A Commute

While those of you in the Pacific Northwest understand how poor drivers are, I know some of you don't believe me when I say that drivers here are the worst I have come across in the United States. Sure, folks complain a lot about drivers in New York or Los Angeles, but those are aggressive drivers, and their behavior is pretty predictable-leave enough space for a car to merge into your lane, and it'll happen.

When I do drive to work, it's a 4.3-mile commute each way. With no traffic it takes about 10 minutes to get to work, but when there is traffic, the same route takes about 45 minutes, which can be shortened to 30 by taking an alternate route. I wait until after most of the traffic has died down, but by no means does that mean there aren't poor drivers on the road. For example, my drive home last night (yes I'm a grad student so I work weekends):

Mile 0.4: The driver in front of me stops at a green light for no reason, and stays stopped while the light goes from green to yellow to red 5 seconds later.
Mile 0.9: A driver with a green light waves a pedestrian to cross the intersection in front of the car (Seattle drivers are notorious for screwing up right of way at the expense of safety). There are two left turn lanes at the intersection. I'm in the left one, and the person in the right turn lane always cuts in front of my lane in the turn itself and after the turn starts driving in the lane where the left left turn lane turns into instead of the lane the right left turn lane turns into (2 lanes per direction on that 4-lane road).
Mile 1.6: There's a bus stopped at the bus stop in the right lane, and I'm driving on the left lane. All of a sudden the car in front of me slams on the brakes and allows everyone in the right lane behind the bus to merge into the left lane until the bus moves again. (Seattle drivers are notorious for screwing up right of way at the expense of safety, again)
Mile 2.4: I'm behind a car going 25 in a 35 zone so I move into the other lane to pass, but as soon as I pull alongside the car, the other driver all of a sudden starts going 35.
Mile 3.4: Same as mile 2.4, except someone going 25 in a 40 zone.
Mile 3.8: At this intersection, the road I'm on has a left turn lane in both directions. However, most drivers use this as an opportunity to expand their own lane into the left turn lane while going straight through the intersection and to continue using the opposite direction's left turn lane as part of their own lane.
Mile 4.3: At the turn into the complex I'm living in, the middle turning lane has a clear demarcation for when each direction has a left turn (instead of fair use for both directions). However, this doesn't stop the car opposite me to use my left turn lane to get into their left turn lane while I'm approaching the turn with my indicator on.

While Seattle driving is bad, not everything else is-like these pictures I took when I went to Grand Teton national park earlier this month:

(Click to Enlarge)

(Click to Enlarge)

Edit: and now, for the second time in the last 4 months, someone has managed to hit my parked car...

The Amazing Drivers of Seattle

I'm not exactly sure I can pinpoint why Seattle drivers are so bad, but they're pretty bad and getting worse. Actually I can hazard a guess, and it might have something to do with how politically correct things have to be around here and how that mentality of self-importance and self-confidence regardless of actual ability and reality translating to the road. It's one thing to know that you're an awful driver, but of course here in Seattle no one is willing to admit that and everyone keeps driving like a lunatic.

Driving in the Seattle area is an exercise of hyperawareness and anticipation, where I've come to anticipate everyone driving poorly in just about every aspect. Sadly these are things I see on a daily basis that I feel that I haven't experienced on a regular basis in other locations.

• Turning out of the wrong lane-I'm really not sure why you think it's a good idea to make a right turn out of the left lane or a left turn out of the right lane.
• Turning into the wrong lane when there are two left turn lanes (or right turn lanes)-This one really gets me since there's one of these when I drive home from the office.
• Not making wider turns-This is also a huge problem with two turn lanes, as the car in the outside lane will always cross in front of the path of the car on the inside lane, regardless of which lane the outside car will take. This also applies to parking, where drivers will always get really close to the car in the next space on the inside of the turn because they start turning too early. This also results in almost every car angling towards the direction where they came from instead of fitting straight into the space.
• Not yielding-There's an on-ramp that merges with the off-ramp I use to go grocery shopping, and no one will yield to the cars on the off-ramp. Instead they just keep going and for some reason I'm the one that has to fit to their spacing.
• Matching speeds-Speaking of on-ramps, most drivers will not reach highway speeds on the on-ramp, instead choosing to coast at around 45mph and then try to merge on the highway.
• Tapping the brakes-Drivers tapping the brakes before intersections where they have the right of way really baffles me. The light is green all the way but before the intersection there's a fair minority of drivers that will tap their brakes.
• Last-minute lane movements-There's a particular street that's three lanes with the right lane becoming a separate road that's part of my commute to work. Every time without fail during the last block there will be multiple cars from the other two lanes trying to move over to that right lane, and sometimes the majority of cars leaving the road will do that. It's almost possible that before the previous red light they can go over to the right lane instead of trying to cross through everyone.
• Blind spots exist?-Blind spots are a myth to many here as well, as someone will try to cross into my lane when I'm in their blind spot, especially on the highway when I'm passing them. Excessive use of the horn has occurred multiple times.
• Going excessively slow-It's one thing to go above the speed limit, but when there's no traffic and everyone's going 10 below...
• Disrupting traffic flow (other than on-ramps)-Instead of the mentality being "I'll make the turn when it won't disrupt flow" it's "I'll make the turn and it'll be alright if that car slows down". Pedestrians and cyclists also take this route when crossing the street.
• Headlights and turn signals exist for a reason-The lack of turn signal usage seems to be a general epidemic, but the lack of headlight usage really seems to be a Seattle thing, especially when I drive home from work late at night (like I'm about to do now).
• Red lights also exist for a reason-I feel like this one is pretty obvious. I've even seen the police here run red lights after stopping at the intersection.

