Seattle Area Driving 101: Incompetence Rules the Road

Well we all know the NW is famous for the "You go, no you go, no you go" exchange that happens at 4-way stops. Let's just say that this is not due to the fact that drivers here are polite. In fact, it's because they are totally incompetent behind the wheel of a car. If you don't believe me then just do a search for worst drivers by state.

Not only does the greater Seattle area have some of the worst drivers in America, but their ranking has been getting worse every year! Some people say that the more experienced you get at something the better you should be at it. Well that's the opposite here. I have been driving for many years now and I can't believe some of the people who are allowed to keep their licenses. It's not a right, it's a privilege.

Now here's a list of all the crazy things I see daily on the road and my idea of how it should be:

1. Turn Signals: Apparently turn signals are optional here. Hardly anyone uses them correctly, if at all. They either leave them on for miles at a time, signal after a merge/turn as opposed to before, or they just turn/merge without a signal at all.

2. Speed Limits: I don't know where to begin with this. For the most part I drive the speed limit or 5-10mph over depending on traffic. However, a lot of people in the area will go 5-10mph under the speed limit. There are some who go 20+mph over as well who also tend to screw things up. You mix slow and fast drivers together on the same roadway and things tend to break loose. I had a feeling if we all maintained the same speed then there'd be far less accidents. (P.S. The left lane is supposed to be the "fast lane" used for passing).

3. Braking: Brakes are used far too often in the NW. Has anyone heard of slowing down by taking your foot off the accelerator or down shifting? You could avoid causing the person behind you slamming on the brakes every time you freak out because you need to slow down. I can see why Les Schwab has been doing so well in the NW for so many years. They are making a killing off the over use of brakes here. Here's a money saving tip people! Next time you're on the freeway and you see traffic slowing up or you need to get off the freeway, then just take your foot off the gas and/or down shift to a lower gear. You'd be amazed at how quickly your car will slow down without the use of brakes and you won't cause the person behind you to run into the back of you because you overreacted.

4. Freeway On-ramps: Apparently people here don't realize that they are getting on the freeway because every single time I get behind someone on the on-ramp I have to merge onto the freeway going 40mph as opposed to 60mph. Now you'd think that maybe the on-ramps are too short (which can be the case when those onramp stop lights are creating backups). However, when there's no traffic, and a 1 mile long on-ramp, I still seem to be behind too many cars who are going under the speed limit. This causes the cars in the lane you're merging into to slow down far too much and creates even more traffic.

5. 4-Way Stops: As stated earlier people seem to have no awareness as to how 4-way stops work. If more people took computer science class they'd learn how FIFO (first in first out) works. These days if I see anyone hesitate to go, then I just go myself. I'm not going to sit at a 4-way stop for 3 minutes while we play "you go, no you go, no you go."

6. Where Am I?: Far too often people just seem lost and confused. You see them merging into lanes that are ending or exit only then merging right back into the lane they came from. Other times you see a "lane closed" or "left turn only" sign miles ahead and they wait until the last possible second to get out of that lane and cause the entire other lane to come to a halt just to let them in because they weren't paying attention. Another thing I hate as much as this are people who "cut in line" when there's traffic. They feel the need to pass as many cars as they can before getting back into the lane they need to be in. This results in them saving roughly 10-30 seconds off their commute and adding time into every else's since they have caused the backup to get worse. Learn to zipper merge everyone!

7. Technology: This is probably rampant everywhere. Nobody can drive without the distraction of talking on the phone or texting. I avoid nearly all phone calls while driving and only interact with the radio, environmental controls, or voice commands when stopped. If everyone learned how to do this then they could pay more attention to the road and cause far less accidents.

In the end if everyone followed the basic rules of the road I can imagine accidents and traffic would be cut in half. It's not that hard to pay attention people!