I hate that interchange so much that when i had to commute from Kirkland I’d go all the way around the lake to the express lanes rather than take 520.
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This exit ramp simply brings the universe into balance for every out of towner stopped at the end of a New Jersey on ramp.
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I bet that in a Star Trek future, we’re going to be watching video of people’s personal teleporter mishaps.
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Very well articulated, @VeronicaConnor, accurate observation, indeed. If I kept this in mind, my driving stress would probably be much lower. Thank you.
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It’s these signs that help me judge how tight an upcoming curve is gonna be. Anything lower than 30mph, I know I need to take it way down. And if it says 20? Well, you better expect a near hairpin. I really do appreciate these signs.
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Possible problem:
That’s out in daylight, then in the darker tunnel you get that 20MPH sign.
Why. Why. Why.
Maybe add a cattle grate or warning pattern.
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Yes, that’s on the videos. I seriously doubt there’s any place to have a ramp coming out at 7th Ave. without a 20 mph curve. And no way to have it come out better at 6th without closing off 7th (which is probably a required fire route for the two skyscrapers to the south) and chopping through some basements. Either they accept the fallout from the current placement, or close it.
So people should probably do better and slow the fuck down? While I don’t live in a Seattle myself, there are places here where I live that are similar. And much like here, anyone who doesn’t follow the speed limits and results in the death of others are in the wrong.
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For one thing it’s basically 100’ from that sign to the sharp right curve. Maybe that initial sign should be 20 mph. Also the problem isn’t the curve so much as people blast through not realizing there’s a traffic light the moment after you take that curve — and it doesn’t favor exiting traffic.
Every vehicle in that video is exiting the the tunnel way too fast with the driver not realizing there’s cars stopped at the intersection. The driver now has a split second to to choose what they want to hit (the wall, the curb, another car, a pedestrian, or pray they get lucky and thread the needle unscathed).
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About 15 years ago, I lived in a condo that was next to an intersection at the top of the hill. Usually, about once a month, there was some sort of accident, most often a fender bender.
There was a man, who sat at that corner on a pillow every day. He had some mental illness, but was generally kind and interesting to talk to (he was trying to start a religion of some sort centred around celebrity conspiracies…I don’t know, it made sense to him). One day, he didn’t show up to his corner. That same day was a major accident at his corner and a car crashed through a store window. He would have been killed. He never showed up at that corner again. Months later, I saw him on the bus, but he was clean shaven and had clean clothes. I didn’t say anything, but he probably wouldn’t have recognized me anyway. It looked like he got the help he needed.
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Thinking about it, I think I’ve only ever taken that exit during comicon. Which means ain’t NO ONE even going as fast as 20mph down there. More like 20 hours per mile 
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That’s probably the only safe way to take that exit. 
Thinking on it some more, that’s also the exit you’re most likely to take if you’re going to Pike Place Market — so no doubt there’s a lot of out-of-towners taking that exit to do one of the mandatory Seattle touristy things further exasperating the situation.
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Pittsburgh: hold my beer. It amazes me that there isn’t an accident every day here. Note poor visibility of signs partially blocked by girders. Not shown is the onramp where there are I think three other merge points.
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> MacArthur Maze enters the chat…
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WHO ROUSES YOU FROM YOUR SLUMBER?!?
(Complete sentence)
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Ha, I was going to say the exact opposite. Those signs are like the Prop. 65 warning label of traffic signs; too ubiquitous to grab one’s attention on the few occasions that it really does matter significantly.
OK, so we’ve found the equivalent of clearance chains. What would correspond to a water curtain sign?
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I won’t lie, I thought about it.
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