'Camp in the woods, not in the left lane'

[Bicycle Bill]

We were promised flying cars, too.



-"BB"-

[datsunaholic]

And yes, I have to say that I have found Seattle and its surrounding area to be the most frustrating place to drive, until you accept the idea that everyone just gets on the Interstate and does 50 mph, except at "rush hour" (which lasts three or four hours), when everyone just gets on the Interstate. To park, apparently.

Well, not quite. Most of the time I'm getting run over doing 65 (limits in the urban area are 60) by those doing 70... and I'm in the right lane.

There isn't really a "rush hour" anymore. The roads from Tacoma to Everett (and the loop that bypasses Seattle through Bellevue) basically clog inbound to Seattle or Bellevue at 6AM and the clog lets go around 6PM. Outbound, the clogs start around 11AM and lets go around 7PM. There simply isn't any way around it. Seattle itself is hemmed in by water, with only one true North/South freeway. Same with Bellevue. There's no freeway bypass around the Seattle Metro area- in fact, the next North-South freeway is I-15 which is almost 600 miles east, in MONTANA. There are only a couple 2-lane Highways east of Bellevue before you hit the mountains.

This is far different than my driving experience on the East Coast. I managed to avoid toll roads by following cozy 2-lane highways or other non-toll roads all the way from Buffalo to Chicago (via Pittsburgh, even). The only real tollway I took were the New York Thruway (I-90), but I could have avoided the tolls by taking US20, route 5, etc. But I was kind of on a schedule, going from Porthsmouth NH in late afternoon and wanting to be in Buffalo the next morning. As it was I hit Buffalo way later than I wanted to.

The only place I found where the the traffic plugged up worse was Chicago. I was trying to go from Manitowoc WI to Evansville IN and idiotically tried to go through Chicago at 3PM on a Wednesday. Well, I got TO Chicago at 3PM. It was damn near 7PM before I escaped it. I should have taken I-35 around it.

[rubato]

Stuck in traffic? This could solve that problem!

Nice, great for picking up hitch hikers.


yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

oldr, I remember when the new LIE had the unheard of speed limit of 50 MPH. It was great improvement over the 40 MPH posted limit on whatever other road it competed with going into NYC.

The 40mph road was most likely Jericho Tpk (RT25) or Northern Blvd (RT25A).
IIRC the LIE is 50mph in Queens but out on LI it's 55mph but that is a "suggested speed".
The "real" speed outside of rush hour (and sometimes during rush hour) is about 70-75mph. The tickets start being distributed around 80mph. Cops are more concerned with HOV violations most of the time.

[Econoline]

Cops are more concerned with HOV violations most of the time.

We don't have HOV lanes anywhere in the Chicago area...so when I'm in another city and see traffic lanes with that designation I always think that those lanes must be for hovercars.

We were promised flying cars, too.