Snoqualmie Ridge to Redmond - 90/405 or Red-Fall City road? (Seattle: home, living)

[CDGlen]

I'll be moving out to the Seattle area in the near future and have been focusing on Snoqualmie Ridge. I've only done the drive during weekend visits, so I'm curiuos if folks have suggestions on the route during peak commute hours. Online maps tell me 30 minutes, but I have to believe 45 minimum.

If folks have other suggestions on private golf club communities that are driveable to Redmond, I'm all ears

[jenlion]

I prefer the drive through Fall City. Much prettier and, I think, a little faster in traffic.

You might get there a little faster depending on where you are going in Redmond by going up through Sammamish, but it's hard to say for sure. Usually, I go back up 202 and I pinch myself that I actually live here.

Not much for golf, but I think there's one at Redmond Ridge. Trilogy? Crazy traffic down Novelty Hill road at rush hour, if you're headed in toward MS main campus, say, but some people like it.

[CDGlen]

Thanks! How long of a drive is it for you on 202 to Redmond during the week?

[jenlion]

I've only driven a few times during the week -- I come home (to Redmond) from a drive into the mountains on I-90 and have to choose whether to go through North Bend and Snoqualmie or to stay on 90. The weekday afternoons that I've done it there's been no traffic at all on 202.

I think it would probably be different in the mornings, though. It's a two-lane road a good part of the way. Not many lights once you are through town, but there's the roundabout in Fall City (I don't know of any roundabouts in the US that people actually seem comfortable driving in), a big/long light in Sammamish at Sahalee, and then the mess in southern Redmond between Sahalee and 520. If you're going from Sahalee/202 to Microsoft main campus at rush hour, it's at least 30 minutes, sometimes more. It's a little better than it used to be since they finished the on-ramp to 520 there, but it's still pretty jammed in the mornings.

So, if you're going not-at-rush-hour, it's roughly a 30 minute drive. At rush hour, I'd guess it could be 50 minutes from Snoqualmie to Redmond on 202. On 90 to 405 to 520... probably about the same.

We have a friend that lives in Snoqualmie and works at MS main campus. If you're serious about the daily commute at rush hour, I can ask him. (For what it's worth, he hates living there).