Thursday, April 11, 2013

Northeast Becomes Southwest: King-Snohomish Border Lands

A bit of a silly note on directional confusion. We do a fair number of projects near and along the King County and Snohomish County boundary. Often we'll combine trips to reduce drive time and mileage between projects. The King-Snohomish County line runs between a number of suburban transitioning to urban cities: Edmonds, Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Bothell, Kenmore to a name a few, along with odd blocks of unincorporated areas.

The juxtaposition of two counties and the cities brings a collision of street numbering and street direction name confusion. Throw in steep drumlin hills that limit the ability of simple continuous street grid along with freeways cutting through the landscape acting as barriers and it can be a tricky area to navigate. And there is an added confusion if you forget the flipping of street name directions and number sequencing when crossing the county line.


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