Unfortunately this is only a sampler of the poor driving, as there are many more things that occur on a daily basis anytime I drive (and it's only a 10-mile round trip to the office...)

Watching Car2Go

Being in Seattle I've constantly complained about the driving of the local residents, ranging from their inability to use common sense or the expectation that drivers don't anticipate anything. Of course, anecdotes don't really mean anything since they don't pool any statistics or trends, and these observations cover a ridiculous range of driver mishaps. Common observations range from the inability to park without the car being angled towards the turn from which it was made to changing lanes at the latest possible moment to make a turn or merge off a highway instead of anticipating ahead of time, and more mind-boggling happenings involving right turns out of the left lane.

Something that really does mark the poor ability of Seattle drivers is their use of the rental service car2go. car2go is a rental fleet of Smart cars that don't require reservations and are charged by the minute. To rent one, you use a smartphone to locate a car and basically enter it to begin your trip; ending the trip by parking the car. However, the parking the car part seems to give a lot of people trouble. The guidelines are not that complicated.

In Seattle, you may park in any non-restricted curb side parking throughout the car2go Home Area as well as any Restricted Parking Zone location. You can park at all parking meter locations without having to feed the meter but may not end your trip in spaces limited to less than 1 hours. You are allowed to park and end trips in 1 hour or greater restricted parking zones. 

Non-restricted curb side parking areas are basically street parking areas where parking is allowed 24 hours a day. Most restrictions to restricted curb side areas generally prohibit parking during rush hour, so car2go vehicles cannot be parked in those locations. Restricted parking zone locations tend to require a sticker on your car allowing you to park in that particular zone during specific times (for example in residential neighborhoods near the university during home football games). Given these restrictions it's not too difficult to park a car2go vehicle at the end of a trip.

Naturally, given all things Seattle and its anti-establishment mindset, parking rules are for suckers. My office sits right next to a tow lot, and most days about four or five of these vehicles will be sitting in the tow lot. We tend to get a good laugh every time another vehicle is brought in, as the last driver will be charged by car2go for the towing fees, which are significantly higher than the $.41/min rate that could have been spent to find a proper parking spot.

In somewhat related news, BMW will be bringing ReachNow to Seattle, a competing service that plans to utilize BMWs and Minis. It plans to charge more ($.49/min) compared to car2go ($.41/min), so now you'll know who's more willing to spend an extra 8 cents per minute to look suave.

Paseo and Un Bien

For those of you who are familiar with Seattle's food scene, Paseo closed down and reopened under new ownership, and Un Bien opened under the direction of the son of the former owner of Paseo (or something to that effect). Both have essentially identical menus (at least for the important stuff) and pricing, so naturally I had to go visit both so see if either of them were able to conjure the magic of the old Paseo.

Paseo seemed to try to replicate everything as is to ensure the continuity of the brand-the sandwiches are more or less the same size (maybe a little smaller-still around a food) and the amount of onions is still gratuitous, creating the hot mess that we all have come to know. I tend to order only the scallop or the fish of the day sandwich, and so far I've noticed few changes, if any. However, I've been told by others that the signature Caribbean roast sandwich is drier than it was previously.

Scallop Sandwich at Paseo (Click to Enlarge)

Un Bien, on the other hand, seemed to try to start anew. The sandwiches are much smaller (maybe around 8 inches), and the onions are not overflowing. Overall the sandwich is much cleaner to eat and appears to try to appear as higher-class food, despite the shop essentially being a shack on the side of the road. I was a little disappointed in the portion size and the lack of onions, though I suppose they're only trying to maintain the flavors of Paseo without the huge greasy mess. There weren't that many scallops in the sandwich, but they were cooked just as well here as they were at Paseo. I've been told that the same signature Caribbean roast sandwich has much better meat at Un Bien.

Scallop Sandwich at Un Bien (Click to Enlarge)

I'd still personally recommend Paseo if you're still looking for the old Paseo, but Un Bien does bring another option to the table if Paseo is too messy.

Ski Dazzle!

This past weekend I attended Ski Dazzle, a nice ski and snowboard show here in Seattle. The event brings together representatives from many ski areas in the northwest region in addition to retail shops. There are lots of contests for free skiing packages and some decent discounts on both lift tickets and gear. Being relatively new to skiing in the pacific northwest, I was excited to see everything that was offered.

There is so much quality skiing in the cascades and rockies in the northwest that it was very hard to keep track of all the areas that were present. Of course visiting all the booths resulted in lots of stickers and trail maps, and I entered every contest in hopes that just maybe I'll be able to ski somewhere pretty awesome for free. I was also on the lookout for new gear, as the skis I have are at least six years old and showing some age. I was particularly looking for skis that worked on powder but still had some grip on groomed runs (so basically an all-mountain ski), as my skis were only useful on hard packed surfaces, making it difficult to ski in powder (like last season). In the end I walked away with a new pair of 170cm Rossignol Smash 7s with bindings, ski poles, goggles, gloves, and a jacket, all of which I wanted to replace gear that I had had since early high school or earlier.

New skis and poles (left) with the old gear (right) (Click to Enlarge)

With the new gear, particularly the wider skis, this skiing season in the northwest should be much better than last season.