Car fires are AT LEAST weekly on the 5 and at least monthly on the 405. Back down the ramp? Seems to depend on your area. Bellevue and that area don't seem to have that nonsense for whatever reason and Seattle doesn't have enough room to do it.

The other stuff, happens consistently.

But how stupid do you have to be to allow a car fire? And rear-ending someone in bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic? Never seen it anywhere, but I didn't do much freeway driving in Seattle. And here in NM there's only 1 city that has freeways. The rest is small towns. Haven't seen it in CA, either. That's seriously weird stuff. Unusual negligence.

[revelated]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

But how stupid do you have to be to allow a car fire?

All I know is, I've seen the following cars on fire that I can clearly recall:

• A Tesla. 405 Northbound just before Kirkland in the evening
• A 2010 Corvette. 405 Northbound just before Kirkland in the morning
• A beat up pickup truck. I-5 Northbound just before 516
• Some kind of van. 405 Southbound just after 522
• A 94 Nissan Sentra. I-5 Northbound just before 405
• A 95 Toyota Corolla. Right at the end of Mercer St tunnel from I-5 North
• A big rig (this one looks like it went out of control and hit a part of the southbound I-5 Express Lane. Shut things down for at least 5 hours in both directions)

Those are just the ones I specifically saw, mind. Of those the only ones not in rain were the van and the big rig. But there are tons of others that are cleared out before I get there, but they're clearly indicated on Waze and on WSDOT's Twitter feed, so I know they're there.

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

And rear-ending someone in bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic?

Blame people texting which runs rampant. They don't pay attention and all it really takes is a slip off the brakes. Which is why I don't like, even in bumper-to-bumper, a car to be too close to my rear. Too much risk.

To be fair, the bumper-to-bumper incident seems to only happen on the Express 5 Northbound, which is consistently jammed up, and people get bored and pull out their phones. Since moving south I haven't had any such problem (close though).