Rantz: Seattle’s ‘block the box’ scam is a giant money grab

The City of Seattle is asking permission from the state Legislature to add traffic cameras to heavily-trafficked intersections, so they might ticket you for “blocking the box.” This is a money-grabbing scam and should be rejected on its face.

Blocking the box can undoubtedly impact traffic, in addition to creating some obstacles for pedestrians trying to walk on crosswalks. But, if cars don’t block the box at certain intersections, you will never move.

The streets feeding traffic onto Mercer are notoriously overcrowded, with traffic lights operated and monitored by a staff of SDOT’ers that do not drive, and do not understand the driving experience. Watch my commute from hell here.

The streets are so poorly designed that if you do not block the box and break a myriad of other traffic laws, you literally will not move more than a couple inches per light cycle. Don’t believe me? Spend five minutes observing the traffic situation on any afternoon drive.

It’s so bad, even buses must block the box, and they have bus-only lanes to help them get by.

Seattle’s request of the Legislature is intended to extract more money from you. It will not move traffic along because the streets are at capacity — made worse by SDOT purposefully giving lanes away to bike lanes that no one uses.

Their insipid design makes it impossible to drive around Seattle and they know it. They know you’ll be desperate enough to block the box to get out of traffic, even if you get hit with a ticket. This is a craven move by the city. And anyone in the state Legislature that supports this should be disqualified from consideration when they run for re-election. And be on notice: we intend to make notorious any lawmakers who makes it easier for Seattle to ticket desperate drivers trying to get home every night.

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