When do you get used to driving everywhere?

[Flynn]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT try to drive in Seattle or Portland. It'll kill you.

Why? In NY you have to change lanes so often that you'll constantly have one or the other blinker one and there's no time to turn them on or off when you're trying to keep an eye on the traffic. And honking is great for scaring the tourists to stay off the road. :>

Because in the NW, GENERALLY speaking, people are very considerate on the roads. OVERLY considerate.



When DH started residency in Seattle the attending giving a "welcome speech" made a POINT to tell all the new docs from the East Coast how "people in the NW drive." He warned the East coasters that when someone has their hand up they are WAVING to you or nicely telling you to go first and ALL FINGERS are being used -- not just one . I think in my 25 PLUS years in the NW I saw about 5 "flip offs."

The attending also made everyone from an East Coast city practice waving and smiling in front of everyone. It was pretty funny. Finally he also wanted to impress upon the East coasters that the NW was generally a very polite place to live and being rude was "what unintelligent people did who couldn't make the situation work for them." It was amusing.

There was a really smart guy who matched in Neuro surg in DH's program (in the NW) from NY. He had what I thought was a heavy accent, he was a big muscular guy, and while he was friendly, he was loud and reminded me of someone who could play Joey's cousin on "Friends." When we all would go out, he could NEVER get a female to believe he was training to be a neurosurgeon. They laughed and thought it was just a bad line. When he asked what they thought he did for a living, more women than I can count said "mechanic or garbage man." Talk about stereotyping!!!


I'm still not used to driving everywhere here...I loved to walk most places in a city suburb. It does change what you will and will not do as far as errands go!

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

Going on 4 years and I still miss the walkability of our Denver neighborhood. My drives are short and things are close but still not as walkable as I would prefer (given other trade-offs though I will take it).

Driving here is a little different. People are nice and they don't honk. This can be advantageous because the occasional honk is noticed. The number of cyclists and pedestrians on city streets also changes my driving. The pedestrian/driver law here is that someone crossing has to be across at least one full lane before you can make a right or left turn which sometimes makes it impossible to turn in one light cycle.

[poky]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT try to drive in Seattle or Portland. It'll kill you.

Why? In NY you have to change lanes so often that you'll constantly have one or the other blinker one and there's no time to turn them on or off when you're trying to keep an eye on the traffic. And honking is great for scaring the tourists to stay off the road. :>

Because in the NW, GENERALLY speaking, people are very considerate on the roads. OVERLY considerate.

Exactly.

The attending also made everyone from an East Coast city practice waving and smiling in front of everyone. It was pretty funny. Finally he also wanted to impress upon the East coasters that the NW was generally a very polite place to live and being rude was "what unintelligent people did who couldn't make the situation work for them." It was amusing.

To continue the hijack - there's a flipside to that politeness, though: in general, it can take a long time to make actual, real, close friends. I'm used to it because that's where I grew up, and it's how I am IRL, too, but apparently in other parts of the country people let down their guard a lot faster, and are a lot more genuinely *friendly* to strangers (which is distinct from *polite*). :huh:

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

I hate when I get behind someone going UNDER the speed limit. In my opinion, the speed limit is the number of the minimum you should go. If the speed limit is 65, you sould be driving between 70-74. I mean, isn't that the unwritten rule? 5-9 mph over? Fast enough to get somewhere, but not too much over to cause tickets.

The things that bug me here are: No one goes through a yellow light. DUH. How are we going to turn left people? Get in that intersection and turn! Stop signs. After you, no, you go, no you. Dammit! You have the right of way! Screw it, I say, now, and I always just go. You want me to go? Fine.

Things that bug me everywhere I go: Road blocks. Drivers that drive the same speed as the person in the lane beside them so as to impede all of the traffic behind them. Ugh. Drivers that can't decide how fast they want to go. Cruise control, people. Keep it pegged at 65, move to the right lane and allow people to pass you. Only drive in the left lane to pass!

I like being able to drive and go places, but at my specifications.

You and my DH would enjoy driving together. He is appalled at the way people drive here -- slow and clueless, and they block traffic as you describe. (You'd think people in the Motor City would be good drivers!) It doesn't bother me as much, b/c I kinda drive like an old lady myself, and anyway I generally expect that people will be oblivious and I'll have to find ways to work around them.

