Seattle Drivers vs. Pedestrians
I wrestle with myself often on whether I hate Seattle drivers or pedestrians more. It usually depends on whether I am driving around Capitol Hill or on I-5. I think that most Seattle drivers aren't from the city and as soon as they get within 10 miles of downtown they forget how to drive. This is in my radius of what I have to drive and deal with on a daily. The biggest area of deficiency I have seen is "Merging" into traffic. They might want to have a few hours dedicated to this in the traffic school manual. All you need to do is look over your shoulder to see if it is clear and if there is someone next to you then either speed up if you are driving faster then them or slow down if they are driving faster then you. It's that easy. The other big issue I have with Seattle drivers is that they don't know how to use the commuter lane and fast lane (that is the one on the farthest left). I miss California dearly on this one. I try to not tailgate as I hate it when people tailgate me but it is hard to do when you have traffic moving faster in the right lanes on the freeway. I can't even say that it is usually older people, women or Asian drivers as I have surveyed the violators and they cross the gamut.
Now, the pedestrians in Seattle really think they are drivers and will walk out in front of you with no car behind you just to make you come to an abrupt halt. What is the matter with waiting 2 more seconds for me to pass before stepping out from an unmarked crossing area?
I have actually seen someone walk on top of another car's hood for pulling out into the intersection to look around in order to take a left turn down Pike off Summit Avenue which is a bit tricky sometimes. If that was my car, the pedestrian would have had a karate kick to the neck. Seriously. I don't play. Remember if you ever see a dark grey Acura TL driving around Capitol Hill that is pulling out a little to look around the corner to see if a car is coming not to walk on or slap his window.
Pedestrians in Seattle also like to wear dark clothes and do the step into the street routine at dusk too and will always give you dirty looks even if you aren't wearing your night vision goggles.
Don't even get me started on Seattle transit drivers even though they are nothing compared to the Portland transit demons.
- Nostalgia B