Your experience with Renton/Kent/New Castle to Seattle commute? (Spokane: to rent, daycare)

[agaace]

Hi everyone,

We're looking for homes:
- in the north part of Kent, kinda mid-way between Renton and Kent, particularly East Hill-Meridian, Cascade Fairwood, Maple Heights neighborhoods etc
- south of Renton - Talbot Hill etc.
- the neighborhoods in that corner between Renton and New Castle

Now trying to figure out the typical morning/afternoon weekday commute to Seattle (South Lake Union in particular) and Google isn't very helpful saying "somewhere between 45 mins and 1h 40 mins". That's quite a wide range..

Does anyone actually live in one of those areas and commute to Seattle? Can be a different part of Seattle than SLU, I'm familiar with Seattle traffic and can interpolate traffic to SLU from there. Could you share if the daily commute is realistically closer to 45 mins, or closer to 1h 40 mins? Or is it really as unpredictable as Google claims? We're currently living north of Seattle, so completely unfamiliar with traffic patterns down there.

I'm looking at the worst case scenario, so that'd be 8am / 5pm commutes. But any feedback on how quickly it fades off would be helpful too, as my commute times are semi-flexible. Say, is 7am or 10am much better or just as bad as 8am, based on your experience? What time in the evening does the traffic get back to non-rush?

Google says, from Kent, it's the part of getting on 167 up to I-405 is the worst (or cutting through to I-5 that's equally bad) and adds like 30 mins to the otherwise not so bad commute, is that fairly accurate? Are there any other known back-up places along 167, I-405 and I-5 down there? I'm planning to try the actual commute in weekday rush hours myself, but would be great to hear feedback from someone who actually does it daily and knows the traffic patterns.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

[amaiunmei]

Originally Posted by agaace

Hi everyone,

Now trying to figure out the typical morning/afternoon weekday commute to Seattle (South Lake Union in particular) and Google isn't very helpful saying "somewhere between 45 mins and 1h 40 mins". That's quite a wide range..

Here are all the known bottlenecks between Kent and South Lake Union, in no particular order:

167 (this road gets backed up frequently)
I-5, especially the area from Airport Way north through the U-District (this area is well-known for density backups)
99 (again, density makes this a bottleneck)
405 (this road has been bad for years and will only get worse as time goes on)
the Mercer Mess (How did the Mercer Mess happen? - Mercer Mess)

Yes, that range sounds about right. Your average commute could easily go all wrong if even ONE accident happens in that time period, because density means that the roads are jammed already and there's almost no chance of those issues being resolved anytime soon because the density is only going to increase but the roads cannot expand.

Your commute will likely start at one hour, and that's on a good day. You will likely want to play around with this: 95% Reliable Travel Times

Know that -- again, due to density -- going from downtown to SLU can add another 10-15 minutes onto the estimate given by WSDOT because of density and traffic bottlenecks.

[Wellieboots]

We live Kennydale, which is in the Renton/Newcastle vicinity that you mentioned. My husband and I both commute to downtown Seattle and we take the bus. There's a direct route that takes about 30 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes coming home. For what it's worth, I never ever drive; not only would it take twice as long to commute, but traffic is incredibly frustrating. We both get to work at 7:30am...I leave work around 3:30 and get home at 4:15.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by agaace

Hi everyone,

We're looking for homes:
- in the north part of Kent, kinda mid-way between Renton and Kent, particularly East Hill-Meridian, Cascade Fairwood, Maple Heights neighborhoods etc
- south of Renton - Talbot Hill etc.
- the neighborhoods in that corner between Renton and New Castle

Now trying to figure out the typical morning/afternoon weekday commute to Seattle (South Lake Union in particular) and Google isn't very helpful saying "somewhere between 45 mins and 1h 40 mins". That's quite a wide range..

Does anyone actually live in one of those areas and commute to Seattle? Can be a different part of Seattle than SLU, I'm familiar with Seattle traffic and can interpolate traffic to SLU from there. Could you share if the daily commute is realistically closer to 45 mins, or closer to 1h 40 mins? Or is it really as unpredictable as Google claims? We're currently living north of Seattle, so completely unfamiliar with traffic patterns down there.

