Commuting from West Seattle to Eastside (Bellevue, Redmond: transfer, neighborhood, university)

[sofia76]

Okay, so I've looked up the bus schedule and so far all I can make out is that there is a 560 express bus that leaves the Fauntleroy area of West Seattle and takes a little over an hour to get to Bellevue - is that the only direct bus? It goes to Sea-tac for some reason, which feels a bit out of the way ...

[Inkpoe]

I doubt there'd be a quick direct bus to Bellevue from W. Seattle.

I used to take the #550 from Bellevue DT to Seattle DT all the time back in the day.

Just get into Seattle, go into the International Sta. (tunnel) and take the #550. It used to come in 15-30 min increments, so I don't think that would change.

http://www.soundtransit.org/x13259.xml (broken link)

[Ira500]

There is no direct bus from West Seattle to Bellevue, but West Seattle to downtown Seattle is pretty quick, depending on where in West Seattle you are, and downtown Seattle to Bellevue is also a fairly quick trip. So between two buses and waiting for them, it's likely over an hour.
People do it, and they also do even more painful commutes.

[SaltyDawg]

I love West Seattle. I work on the Eastside.

I never considered living in West Seattle just because of the ridiculous logistics of the commute, be it by car or transit.

Face it: FOUR freeways - I-5, I-90, I-405, 520. To say nothing of the West Seattle "Freeway" (they changed the name to 'bridge' some years ago to pretend that not calling it a freeway would slow people down).

Doable? Sure. Desirable? Nah. But if you can keep weird hours or have a stomach for infuriating commutes (and dealing with the vagaries of daily occurences on 4 different highways will provide infuriation), then yeah, you could pull it off.

[azoria]

The biggest problem with a west Seattle/eastside commute on the bus is the transfers. If you have to be some place exactly on time (like work) any bus that isn't running on time is going to cause you to miss all the subsequent connections.

I'm commuting from west Seattle to the east side of Mercer Island. I take the WS 54 downtown, then take the 550 Bellvue from the tunnel. Not a bad trip really if everything is running right. This morning the 54 was 10 minutes late. That caused me to miss the 550 I needed to catch the next connecting bus on Mercer Island. Bingo, late to work.

[sofia76]

Hmm. Okay. Thank you, all! We got the word today that we are definitely moving, so I'm trying to whittle down my neighborhood options here.

[AlohaHuey]

Originally Posted by SaltyDawg

I love West Seattle. I work on the Eastside.

I never considered living in West Seattle just because of the ridiculous logistics of the commute, be it by car or transit.

Face it: FOUR freeways - I-5, I-90, I-405, 520. To say nothing of the West Seattle "Freeway" (they changed the name to 'bridge' some years ago to pretend that not calling it a freeway would slow people down).

Doable? Sure. Desirable? Nah. But if you can keep weird hours or have a stomach for infuriating commutes (and dealing with the vagaries of daily occurences on 4 different highways will provide infuriation), then yeah, you could pull it off.

You can avoid I-5 and 405 commuting to the east side. I found the surface streets (4th, 148th) to be faster than I-5 and 405, respectively.

It takes me 45 minutes to get to Redmond Town Center from West Seattle.

[t.hopkins]

Yes the airport is out of the way between west seattle and bellevue. Via downtown is your best bet but watch out for the transfers. The 54/55 bus routes make no stops between WS and downtown which is nice but they are still in traffic which can overwhelm the WS bridge and 99 at rush-hour. There are surface street alternatives (21,22,56,57) and a rapid bus line that might have lane priority is planned.

From DT the express bus makes no stops until bellevue. But that too is dependent on traffic conditions. However, if you are making a reverse commute (out of the city in the AM, back in the PM) you should be facing all the drivers stuck in traffic. Though I think commuting from the city to the eastside has gotten increasingly popular, what with microsoft and all the growth in downtown bellevue.

Driving shouldn't be so bad. The WS junction to downtown bellevue on I-90 is 20 minutes w/o traffic and up to 50 w/ it. If you lived in north beacon hill/rainier valley, or the central district (regarded as 'ghetto', they are less nice than WS, but gentrifying and yet still cheap) your commute would be 15-30 mins. On the hill and in the valley you'd have access to the new light rail line to downtown. If you resided in capitol hill, montlake, madison park, laurelhurst, the university district, or wallingford (all nicer and pricier than WS) then it'd also take 15-30 mins cut you'd be using the 520 bridge, which has an express bus and is supposed to have a new light rail line soon.

[sofia76]

Thanks for all the info. At this point I've crossed West Seattle off the list., Now I'm am studying up on Central Seattle and Queen Anne (I've researched Ballard, Wallingford, Green lake, Ravenna, Madrona, and they are still on maybe list). Hubby def wants to take transit, but his schedule will be flexible, so he might be able to avoid the worst traffic times. He'll be at MS, which is right near Bellevue TC.