By Car

According to one recent study, Seattle’s [1] traffic was the third worst in the United States (after Los Angeles and San Francisco); the average Seattleite spends over 50 hours per year stuck in traffic jams! If possible, try to stay on public transit, both for your own sanity and for the environment. By all means avoid the 3–7 p.m. weekday rush hour, when I-5 and the I-90 and Highway 520 floating bridges are often virtual parking lots.

One of the more difficult aspects of Seattle city driving isn't getting there, but getting back: Finding an I-5 entrance ramp can be frustrating, especially after you zigzag over and under the highway a few times. One sure cure: Head down 5th Avenue, because entrances to both north- and southbound traffic are along it. Another good, although very busy, way to approach the freeway is on Mercer Street; get in the right lanes for southbound, left lanes for northbound.

Driving around downtown Seattle is much more difficult than walking, and sometimes almost as expensive as flying to Portland, because at some point you've got to park the car. Parking downtown is difficult on weekdays—and costly: meters (if you can find one) are $1.50 per hour ($1.25 in South Lake Union), and private lots cost $9–16 a day. Be warned that the vigilant meter readers seem always to be waiting for your sticker to expire so they can stick you with a $20 ticket.