So, we’re in the Tri-Cities for a quick weekend visit. We’ve only been here a few hours, but there are a few things that I couldn’t help but notice as differences between the “West Side” and the “East Side” so far.

Traffic

I’d forgotten about traffic in the Tri-Cities. It annoys the HECK out of me! I just don’t get it. And maybe living in Seattle has added to the annoyance I remember having earlier. Do people in the Tri-Cities realize just how incredibly open the roads are? No, seriously – WHY, dear people, are we driving 55 mph in a very clear freeway with a 70 mph speed limit? See, I can understand Seattle’s traffic – it’s a heavily populated area, lots of cars, funneling into a few lanes of traffic with stop lights every block that aren’t exactly synched. So, that naturally leads to lots of cars backed up on the road. But in the Tri-Cities, there’s space between cars, there’s space between lanes, and we’re driving under the speed limit! We also watched one person keep driving with their blinker on to change lanes – with quite the open space to change into between us and the car in front of us, but until we moved, they didn’t want to move into the lane. I told Rich, “If they were in Seattle, they would have changed into that spot a long time ago!” It just cracked me up.

Speed Limit Signs

I know this sounds silly, but it took us awhile to actually FIND speed limit signs in Seattle. Then we realized why there probably aren’t that many — why bother telling people the speed limit is 50 mph when you’ll probably be going 35 mph most of the time on the road? And even when there ARE signs, it doesn’t seem like people follow them – when the roads are open, and traffic is flowing, it’s like people in Seattle are trying to make up for all the time they’ve had to spend waiting for traffic to move on other days and other times. Just because it’s 40 mph on the road doesn’t mean that anybody will be going 40 when there isn’t a delay! Try 50! Just because you can!

On our way from Pasco to Richland, I was a bit surprised how often we’re reminded of the speed limit. I told Rich at one point, “It’s a bit weird to see so many speed limit signs through here.”

Street Lighting

I forgot what it’s like to actually drive in the dark. It actually dawned on me one early morning as I was driving in to the gym before work — there are LOTS of street lights on I-5 in Seattle! And today, coming in on I-90 before the exit to 182, I was amazed at the LACK of street lights! I’ve never been all that comfy with how dark I-90 is driving past Benton City at night. I don’t think I’ve driven it enough to remember where the curves in the road are, so I feel very disoriented along the way.

The downside in Seattle is I get disoriented with how much lighting there is! There’s a Hwy 99 tunnel (Hwy 99 south) that spits you out onto Western in downtown Seattle that can really throw you off — it’s dark, but street lights are on, then suddenly you’re in near-daylight lighting in the tunnel, then it’s dark with street lights again as you get onto Western! It’s quite the eye exercise as your pupils adjust to each lighting setting.

Political Issues

Lest you think I’m going to ramble about candidates running for office, I’m not. I couldn’t think of another way to capture the difference in what suddenly matters to us now that we live in Seattle. Yes, the big issues – taxes, the economy, health care – we care about. But there are these initiatives on the ballot that we started talking about with my in-laws…related to…roads and traffic! We suddenly care whether or not the initiative to let HOV lanes become full access lanes during peak traffic hours passes or not. We suddenly care about how they’re planning on fixing the viaduct. And we’re explaining it to our family in Eastern Washington.

Oy – that just can’t be good!