My biggest problem with Seattle drivers is that they are so meek and deferential when it comes to right-of-way that it's actually more dangerous than it is courteous. If you're a pedestrian here and you're standing near an intersection with no crosswalk, or just standing on the sidewalk in the middle of a block, roughly oriented toward the street, drivers will stop 50 or 100 feet out and disrupt the flow of traffic to wave you to jaywalk, even when there is traffic in the opposing lane and you could not possibly cross safely. If you're on a bike and you have a stop sign but they don't, they will stop and wave you past, apparently assuming that all the other drivers on that street will also heed this imaginary stop sign they have invented for themselves. And often, when I'm riding ahead of a driver on a street that could very easily accommodate two cars side-by-side, I move to the right like a courteous cyclist, and they refuse to pass, instead preferring to ride my ass at 10 mph, blocking the way of everyone behind them.

As far as I can tell, there's something about the psyche here that makes it so everyone is horrified that they are the one who, in any given instant, is in someone else's way, causing even the most minor adjustment to someone else's path. It's unselfishness practiced to a thoughtless extreme.

I've actually developed a few tactics to force people to take their own right-of-way. When I roll up to an intersection that I cannot legally or sensibly cross until the road is clear, I dismount, plant my feet on the ground, and crane my head in the opposite direction of oncoming traffic so nobody can possibly make eye contact with me to wave me on.