Seattle to Bellevue Commute? (home, live in, suburbs)

[chilove]

Hello all,

I live in West Seattle and am considering taking a job in Bellevue. Am I crazy? :-) My other option is a company in the central district but I am much more interested in the position in Bellevue. How bad would the commute be for a typical 8-5 day?

Thanks so much!

[pw72]

No, you're not crazy...many Puget Sounders commute to different suburbs all the time. The West Seattle to Bellevue commute could be as quick as 15 minutes or as long as an hour. All depends of conditions. Listen to the radio traffic reports, choose your bridge, (520 the alternate), and hope for the best. It ain't always pretty, but still beats the unpredictable conditions that can pop up in L.A., or other large metros.

[kmfseattle]

I commute from Capitol Hill to downtown Bellevue M-F for an 8-4:30 position, and don't have too many gripes. I took 520 for a while, but have since switched to 90 despite the longer distance - just tends to flow better, and the whole thing doesn't come to a halt if a car happens to stall on it like 520 does. 90 east bottlenecks before the first tunnel, but tends to speed back up once onto the bridge. It takes maybe 25 minutes on any given morning, I'd allow a bit more time to cross the west Seattle bridge but shouldn't be terrible.

The drive home always take a bit longer, and 90 west backs up pretty bad connecting with both 405 and 5 south. Or, at least it appears to as I cruise by each afternoon towards comparatively open 5 north. Still get home in 45ish minutes each day. Definitely bearable.