Road Warrior

The in basket: Joann Williams happened to be caught in a backup on Highway 3 in North Kitsap during a police chase on Sept. 5 that later turned into a front page Kitsap Sun story. The fleeing man had phoned in bogus reports to 911 of crimes hoping it would draw away the officers following him. It didn’t work and he was arrested, but there’s a chance the incident might have gone unreported had Joann not e-mailed me with a Road Warrior question as a result.
“Since this is not the first high-speed chase near
Hood Canal Bridge,” she asked, “shouldn’t the 1450 AM highway traffic radio have been warning motorists of this?

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The in basket: A week ago Wednesday, I asked on behalf of Sen. Bob Oke why the readers think smokers often drive with their windows half-way down. I got a lot of answers.
The out basket: A surprising number were from smokers themselves and they said that looking through and breathing in their own second-hand smoke isn’t nearly as enjoyable as getting it straight from the cigarette.

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Steve Erickson wrote in July to say: “Recently, two cars have been parking on the grassy median on Ridgetop Boulevard, just north of the Point of View entrance at Plateau Circle. My guess is that they are visiting one of the homes to the west of Ridgetop Boulevard that have long entryways off of Silverdale Way.
“These houses are physically much closer to Ridgetop than to Silverdale Way and most have gates in their fences on Ridgetop.
“It seems fairly obvious to me that the grassy median is not intended to be a parking lot, but the drivers of these two cars do not share my opinion.”

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The in basket: My invitation last week for readers to explain why smokers often have their car window half-way down, and why people without children in their car willingly endure the limitations of drive-up windows brought a lively response.
Two dozen readers weighed in on one or the other.

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The in basket: Ken Amo asks, “Can you tell me what is the maximum speed limit for motor homes on Washington state freeways?
“I’ve researched the RCW codes and can only find one reference to speed limits that might apply to motor homes,” Ken said. “That is RCW 46.61.410 that states any vehicle over 10,000 pounds gross weight must obey the truck speed limit.”

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Today, I’d like to devote Road Warrior to sounding out the readership on a couple of curiosities: Why smokers roll their window down halfway and why some many people use drive-up windows.
Plus a suggestion for not getting stuck waiting for the left turn light on Silverdale Way to go east on Ridgetop Boulevard.

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The in basket: Our three-day dissertation on cable median barrier last month didn’t exhaust the subject, it turns out.
I heard from a number of motorcyclists, whose comments can be wrapped up in that of Steve McDermott. He wrote, ‘Motorcyclists have a different name for these atrocities: Cheese-cutters.”

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The in basket: Richard Gonzales of Silverdale says that since Kitsap County closed Myhre Road to replace the culvert for Clear Creek, “the traffic on Silverdale Way has increased tremendously. The (left-turn) traffic from southbound Silverdale Way to Ridgetop Boulevard is especially heavy.
“The timings of the affected traffic lights appear not to have been adjusted to compensate for the increased traffic,” he said.

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