It’s been about 9 months since I transplanted my entire life from Albany, NY to Redmond, WA.
Try and guess which characteristic of the Seattle area has made the strongest impression. Is it the scenery? The weather? The housing costs?
Oh no, none of those. It’s the fact that no one in Washington knows how to drive.
Now whining about this isn’t really going to make things better. So instead, I’m going to post some guidelines that I think every Seattle area driver should really take to heart.
- Somewhere on your steering wheel, usually on the left-hand side, you’ll find a lever. Moving this lever up or down will enable something called a “turn signal” or an “indicator.” But those are really just fancy words for “flashy light on the side of your car.” If you push up, the light on the right hand side will blink. If you push down, the left one will.
- Using the “signal” mentioned above, you can actually tell other drivers what you’re thinking. Like, “Hey, that’s my exit coming up. I really need to get to that lane over there.”
- If you’re thinking, “Brandon, I know what turn signal is. But why would I use it if I don’t see anybody in that lane?” The answer here is quite simple: Your use of the turn signal will provide extremely valuable information to the person you didn’t see.
- You turn signal doesn’t do any good if you only use it after you’re already halfway into your destination lane.
- If you see another car with a blinking light on the side of it, that does not mean you should:
A) Dash from behind him, into the lane he’s trying to get into.
B) Close the gap that you left while you were accidentally not tailgating the person in front of you, because the worst thing you could possibly do would be to permit someone else to get where they’re going, you asshole.
Study hard, because next week there will be quiz!
March 18th, 2006 at 4:59 am
Please make this into a weekly series. I would suggest a primer on how to merge into traffic for your next post.
March 18th, 2006 at 10:29 am
That seems like the natural next step =)
At some point I’ll have to have a lesson called: How to Design Roads, Highways, and On-ramps.
March 24th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Sounds like a bit of venting. Hope this the extent of your road rage.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Turn Signals are an option when you purchase a car in some states. They cost even more if your vehicle is bigger…
Here in MA if don’t choose to use turn indicators you join the legion of Masshole, if youturn on your indicator after you make a turn you are Junior Masshole… 
March 25th, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Road rage? Hardly.
Road rage is the woman that tailgates me because I dared pass her (shock! horror!) or the guy that honks or flashes his lights because I had the gall to let somebody merge onto the highway.
No, there are two problems here:
1) Lack of driver education
2) Lack of concern for other people
May 25th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
The worst is driving on 520 into redmond during rush hour. People dont know how to merge and change lanes in there. Its a common sight even seeing two rows of cars in the HOV lane trying to pass each other. geez
July 10th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Yes, the turn signal and definatly a quick head check would be a nice. I almost got taken out today on I-90,the guy could have avoided this by checking to see if I WAS RIGHT NEXT TO HIM beFORE he started to move me out of my lane!