Yesterday, I was running through the crosswalk of a four-way intersection.

The four-way intersection crosses a single-lane road with a two-lane road. I was crossing the single-lane road, against traffic.

There were only two cars in view; both in the right lane coming toward me. They had a green light.

Right when I started to cross, the lead car slowed down and put its right blinker on to turn right. He was going to turn in front of me, but waited for me to clear the crosswalk before he went. He came to a stop as he waited for me.

If you were driving the car behind him, what would you have done?

They guy behind him came to a complete stop behind the car in front of him, and waited for it to turn right.

He could have simply changed lanes and driven around the stopped car in front of him. As I said, there were no cars in sight. But instead, he sat and waited for me to cross and the car in front of him to turn right. Then he carried on straight.

He could have missed the green light, but didn’t.

This inability to problem solve is something I’ve only consistently seen in Seattle. It’s not at all uncommon to see a car stopped off to the side on a neighborhood road as the driver speaks with a neighbor or pedestrian, only to have a car come up behind them and sit, unable to figure out to just drive around the stopped car.

For such a thriving tech city, there’s simply not much evidence of creativity on the roads.