Today is Drive Nice Day

Today is Drive Nice Day. You can get a sticker at several locations. If you've got a sticker and haven't put it in your window yet, now is the time to do it!

Go to Drive Nice Day [www.driveniceday.org] for more information. We'll be posting pictures and other tid-bits from the event.

Also, KOMORadio posted a hotlink to driveniceday.org.

Drive Nice Day - Seattle Times

The Seattle Times has an article about Drive Nice Day today.

Are you Driving Nice?

Thursday this week is Drive Nice Day. I Am Seattle Traffic is now an official sponsor of Drive Nice Day, and we've been out handing out stickers and trying to get them in the back window of as many cars as possible.

Drive Nice Day is about driving more couteously and trying to avoid accidents on the most collision-prone day of the year!

We'd also really like to get some pictures of cars with Drive Nice Day stickers. 20,000 stickers were made for the event this year, so if you spot one, get a picture and send it to us at info@iamseattletraffic.org

Don't forget to visit DriveNiceDay.org to learn more about the event.

www.DriveNiceDay.org

The www.DriveNiceDay.org web site is up and running! Go check it out and learn more about Drive Nice Day, May 24th, 2007.

There are stickers available, and you can get them at locations listed here.

There are also drive nice tips on the site.

Drive Nice! It's Contagious.

Don't Stop Moving

Yesterday afternoon, I had to get to Seattle from my job in Redmond. I had to be there at 4:30, so I left at about 3:30. I wasn't looking forward to the traffic, but I wanted to use it as an opportunity to use my zen skills.

I made an amazing accomplishment: I did not come to a full stop the entire time I was on SR-520!

The way that I accomplished this was by leaving a ton of room in from of me, and maintaining a constant (slow!) speed as much as possible. The car in front of me kept speeding up and jerking to a stop, over and over again. When they were stopped, I slowly crept toward them. When they started moving I let them pull away and kept creeping at the same speed or I accelerated a little.

The car behind me didn't have to stop either. And neither did the car behind her. When I got on the bridge, I could see pretty far back because it's straight, and I watched a whole line of cars (hundreds of them) that were all flowing together in one continuous motion.

The car directly behing me didn't leave me much room at first, but by the time we got to the bridge, she realized what was going on and started staying pretty far back from me. So cars behind her were getting a double buffer of fluid traffic.

I hear from people quite a bit "if you leave a lot of room, other cars will just fill it." The reality is that it doesn't happen as much as you'd think. A few cars will zoom in and get in front of you, but it really doesn't affect you when you're further back. And chances are they would have changed lanes at some point anyway, so this way at least they have the room they need and don't cause a backup while they change lanes.

Please start leaving room in front of your car when you're in congestion. Not only will your stress be reduced (it gives you a challenge too, which is fun) but the cars behind you will thank you too.

Drive Nice Day - Update

I understand that www.DriveNiceDay.org should be up this week. I'll post another link to it once it's up and running. Check out the cool logo.