Daily commute from bellingham to Seattle

[mistercommuter]

good gosh, the severity of the suburbs-to-seattle commute options mirror those of san francisco and its suburbs

as said, move closer to where you work
otherwise, try to either telecommute, commute during off-peak hours, or work closer to home

or commute four hours daily and suffer

[poopskooper]

Originally Posted by mistercommuter

good gosh, the severity of the suburbs-to-seattle commute options mirror those of san francisco and its suburbs

as said, move closer to where you work
otherwise, try to either telecommute, commute during off-peak hours, or work closer to home

or commute four hours daily and suffer

Yes, good advice, mistercommuter. I too am all for living as close to work as possible. The more time you can spend with family or spend on time doing more enjoyable things than sitting in traffic, the better.

However, in all fairness, Bellingham isn't exactly considered a "suburb" of Seattle. Few will make that daily commute (although, yes, there are some) as who would want to spend 4-5 hours just commuting every day. There is no high-speed transit alternative so it really does make it prohibitive to actually choose the option of exploring Bellingham as a place to live if one works in downtown Seattle.

[lightning31]

Originally Posted by Gigihsu

Have anybody tried daily commute from bellingham and Seattle? I checked the traffic, looks impossible to do so unless it is leaving at 5am at arrive at 630am to avoid traffic. Is there anyway around it, for some example, drive to outside of Seattle somewhere, and then take a train somehow?

I just visited Seattle, and the traffic is just horrible, shocked me.

I did this commute for about 6 months from Bellingham to Capitol Hill area for an internship...it can be downright hellish and it's expensive. I can't really sugar coat it. If you have something that's really keeping you in Whatcom Co. then I guess it'd be worth it.

I usually left around 8:30-9:00am and I find that in good traffic it will take you no less than 1:40 if you drive the entire way and that was before the bridge collapse in Mt. Vernon.

The Sounder from Everett is *very* unpredictable in the winter months to level that's frankly inexcusable for a major metropolitan area. I've personally been on it riding home from Seattle to Everett when they've closed the tracks due to a mudslide. You can kiss any semblance of a schedule goodbye when that happens.

As far as bus service, you can take some express buses from the Everett Station and they aren't so bad, keep a decent schedule and frequency throughout the day. I was always able to find parking but like any park and ride -- earlier is better.

The South Everett Park and Ride along the freeway is not a reliable option, it fills up pretty early.

Oftentimes, I would park at the Mountlake Terrace Park and Ride at I-5 and 236th St. SW. It has very frequent express service downtown and as of a couple years ago had good parking at any time of the day.

The traffic in all of Western Washington has the potential to become a nightmare if the conditions are right given the underbuilt freeway and intercity transit system. Thus, if you can leave reasonably close to work I would say to do so.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

What people aren't mentioning is the ice storms in the winter. The freeway from Bellingham to Seattle can get closed down due to ice. There may not be that much snow, but it's icy. It would be hell commute in good weather, I just can't even imagine it in winter.

I lived in both Bellingham and Seattle.