Unfortunately, DH deals with this situation by driving like an absolute BAT OUT OF HELL. Makes me crazy!

[Flynn]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

To continue the hijack - there's a flipside to that politeness, though: in general, it can take a long time to make actual, real, close friends. I'm used to it because that's where I grew up, and it's how I am IRL, too, but apparently in other parts of the country people let down their guard a lot faster, and are a lot more genuinely *friendly* to strangers (which is distinct from *polite*). :huh:

ITA.

Most of my NW friends have been my friends for over 20 years....making friends as an adult in that part of the country proved to be much more difficult than during school. I have four good girlfriends from my adult life and met them through being a parent.

Here in the podunk midwest I made at least two good forever friends in seven months. They were open to me and included me after meeting me once?? I don't think that would have happened where I grew up.

My mom always said it was hard to make friends moving from East to West. People were nice but would never include you in anything.

[Cumberland]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

I had to retrain my driving skills when we left NYC. I was totally used to using the turn lane to go straight in order to cut off the car next to me, being the fourth car through at a yellow light, blocking the box and NEVER EVER letting anyone in front of me in merge lane. I also had to curb my potty mouth and use of the horn. People in the south would freak on many levels if someone tried that stuff here.

[Vishenka69]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

I had to retrain my driving skills when we left NYC. I was totally used to using the turn lane to go straight in order to cut off the car next to me, being the fourth car through at a yellow light, blocking the box and NEVER EVER letting anyone in front of me in merge lane. I also had to curb my potty mouth and use of the horn. People in the south would freak on many levels if someone tried that stuff here.

LOL, that's totally how I used to drive. I still do some of those things sometimes. Yesterday I was driving to work (late as usual) and the girl in front of me was putting lipstick on in the rearview mirrow and didn't notice the light turned green. I gave her about 20 seconds and honked, she was so surprised she dropped her lipstick. :>

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

You seemed geniuenly shocked that someone would actually enjoy cutting people off. It's wasn't a judging look just a shocked one.

I'm glad I didn't judge. I'm ..... prone to do that on occasion.

[alison]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

You have to have a thick skin in Chicago. At stoplights, you'll get honked at the second the light changes to green. Someone's still walking in the intersection? Who cares!!!

There is much more stress put on parallel parking in driver's ed in the NW than here. Here, you just ram people and hope they've got their parking brakes on.

When we were in Seattle last year, we were at a light, and a man got out of his car, went up to the driver-side window of our car, and told dh to stop tailgating. There's a no-second rule here.

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

There is much more stress put on parallel parking in driver's ed in the NW than here. Here, you just ram people and hope they've got their parking brakes on.

My uncle says southern californians park by sound rather than sight.

[Vishenka69]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

There is much more stress put on parallel parking in driver's ed in the NW than here. Here, you just ram people and hope they've got their parking brakes on.

My uncle says southern californians park by sound rather than sight.

You should see the bumpers of our NY car. When we moved here, it took us weeks to get over the spotless bumpers.

[rainbabies]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

There is much more stress put on parallel parking in driver's ed in the NW than here. Here, you just ram people and hope they've got their parking brakes on.

My uncle says southern californians park by sound rather than sight.

You should see the bumpers of our NY car. When we moved here, it took us weeks to get over the spotless bumpers.

imagine my suprise, when we valet parked at the hotel in NYC...and the car in the front of the line was getting it's bumper pads on. i was cracking up. but, i do realize why they do it.

[Vishenka69]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

Yup, every car in NYC that is street parked has front and back pads, we did too (now it's just an outline of where they used to be). That's the 2 thing you do after you buy a car in NY, the first is to get a club.

[alison]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

I just don't get why it's perfectly acceptable to bump other people's cars. Parking is a rarity around here, but in Japan, it's even tighter, and it doesn't happen there.

[Vishenka69]

Re: When do you get used to driving everywhere?

I think it has mostly to do with people being in a rush and not taking their time to park carefully. Plus depending on a street there might be a continuous stream of traffic and you want to get in or out as fast as possible or there'll be lots of honking or you'll loose the spot.