CrosswalkHarpy.com is a blog about traffic safety, transportation, road rage, infrastructure, and just plain being one of those old people who shakes their fist and screams at shitty inconsiderate drivers.
Where (and When) I Grew Up
I’m a 4th generation Western Washingtonian (that’s Washington STATE, not D.C.). Also known as “The Evergreen State”, we’re located in the Pacific Northwest in the upper left-hand corner of the United States.
I’ve lived in the Puget Sound region my entire life. That’s over fifty years, as somebody who technically belongs to “Generation X“, though I’m not sure I qualify as being part of the MTV generation when we didn’t even get cable (and access to MTV) in the rural area where I grew up until many years after its 1981 launch. I’ve probably driven in a third or more of the fifty states (and even tried getting around as a pedestrian in some of those other American places) but Washington roads and the West Coast are what I know best.
We didn’t have GPS or google maps back in the 1980s when I started driving. Instead we had a Thomas Guide to figure out how to get where we wanted to go:
In my 50+ years, Seattle-Tacoma traffic, roads, environment, and the tools and vehicles we use to navigate them have changed a lot. People, though, are basically the same as they ever were. With the same basic character flaws, the same drive to get to our destinations, and the same willingness/unwillingness to learn how to safely operate moving and/or motor vehicles (or avoid driving them altogether).
Influences
My mom was what you would now call a “community activist” for making roads and crosswalks safer where we lived. I also had the benefit of being taught to drive and do basic vehicle maintenance by my dad, stepdad, and grandpa. They were all three great old-school teachers with a lot of experience behind the wheel and on the roads in different capacities as truck drivers, mechanics, cops, construction, and excavation.
In the past decade, using public transportation (plus a year or so of bicycling to run local errands when we didn’t have a car) during pandemic and in the years before and after it has been an educational adventure. Living now on a peninsula with significant barriers of water and distance between us and cities like Seattle, Bellingham, and Vancouver, B.C. and using limited buses and trains to travel around about a dozen different counties and transit systems to get to family, friends, medical appointments, and other big-city events is giving me perspective, appreciation, and opportunities I didn’t have in my younger years. You learn a lot when you ride the bus.
What’s this Site For?
I’d like to make something productive and useful of this site, but for now it’s mainly a place for venting, making notes of interesting news stories and observations, and just entertaining myself when I have a little free time.
Crosswalk Harpy might wind up being a fun and helpful podcast or YouTube channel someday. We’ll see! After all … complaining about traffic has pretty broad cross-cultural appeal. ;)~