Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Driving in Seattle
After nine months in Seattle, I've gotten acclimated to driving here — although habits learned from more than twenty years of Boston driving don't disappear quickly. I still assume that the other guy is going to do something stupid.
Seattle drivers are a different breed. They make eye contact. They follow the rules in four way stops. They rarely (never?) use their horn. They're polite to a fault. For example, say that an aggressive driver decides to use the shoulder of the road (aka "breakdown lane" in the Northeast) to avoid backed up traffic. When he gets to the head of the line, he puts on his blinker indicating that he wants to merge. And what happens? The adjacent car in line stops, makes an opening and lets him merge. No honking horns. No middle finger salutes. No shouting of epithets. He's just allowed to merge right in. The first time I saw this, my jaw dropped. And then I saw it again and again. That would never happen in Boston. Fortunately it's a small minority of drivers who exploit this politeness. Maybe it means that courteous driving rubs off? If most people are polite, it's less likely for someone to break the rules?
Update: Politeness does work, at least according to this article.
Seattle drivers are a different breed. They make eye contact. They follow the rules in four way stops. They rarely (never?) use their horn. They're polite to a fault. For example, say that an aggressive driver decides to use the shoulder of the road (aka "breakdown lane" in the Northeast) to avoid backed up traffic. When he gets to the head of the line, he puts on his blinker indicating that he wants to merge. And what happens? The adjacent car in line stops, makes an opening and lets him merge. No honking horns. No middle finger salutes. No shouting of epithets. He's just allowed to merge right in. The first time I saw this, my jaw dropped. And then I saw it again and again. That would never happen in Boston. Fortunately it's a small minority of drivers who exploit this politeness. Maybe it means that courteous driving rubs off? If most people are polite, it's less likely for someone to break the rules?
Update: Politeness does work, at least according to this article.
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