I have lived in a number of cities. Every town has its quirks. Often the locals dont notice them, at least not the way outsiders do.

Well, Im what the locals call a "latte-sipping immigrant from California" (not to be confused with a Latte-sipping Liberal, who are indigenous) and Im here to say that people in Seattle just dont know how to drive. They are TERRIBLE! But more than that, the roads here would put a glint in Rube Goldberg's eye. Bad road design greatly increases the likelihood of bad driving because it gives people so many opportunities to display their lack of common sense or patience.

Driving in Philadelphia or LA or San Francisco is frustrating but driving here makes me crazy. It's madness, I say! The East Coast can be forgiven because it was layed out before cars were invented but Seattle has no such excuse.

Here are some of the themes of Seattle road design: streets regularly change names while you are on them, roads dont go through (often dead-ending only to start again a few blocks over), nothing is straight, merging is everywhere (often on curves) with multiple lanes from left and right, they move traffic in multiple directions in the same area, and numbers are used for streets in both directions (such as the corner of 124th and 124th).

Looking at a map to the DMV recently seemed like a good example to share. There is just too much wrongness here not to.

Im driving east on I-90 trying to get to the red-star on SE 37th S. (How about that name? SouthEast 37th South)

• There are two lanes of traffic getting on the freeway as well as two lanes of exits getting off.
• It is hard to see on the map but the exit for 150th is actually before 148th even though numbers increase as you head east.
• The exit for 156th is also here and it is on the left - to get to 150th you have to use the right exit.
• 148th is the street that actually crosses over the freeway but its only 148th on the north side of the freeway - 148th is actually 150th on the south side where you exit.
• There is a 148th and 156th on the south side but they shouldn't be confused with the street of the same name on the other side of the freeway because they dont connect.
• 36th street runs along the freeway, at least unti the exit when it becomes 38th street, skipping right past 37th.
• And you dont get to see the actual street signs, which have more confusing number choices than Enron's annual report in 2000.

Driving everywhere is an exercise of moving impatient people with 3rd grade educations, a latte and cell phone in each hand and increasingly large and unresponsive vehicles, from A to B without crashing into each other. It is a thankless job, often ignored when done well, but the way to succeed is to limit the opportunities for stupidity. Keep the streets straight, be consistent, be clear, be easy to understand.