When I first moved to Seattle, the lack of stop signs in most residential neighborhoods blew my mind! But when I started biking to work, being able to just look both ways and breeze through without stopping was amazing.
Not sure if Seattle is still like this or if it was confined to specific neighborhoods (I lived in Leschi until 2018).
This is common in a lot of Seattle neighborhoods, but the custom doesn’t extend beyond the city limits. For the most part it just works, but when I’m in a car with someone not from the city I always need to inform the driver or they just expect right of way. I lived near one of these intersections and personally witnessed two collisions over ten years. Neither were serious. I think these intersections largely work as a custom, save for the people not already accustomed.
The other thing I love about Seattle is that in a lot of places you could park on either side of the street facing either direction. Another one of those weird customs that people just seemed to go with
It's still very common outside of the cores of highly urbanized neighborhoods. I generally like it, but sometimes the visibility isn't as well-maintained as it should be.
Portland has some neighborhoods like this with uncontrolled intersections. They also allow cars to park all the way up to the curb, so it becomes a game of go and pray since you often can't see cross-traffic until you have already entered the intersection.
Not sure if Seattle is still like this or if it was confined to specific neighborhoods (I lived in Leschi until 2018).