The west side of the state is nothing compared to the east. The WSP on the east side of the cascades pull people over whenever they need some revenue, regardless of their speed. They are filthy thieves shaking down anybody that looks vulnerable. When I drive to Seattle, you can anticipate seeing the WSP approximately every 20 minutes the entire way across - until you hit the west side of the cascades, in which case you'll only see them occasionally up and down I-5. They are monsters and I'd be fine getting rid of them entirely. They are not making the roadways of Washington any safer and do not represent the values of the people of this state.

It's interesting you say that because I've had the exact opposite experiences.

I drive from Mercer Island to Spokane every weekend, and I commute from Puyallup to Mercer Island every day for work.

Going to work I'll see anywhere from two to five WSP, but usually traffic isn't moving fast enough for them to ticket. (Although, most mornings they have one or two people pulled over in the bend just in I-5, just a couple minutes north of the Tacoma Dome.)

Driving across the state I've only been pulled over once (near Ritzville). I won't say how fast I was going, but it was fast enough that right when I saw the headlights on her patrol car I immediately pulled over and waited for her to give me a ticket. (Which she did, and she knocked it down to something a bit more reasonable, money wise.)

Now when I drive across the state I just throw my cruise control on at ~83 MPH (the extra three because it helps me get ahead of those cars whose speed "drifts" from 75-85 and back again, which is very annoying). Usually I'll drive past two or three officers who just sit there and watch me fly by at thirteen over.

IMHO the worst are the county sheriffs near the Chelan area. Those guys will ticket you for 51 in a 50.

Unrelated: are you from Poulsbo?

I tend to agree. Granted, my first speeding ticket was coming back from the Gorge (rookie mistake, but at least I was not drunk and/or high!), but the cops are EVERYWHERE in the metro area. Last time I was there, I rented a car in downtown Seattle to go see the tulips, and saw 8 speedtraps, each with a cruiser clocking people with laser and multiple moto chase units, up and down I-5, in the 8 hours I had my rental car. I can go MONTHS in the SF Bay Area without seeing a single speed trap.

Eastern WA is just so much less populated.. maybe they stand out more, but they're not as common IMO. Granted, your speed will be higher when you DO get busted, and there are definite speed trap downs like Ritzville and Colfax, but I never found it to be anywhere near as bad as the metro areas.

And yeah, they can just fire all those assholes. They're absolutely terrible and do nothing to promote road safety -- it's the exact opposite.

Only on I-90. For some reason, nobody enforces speed limits on the toll bridge that tech workers take to Google/Microsoft...

Well, 520 used to not have any SPACE for cops. Occasionally they'd hide out at the little cutout for the bridge maintenance people. I'm not sure how this has changed, didn't they widen the bridge or something? Maybe there's more space for cops now.