Don’t look now, but there are fewer California drivers on Washington roads.
An annual report on population growth in Washington shows that 27,900 California drivers transferred their licenses when they migrated into Washington in the past year. This compares to 38,000 in 2006, and a peak of 40,000 in the early 1990s.
Of all the states, Californians make up 40 percent to 50 percent of the migration to Washington. Some say it’s the jobs and housing markets keeping Californians from moving here now.
People like to take jabs at California drivers, and the way they gab on their cell phones and change lanes without signalling. Maybe they even drive with their knees. It’s hard to say.
Those transplanted Californians may have driven so aggressively because they were coping with the coldest spring since 1917. You have to speed just to get the heat going in the car.
Now that summer’s here, speeds are expected to return to normal. Except for drivers without air conditioning. They still have the old 270 system: Two windows, 70 mph.
Signal needs adjusting
Question: When I am on my Honda Rebel motorcycle and going east on Terminal Avenue leaving the Port of Everett I want to take a left onto Marine View Drive, but the signal does not see me.
I either have to wait until someone I know in a car is going left and get behind them or go right on Marine View Drive and do a U-turn in the small parking lot there at The Herald.
Other motorcycle drivers I have talked to they have the same problem also. Is there anyway that signal can be adjusted?
Don Cox, Marysville
Answer: By the time you read this, your troubles may be over, Don.
As soon as Everett city traffic engineer Dongho Chang got wind of your question, he fired back that an engineer on his staff that rides a small motorcycle would go check out the sensor to see what the problem was.
Here’s how they work: Drivers approaching an intersection can usually spot the black tar lines that form circles or rectangles in front of the stop line.
Street crews cut little trenches and install sensors that detect metal on a vehicle.
The most sensitive portion of a sensor is about a foot on either side of the sensor wire. Once it senses a car or motorcycle, it’s supposed to send a message to the big box that controls the traffic light.
“We recommend parking motorcycles prior to the crosswalk about two feet away from the lane line when the sensor is not visible in the traffic lane,” Chang said.
Gas averages $4.38
The average gallon of gas cost $4.38 for the past two weeks in the Puget Sound area. Washington’s average was fifth highest in the country behind Alaska, California, Hawaii and Connecticut, according to AAA auto club.
During the past two years, the swing in prices leading up to the summer peak price has been nearly $1 in the Puget Sound area.
It was exactly $1 from the $2.23-a-gallon low point in February 2006 to the high of $3.23 in June 2006. The pattern repeated February to May 2007, rising from a low of $2.47 to peak at $3.46.
This spring’s temporary trough of $3.47 a gallon came on April 4. For at least 18 days, the price stuck at $4.37 or $4.38 a gallon.
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