I'm looking at the worst case scenario, so that'd be 8am / 5pm commutes. But any feedback on how quickly it fades off would be helpful too, as my commute times are semi-flexible. Say, is 7am or 10am much better or just as bad as 8am, based on your experience? What time in the evening does the traffic get back to non-rush?

Google says, from Kent, it's the part of getting on 167 up to I-405 is the worst (or cutting through to I-5 that's equally bad) and adds like 30 mins to the otherwise not so bad commute, is that fairly accurate? Are there any other known back-up places along 167, I-405 and I-5 down there? I'm planning to try the actual commute in weekday rush hours myself, but would be great to hear feedback from someone who actually does it daily and knows the traffic patterns.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Talbot Hill will be easy, especially if you take the bus. It's only a five minute drive from Talbot Hill to the South Renton Park and Ride, and from there the bus has very few stops until it gets to downtown Seattle.

[homesinseattle]

Ouch! Any chance you can consider a closer in location like Beacon Hill, Columbia City or Seward Park? Those areas have really improved.

[cmswazey]

I live in W Seattle and commuted to Factoria- not far from Newcastle- for 5 years. So was going the other direction. My commute time varied from 45 minutes to 2 hours during rush hour. 23 minutes off peak.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by agaace

Google says, from Kent, it's the part of getting on 167 up to I-405 is the worst (or cutting through to I-5 that's equally bad) and adds like 30 mins to the otherwise not so bad commute, is that fairly accurate? Are there any other known back-up places along 167, I-405 and I-5 down there? I'm planning to try the actual commute in weekday rush hours myself, but would be great to hear feedback from someone who actually does it daily and knows the traffic patterns.

I used to drive a similar, but reverse, commute - LQA to Renton. Lessons:

* Avoid I-5 through Downtown (between I-90 and Mercer St) like the PLAGUE at all times except off-peak. Just pretend that stretch has been captured by zombies. Traffic on I-5 is also frequently clogged as far south as 1) Spokane St and 2) Michigan Street.

* Find ways to by-pass I-5/Downtown. The Viaduct/99 is the WAY to do that, BUT will be torn down in a few years - the replacement tunnel will be TOLLED, so may not be an option. The "official" alternative will be Alaska Way along the Waterfront, but that will have upteen stoplights and take you to Belltown/LQA, NOT SLU.

Alternatively: 1) exit I-5 at Dearborn -> Rainier Ave S -> 12th Ave S -> Boren Ave -> [Denny Way -> Westlake Ave N] OR [Fairview Ave N -> Mercer St]; 2) exit at Spokane St -> 4th Ave S -> Dearborn, etc.; 3) take the Michigan St (Georgetown) exit -> Airport Way S/7th Ave S -> King St -> 12th Ave S, etc.

Another possible route that completely avoids I-5: Renton -> MLK Way -> S 129th Ave/50th Pl S -> 42nd Ave S/S 115th St -> E Marginal Way S -> Boeing Access Rd -> Airport Way S, etc.

Anyway, you get the idea. If driving, ALWAYS have an alternative route, even several.

OR, drive to the Kent Sounder Station, park free, and take Sounder to King St Station (about 30 minutes) -> ID Light Rail Station -> Westlake Station (10-15 minutes?) -> SLU Streetcar -> SLU (10-15 minutes?).

[agaace]

Thanks so, so much everyone for the input! Very useful!

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Ouch! Any chance you can consider a closer in location like Beacon Hill, Columbia City or Seward Park? Those areas have really improved.

We'd love Beacon Hill but pretty much outpriced from there. Or any other area with decent schools. Schools are number 2 priority for us (priority number 1 being the budget).

Maybe today was an unusually good day (despite 2 accidents on I-5), but I tried the Kent -> SLU commute this morning between 9 and 10am (to be in Seattle by 10 am) and it took me 42 mins door to door. Google had predicted 45 mins. I'd be ok with that commute if it was the average at that time of the day, as my work is flexible enough to allow me to get to work at 10 am or even 10.30, and it would allow me to stop by daycare/preschool on the way. While my husband commutes at 5 am, so morning traffic is not an issue for him.

The only slowdown was downtown on I-5 between exits 162 and 165, which would have affected me no matter where I was commuting from anyway, unless I actually lived super close to downtown. I believe there was also a 3 mile long parking lot at the 167 / I-405 intersection (as I peeked at it going the opposite direction) but Google took me around it and it was pretty much a breeze.