I'm posting this for people who don't generally drive through King County on a weekday, so that you may hopefully be better prepared for the unusual courtesies that you may not be currently enjoying in the country. I've spent a few years commuting regularly from the ferry terminal to various parts of King County in a full size pick-up, and I hope that my experiences can help you through this refreshing exercise.

If you drive a car (highways):
1) Do your best to ensure that no one else enters the highway from an on-ramp. Should you find yourself in the far right lane, near an on ramp, be sure to adjust your speed in sync with the attempting merger (either speed up or slow down or both, usually both) and force them to the shoulder if possible. These roadways are crowded enough, and you should help with the congestion whenever you can. The desired result is to see the attempted merger hit the ditch, sacrifice your own vehicle if necessary, it's worth it in the long run.

2)Turn signals are a very serious distraction on the interstate freeways. Never, ever use them as it may distract another driver in another lane, thus causing a possible highway fatality. Should you witness someone else using their turn signals, your best method of defense is to either speed up or slow down, accordingly, and get the flasher of death just behind and out of your peripheral vision, and keep it there. This is accomplished by keeping the front half of your vehicle aligned with the rear portion of the offenders vehicle in the adjacent lane. These drivers are well known around the metropolitan areas and studies show they have a much higher rate of just shooting across lanes, without any warning, like a drunks first day out of jail.

3)Speed limits on highways range from 55 mph to the incredible 70mph in outlying rural areas. However, only YOU can prevent serious highway fatalities. Many people attempt to do the speed limit at various times during their commute. However, if you maintain a speed of no more than 50 mph, you will never find yourself in an accident that could do any real harm. 50 mph saves lives, and now that you've been enlightened with this, your first duty is to move your vehicle into lanes further left until you have ensured that everyone behind you can not drive at maniacal speeds of 51 mph or more. You are the gatekeeper, and you are duty bound to protect the more foolish citizens from driving at the MAXIMUM speed limit.

4)It's best to exit the highway from the second or third lane to the left. Again, no turn signals, as stated above. Should you be nearing your exit and find yourself in the far right lane, it is generally better to pass a few vehicles in the last half mile before your exit, then exit in front of somebody else at a rate of speed less than the vehicle back and to your right. Exit in front of pick-ups if you area able to or even a semi-tractor/trailer combo. Be sure to apply brakes and remind everyone behind you to slow down. At times, this may draw a blaring horn or a waving middle finger from the offender behind you. Don't be startled, however, this is just the urbanites way of saying "Good Job, Keep It Up!". In the past, this has even been credited for sudden moments of generosity as passing motorists sometimes try to give you their half empty Aquafina bottle or room temperature Starbuck's Mocha. It's challenging actually getting the drink in the neighbor's vehicle at 50 mph and sometimes they wind up hitting the windshield instead, but it's the thought that counts. If the offenders compliments seem extraordinarily abundant, do them the courtesy of re-entering the highway in front of them, no matter how far onto the off-ramp you may be, and give them another mile or two to witness your gracious driving ability. This will also give them the opportunity to read your cool new license plate trim without squinting, just another courtesy that is available on King County's endlessly hospitable roadways.

Cheers, I'm ready for a Martini.

Sorry for the rant,

#3: Sitting in the passing lane or HOV lane on an empty freeway doing 10 under.
WA is the only place in US where the rightlane moves faster than the left lane.

I drove all over the Western US last summer and EVERY time I encountered some Assh*le camped out in the fastlane with his cruise control on set at 10 under the MoFo had Washington plates.

I encountered this mainly on I-5 and I-90 North of Eugene and West of Missoula, but ran into it in I-40 in AZ and I-15 in CA as well as I-80 in Wyoming.

And yes, those same F*ckers have the "Self Appointed Traffic Cop" attitude of gunning it anytime you try to get around them.

I like the folks who create their own lanes of travels in parking lots, (driving diagonally across the set out lanes) making the experience of going to the store a death defying one. To make it better, they also travel at freeway speeds! If only I had that laser gun that vaporizes cars.

Among others, I've always "enjoyed" the one speed only driver - 45MPH on the freeway, in town, at the boat ramp, etc...........

Amazing how many dumfuks think the carpool lane is the passing lane!

Miss Fay can you see this

My personal fav is people driving in the HOV lane JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN.
There will be a mile of open road ahead of them and a mile of cars bumper to bumper behind them.

HOV lanes are not a solution to traffic problems. They are a temporary bandaid for 30 years of poor planning. Just my $.02

Did other states plan better for traffic conjestion then WA did?

In my opinion this state has sat on it's rump and done nothing, we do however spend a lot of time on over priced studies.

Apparently you subscribe to rule #3. Get the [censored] out of the fast lane then.

I love those people that get on the freeway at 3 am when no one else is around and get all the way over in the fast lane right infront of you.

We need to raise more taxes. According to the state of WA, we are as of this morning $187 mill short for our current transportation projects. Those gas tax increases in 03's weren't enough. People aren't driving enough taking mass transit instead. That way we can build more HOV lanes and offramps with cement leaves on them...it will fix everything. Maybe we can spend another 15 years and $107 mill a year thinking about removing the viaduct and making more light rail trains to seatac everyone uses to get to work.


/sarcasm

The idea behind HOV lanes is to get drivers/cars off of the road. So why are they full of soccer mom's or a single parent with a baby seat? Did I miss when they handed out drivers licenses to children?

That is one of my biggest gripes, how does a fetus in a car seat qualify as a freaking carpool!?!?!?!? My 17 year old dog that goes to work with me every day and guards my truck on the job site should fit the bill as well then!!

At this point it's beyond doubtful that we can spend or build our way out of gridlock. Get used to it. Telecommute if you can. Otherwise get used to spending 2 to 4 hours of each workday just getting to and from work. How can the Puget Sound society of 4 million people experiencing this kind of population growth expect to live in their suburban 3,500 sq ft homes, or 5 acre mini horse farms, 10, 20, or 40 miles from their place of work, all driving their single occupant SUV, and really believe they ought to be able to get there on uncongested roads? What kind of drugs are they on?

I'm still waiting for Sound Transit to "save the day." What a F'n joke.

I hate the FARKN freeways dumdass wipping in and out of traffic not letting you merge.rubber neckers to many idiots

I agree that traffic gridlock makes for a lousy way of life.

The solution? Reduce the human population back to 2.6 million. Traffic was tolerable, but still crowded on the morning Lynnwood to downtown commute, but otherwise not bad. How about everyone who wasn't a resident of WA in 1968 please move away? Incidentally, that was the human population when Wa consistently last had harvestable wild salmon and steelhead. So naturally I'm all in favor.

Well done!

Dude, if you were stuck in a car with a screaming kid in traffic you would start capping people out the window to get home faster.

Trust me my 2 year old almost sends me over the edge when I am stuck in traffic with him and he won't quit crying.

Giving soccer moms access to the carpool lane prevents road rage

I have a dream that one day they'll rip out the bridge on i-5 and 1-205 and make washintonians ride the tram to oregon. Does everybody drive 62 in the left lane in WA?