It never fails. Every time I leave the house early, there’s a massive crash on the freeway, it’s raining and Puget Sound people don’t know how to drive in the rain, there are a small collection of minor collisions, someone’s well out of traffic lanes and is changing a tire… Or something else. And the more I want to get to Seattle early, the worse the traffic is. Last month it rained. No collisions, but it took four hours to get to the office instead of the usual two and a half.
I should have known better. I had an appointment at the Toyota dealer for scheduled service. I shaved before I went to bed last night so that I could save time this morning. I left the house at 0500 – half an hour early, and intended to get to Seattle before traffic built up too much. So naturally there was a double semi crash that closed four lanes of the freeway at Northgate – it’s always Northgate – spilling 40 gallons of Diesel fuel and leaving on the HOV lane open and an 11-mile backup behind.
I turned on a news radio station and they suggested using the 99 as an alternate. After all, one of their colleagues got from Everett to Northgate in 20 minutes by taking the 99. Of course the 99 was backed up. Whenever I’ve tried to use it as an alternate, it takes longer than just staying on the backed-up freeway.
After taking over three hours just to get to Lynnwood, and what looked like another two hours to get to the office just off the West Seattle Bridge, I gave up. I called Toyota and rescheduled. I turned around for the 85-mile return trip.
But wait! There’s more! I’m getting near my exit. A car in the fast lane is doing the speed limit. By the time I could get around him, I was too close to the exit to pass the people ahead of me. I was behind a full-size pickup that wasn’t moving quite fast enough. He was slow enough that we both missed the light before the railroad tracks. When the light finally turned green (hey, at least there wasn’t a train) his 247-ton pickup accelerated as if it was powered by a run-out Yugo engine. Hard to pass on a two-lane road with long, inconvenient stretches of solid yellow line, but I got around him in under a mile. Home free! I turned at my turn, and was more than half-way to my next turn a mile away when he got to the stop sign. A minivan got to my turn before I did. It’s a 35 mph road, but most people do at least 40. This woman reckoned 33 mph was fast enough. I was hoping she’d turn ⅔ of the way down, but she didn’t. She continued. Crossing a street, the speed limit drops to 25 mph. It used to be a 35 mph road until the blue-hairs convinced the county it was too fast. Mini-van woman drives 25. So I’m stuck behind her until I get to my street – and still have to slow down because her house is on the other side of the T-intersection.
The traffic gods hate me.
(I still got home and logged on in less time than it would have taken me to make the last 20 miles to the office.)
I discovered in my work to home travels that if I pretend I don’t have to get home in a hurry, the traffic gods don’t put these problems in front of me. Another way would be to wait for a red light to call home. Traffic gods don’t want you to call home, apparently.
The other game I’ve found is tag team drivers: one slowpoke finally turns off the road, but in the time he takes to get off, another one gets tagged in to replace him, in front of me, of course.
Home to work is a different story, as I’m usually way early before rush hour. If I leave a half-hour later (still before rush hour), the 3-5 cars still makes it seem like rush hour, even if we are all going fast. There are one or two traffic lights that turn red for a mythical crosswalk, or “traffic calming”, which then accumulates 6-8 cars with anything but “calm” drivers, before turning green again.
The original plan was to move to Seattle and telecommute. I didn’t want to buy more house than I could afford, and prices were just starting to rise then. My best fiend said he’d sell me his house at the Canadian border, and it was in my budget. Bought it, and then my job went to India. (Ironically – or fittingly – the company’s name was Tata. ) I couldn’t afford L.A. rents and a mortgage, so north I went. Eventually got a job with a company on the other end of the data chain from my previous employer. But they’re in Seattle, over 100 miles away.
Anyway, I only go to Seattle twice a week. I telecommute three days a week. The traffic gods must have their revenge upon people who telecommute.
Alternates
I lived on Clarington at Palms, so 10 => 405 => 22 => exit. Or 10 => 405 => 105 => 605 => 91 => 22. Or 10 => 5 => 22. Among other choices. The 405 jammed? There’s the 710, the 110, or Sepulveda, depending on where I am.
No traffic jams, anyway
Lane-splitting is legal on motorcycles in California. Motorcycles can use the carpool lanes. The weather is almost always amenable to riding. Traffic jams? What traffic jams?
City amenities
Where I lived it was 20 minutes to the beach, 20 minutes to Hollywood, 20 minutes to go rent a helicopter, 20 minutes to LAX… (Oh, I’ve just remembered: Did you hear The Cat & Fiddle is closing? ) Good Mexican food, Thai food, Vietnamese food, Indian food, Cuban food; plus Del Taco, Tito’s Tacos, Ye Olde King’s Head, Wienerschnitzel, Carl’s Jr…
Yeah, there’s a lot to miss. But I don’t miss the noise, the crowding, the cost of living, and most of all the interminable heat. Gods, I got tired of sun every freakin’ day!. Seattle traffic is worse than L.A. traffic, especially since there are basically no alternate routes. But where I live there’s little traffic. The constant rain and cold gets to be a drag after a few months, but Summers are glorious. It’s nice to have three seasons instead of only two. Plus I live in an actual house. Just a short walk up a hill (no flooding!) from the beach.
When I lived in Anchorage, the first couple of snows were always mayhem on the roads. I would usually just go in a couple of hours late to allow all the ditch divers to slide off the roads (the news routinely reported somewhere around 50-60 police responses and more tow truck call-outs), and the resulting traffic jams to unsnarl. It was almost always pickup and SUV drivers who for some reason think they’re immune to sliding on slick surfaces. Why this happened every single winter in a place where there is snow on the ground for at least six months every year was always puzzling to me.
I hadn’t heard about the Cat & Fiddle…I haven’t been there in several years, but that place was damn tasty. And right by the Arclight. Bah. Also, wait — there’s Carl’s Jr. up there, is there not?
There’s one Carl’s Jr. between Seattle and home. Inconveniently, I get to its exit (a little north of Marysville) about five hours after lunch, so I’m not hungry enough to grab a bite on the way home. There are a few around Puget Sound, but very inconvenient to downtown Seattle.
I’ve already decided I’ll fly down and take you for a ride. Just waiting to win the lottery.
I have a list for my squadron. Oh, boy, do I have a list!. But since airplanes have to be flown, and there are only so many days in the week, realistically I think I’d end up with a Cessna 182 with the Garmin 1000 glass panel, a Schweizer 300/Sikorski S300 helicopter, and either dad’s Cessna 172K (restored) or a Cessna 172S without the Garmin panel.
Every day I drive to or from Seattle, I wish I had a plane. Even when it’s raining.
I turned at my turn, and was more than half-way to my next turn a mile away when he got to the stop sign. A minivan got to my turn before I did. It’s a 35 mph road, but most people do at least 40. This woman reckoned 33 mph was fast enough. I was hoping she’d turn ⅔ of the way down, but she didn’t. She continued. Crossing a street, the speed limit drops to 25 mph. It used to be a 35 mph road until the blue-hairs convinced the county it was too fast. Mini-van woman drives 25. So I’m stuck behind her until I get to my street – and still have to slow down because her house is on the other side of the T-intersection.
) I couldn’t afford L.A. rents and a mortgage, so north I went. Eventually got a job with a company on the other end of the data chain from my previous employer. But they’re in Seattle, over 100 miles away.
) Good Mexican food, Thai food, Vietnamese food, Indian food, Cuban food; plus Del Taco, Tito’s Tacos, Ye Olde King’s Head, Wienerschnitzel, Carl’s Jr…