Thursday, April 4, 2013

Flipping someone off...

Question for ya -- is flipping someone off considered a non-moving violation?  Naughty manners on the bridge seems worthy of a citation.  

Any-who...on to the the gripe du jour...

After suffering the bridge again today, this is what it comes down to...

2607ft = 0 mi 869.00yd

What is 2607 feet?  That is the total length of the West Seattle bridge.  Crazy, huh?   So how many miles long is the bridge?  That would be precisely "0" miles.  Yes, ZERO miles long.  What distance is left?   869 yards of concrete.  The bridge is only half a mile long.
 (thank you conversion site http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/feet-to-miles.htm)

Crossing that half-mile bridge took me 30 minutes.  That means I was traveling 1 mile an hour.  I can walk faster than that.   


Recap... I spent 30 minutes waiting to get off the bridge and head north onto I-5.  I was traveling at a blistering speed of 1 mile an hour ;)   When at a complete stand still, I was able to take a picture of the SODO sign (see below) whilst eating a sandwich and taking a nap.   


I contemplated those numbers today.   My conclusion...this situation is not acceptable.

Which brings me to the meat of why I started this blog...I spent 30 minutes on the West Seattle bridge with relative strangers -- people that actually happen to be neighbors.  It strikes me as funny that we don't know more about each other, given our shared bridge relationship.  We really should get to know each other better, maybe we'd be nicer and maybe we'd find our commute time a little less stressful knowing our bridge buddies have our back.  

But for now, my fellow bridge warriors -- can anyone answer me this...
Why is there only one lane going Northbound off the bridge!?   Something is terribly broken when it takes 30 minutes to cross a bridge that can be measured in yards with no miles.    

For the life of me, I can not figure out why there is only one piddly north bound lane when clearly that is the direction most of us need to go.   To be fair, there is only one southbound lane as well, and that also seems ludicrous given the amount of people jammed onto our nearly-island home of West Seattle.   

More condos are rising from the ashes of single family homes.  So the bridge congestion will predictably grow in proportion -- and I wonder if the developers worry about the lack of infrastructure to support the growth of our fine piece of real estate.  

Is West Seattle a joke to the DOT or is it the "City of Seattle" that doesn't value the time of its West Seattle residents?  



View from a bridge.  Taken while eating a sandwich and taking a nap.


For lots of information about bridge traffic and road conditions, check out the West Seattle Blog at
http://westseattleblog.com/
TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Thursday, April 4
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page) 6:53 AM: The West Seattle-vicinity routes have no problems reported at the moment, but there’s one huge problem affecting traffic a bit farther north: A wrong-way crash has eastbound Highway 520 shut down at Montlake. WSDOT says that might [...]

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for starting this blog!

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  2. My absolute pleasure -- thanks for dropping in. I started it as a way to vent. I haven't invested much time or effort in the blog because it seems like every day is the same old same old on the bridge.... it would be nice if I could get other like minded people (such as yourself) to add more commentary and persepctive. I eventually would like a way to collect our concerns and do something constructive with them. I just can't believe this is what we're stuck with -- there has got to be a solution.

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