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Factoid #10

by Scott Muoio

Question: how do you regulate traffic in a residential neighborhood? Answer: stop signs. Seattle answer: traffic circles! That’s right, pass through any residential Seattle neighborhood and you will be greeted by miniature gardens smack dab in the middle of nearly every road you drive. Why? Because it’s Seattle, dammit, and we do things a little different.

Rather than police the roads of Seattle with traffic lights, stop signs, yield signs, and the like as any other city would do, The Emerald City instead chooses the laissez faire policy coupled with the garden approach. “Let the drivers figure it out for themselves,” seems the Seattle traffic mantra, and boy do we ever, sitting in traffic, squeezing through narrow two way streets with parking on both, and generally weaving in and out no matter where we roll. For an outsider it may seem peculiar but when you consider a common Seattle driving joke it all becomes crystal clear:

Question: Four drivers arrive at a traffic circle and stop at exactly the same time. Who goes first? Answer: The driver from the east coast.

Aggression seems almost non-existent with Seattle drivers especially in the face of east coast pushiness. So why not let motorists figure things out themselves and enjoy a beautiful garden in the middle of the road while they do it? I say, “nice work, Seattle, you’ve done well once again!” Now if only the local government would rid us of the one still-practiced traffic light situation that makes no sense whatsoever, the one and done alternating red and green present at most highway entrances, then I dare say things would be pure gold. With that last remaining traffic dinosaur sent to extinction our little self-policing automobile world would be damn near perfect.

And as for the public transportation situation, which is similarly considered with the same hands-off mentality as private transport, well, that's a horse of an entirely different color.

Plans are in place for a humongous traffic circle near Green Lake! Woo hoo!

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Noted something strange or interesting in or about Seattle? Tell us about it. Email scottmuoio@undependentmedia.com

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