Beat the Traffic Before It Beats You

If you've ever overheard your officemate on the phone saying, "Well, honey, it's black and red at the bridge but then it goes down to yellow," you know that a) they're on the DOT website, b) you're glad you don't live or work across the lake, and c) "honey" is screwed. (The image here shows 520 with "black" conditions on the left and "green" on the right.)

The Washington Department of Transportation can't control the traffic, but they do do a bangup job of telling you how bad it is. We like the color-coded map because it's like taking the pulse of the entire city, or maybe, rather, the blood pressure. When that map turns to the red and black, you can almost feel the pounding headaches of a city full of commuters.

You can also check ferry wait times, conditions at the mountain passes, and border wait times. And if you're headed on a longer trip, check out the I-90 page, which basically lays out the next four to six hours of your life for you, in some detail. The travel times chart is far more accurate than MapQuest's time estimates on their driving directions. You can even get the info on your portable device, including some cellphones.

They should hand out this URL at the DMV when you get that weird paper driver's license.