Driving Adjustments

We’ve been living in Seattle for about a week. We’re still adjusting to driving around. In general we’ve been pleased by the well-marked streets, informative signs, etc. But there have been some challenges. For example: both my wife and I have had to adjust for the fact that the ocean is now on the “other side” of the city. I have to keep repeating “East in inland” to myself. And we’re still a little perplexed by the street naming scheme. Compared to Boston, it’s not that difficult, just different. Most Seattle street names are numbers that include a compass designation which means that you need to remember three pieces of information: an address (which tends to be four-digit numbers), a street number and a compass designation (e.g. 6478 140th NE Ave). Also, downtown Seattle is a maze of one-way streets which means that unless you know the correct route you can easily end up blocks away from where you want to go.

Seattle was ranked the eighth toughest city to navigate. I can’t say yet whether that is deserved or not but I won’t argue with Boston’s number one rank by the same study.