🚀 go-pugleaf

I live in Seattle also and find no problem getting to highway speed in
the very underwhelming vehicles I drive.  Maybe there are specific
ramps you are referring to, but it sure doesn't seem any different
than other cities (all US) that I've lived in.  (While visiting
Toronto several years ago, I did find some problems merging up to
highway speeds on the short uphill entrances to the elevated
freeway--QEW?)  The entrances/exits on the left, as well as right side
HOV lanes, are undesirable but a design necessity in dense urban
areas.

Although the nature of traffic here is gradually changing as more
non-natives relocate here, Seattle drivers are perhaps the most
passive drivers I've ever experienced.  Their timid merging has
nothing to do with an inability to accelerate.  It is a lack of will.
Throw into the mix the aggressive non-natives and it makes driving
here interesting.  But OTOH at rush hour you are basically confined to
20 mph.

On Tue, 30 Jun 1998 18:07:08 GMT, dmc@dmc.com (dmc) wrote:

>On Tue, 30 Jun 1998 08:28:29 GMT, whorning@pipeline.com (Walt Horning)
>wrote:
>
>> (1) make highways safe as poosible with guard rails down the middle
>>     when opposing lanes are too close (unlike here)
>> (2) driver training is mandatory. No training, no license
>> (3) let them drive fast enough to ease congestion and thus actually
>>     reduce deaths by increased limits or have none at all.
>
>A very large problem with trying to implement this (at least in
>Seattle) is that on-ramps often don't provide enough length for the
>average car to accelerate to the posted speed limit, let alone a
>higher speed.
>
>Merging in Seattle is ridiculous. People try to merge into 60 mph
>traffic at 40mph. The commuter lane (carpool) is often on the right,
>too. Since traffic tends to move faster in the carpool lane, people
>have to merge across high-speed traffic into stopped non-carpool
>lanes. Gee, why would that cause a problem?
>
>We just don't get it here in America.
>*--
>Daryl dmc
>dmc@brig-a-doon.com
>
>Remove the hyphens to reply