Travel time to Seattle/Seatac from the Olympic Peninsula (Tacoma: real estate, apartment)

[BellaDL]

Although we are more than 90% sure of relocating to the Olympic Peninsula after our visit to Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend, there is still a nagging concern about the travel time to Seattle/Seatac area.

We drove to Port Angeles from Seatac Saturday afternoon and the driving wasn't too bad. It took 2.5 hours with occasional mild congestion in few spots. Coming back from Port Townsend to a hotel in Des Moines near Seatac on a Friday afternoon was another story.

We decided to take the Kingston Edmond ferry to avoid Tacoma traffic. We were told that the ferry service is scheduled for every half an hour. When we got there, there was only a handful of car ahead of us & boarded the ferry after about 35 minutes. The ferry ride was relatively short and we were one of the first ones to depart.

The drive from Edmonds to Des Moines was excruciating slow. The car was crawling at 10-15mph with many standing still periods and it was during mid-afternoon! It took 1.5hrs to go from Edmonds to Des Moines instead of the GPS-calculated 21 minutes travel time.

The total travel time from Port Townsend to Seatac area was over 4 hours with the ferry option. I expect it would have been as long or longer if we had driven around Tacoma.

The return trip experience makes us somewhat leery of living in the OP. We don’t expect to travel to Seattle/Seatac area often in our retirement years. However with my husband’s somewhat adverse reactions to long periods of gray skies, we are likely to take many trips to sunny locations during winter months. There is also the possibility of medical issues requiring visits to specialists in Seattle.

I’d like to know the typical travel time and the strategies Olympic Peninsula residents use to go to Seattle/Seatac. Should we only book weekend flights and flights later in the day to make sure that we could make it? Which mode of transportation is more predictable? Using the ferry or driving? If we have to go to Seattle for appointments during weekdays, do we have to book late morning or afternoon slots or do we have to stay in a motel the night before?

Thank you in advance for your insights.

[Dendrite]

Originally Posted by BellaDL

I’d like to know the typical travel time and the strategies Olympic Peninsula residents use to go to Seattle/Seatac. Should we only book weekend flights and flights later in the day to make sure that we could make it? Which mode of transportation is more predictable? Using the ferry or driving? If we have to go to Seattle for appointments during weekdays, do we have to book late morning or afternoon slots or do we have to stay in a motel the night before?

Hi Bella. My perspective as an ex-Seattlite is that I think it's important to recognize the traffic situation around Seattle in that it has some of the worst traffic in the nation:

Study: Seattle traffic fourth worst in nation - Local - MyNorthwest.com

I think your weekend travel time of 2.5-3 hours from PA to SeaTac is about right, as long as there are no delays (traffic accident, heavy rain/fog, snow/ice, road construction, slow poke RV's etc., etc.). A potential problem of living out on the peninsula in PA, Sequim and to a lesser degree PT, is that there is really only one way in and out of town, that being Hwy 101. If for whatever reason 101 is closed for an hour or more (usually due to a traffic accident) then you are simply stuck and not going anywhere. If you look at a road map of the peninsula, you'll see what I mean.

Week day traffic in and around Seattle, as you experienced, can be horrible, particularly during "rush hour" which usually means "rush several hours".

Should you drive or ride the ferry from the peninsula to Seattle/Tacoma/SeaTac? It depends. On the weekends if you can hit the ferry departure time just right with minimal time spent hurry up and waiting to load on to the ferry, then it can be a little faster than driving around via the Narrows Bridge. On weekdays, all bets are completely off given commuter traffic. Weekday traffic can add hours to your trip as you noticed.

It seems I've spent most of my life riding WA State Ferries (WSF) so it doesn't hold much magic for me anymore. That and given the fact that I'd rather be moving (albeit very slowly in traffic) than sitting and waiting, waiting, waiting in the ferry holding area means that we usually drive rather than ride WSF.

For weekday appointments in Seattle, I'd shoot for an early afternoon appointment time such as 1:00. This would have you driving in to Seattle later in the morning when most of the traffic should have settled down (at least somewhat...). If you head back to the peninsula by 2:00 or 2:30 in the afternoon after your appointment, then you'd be across the bridge and back on your way home to PA/Sequim/PT before the Seattle metro weekday afternoon traffic starts to get really interesting. I know it's a narrow window but the option otherwise is to deal with Seattle traffic like the throngs of Seattle metro commuters do every week day. Not the end of the world but I know it can be frustrating, particularly if you're in a hurry to get somewhere.

Usually the only time we get a motel and stay in Seattle is if we have a flight from SeaTac the next day that we just don't want to risk missing, such as an international flight.

You've mentioned that you are interested in PT. One way to look at that area is that you would be that much closer to Seattle and SeaTac than if you were out in PA!

My $0.02 for you. Hope it helps!

[Hemlock140]

I would never depend on the ferry to get there on time, all it takes is missing the boat by 1 minute to delay you 45 minutes. As often as I go up and back I probably hit the ferry 1-2 times a year when I miss the boat by 2-3 cars.

I would drive around, taking 101 to 104 to 3, then 16 to I5 north to Seatac. Last weekend I went up that way on Friday after work and it took 3.5 hours with heavy congestion from Fife-Gig Harbor. I returned Sunday afternoon and it took about 3.75 hours via the Kingston Ferry to I5 to 520 (I live in Sammamish) and I got right onto the ferry, with light traffic all the way. The fastest route used to be the Bainbridge Island ferry, but the seawall replacement makes it a mess by Coleman Dock. If you are going to Seattle, it's still the best route, but for the Airport I'd go with driving around.

[TrueTimbers]

If we have to get somewhere south of Seattle we drive around, across the Tacoma bridge.

North of Seattle we take the coupville ferry and drive down.

Way I see it Seatle roads are.always conjested, minimize your time on them. Enter the Frey at the point closest to your destination.

Kinda neat to take the coupville ferry then go to the south end of Whidbey island and take the mukilteo ferry and be right in the heart of the north side with little or no interstate travel..

Also if going downtown for heath care, just walk on and do public transportation.

[BellaDL]

Dendrite,
You brought up an important point we did not consider, i.e. Hwy 101 being the only way in and out of town!
Shorter travel time to Seattle area was one of the reasons we gave PT an edge over PA.

Hemlock140,
Although our PA b-n-b hostess highly recommended us taking the ferry and told us that she used it all the time, our one time ferry experience convinced us that we should not depend on the ferry to get somewhere on time!
From what Dendrite and you had advised, the best strategy is to travel during non-rush hours and to drive around instead of taking the ferry.

TrueTimbers,
Next time when we are in the area, we will check out the coupeville ferry and the mulkilteo ferry routes. It is also good to know that one can walk on the ferry and use public transportation.

All,
I now have some sort of ideas on how to handle travel concerns if we live in the OP. We were in Seattle area for 2 weeks in 2010 while building our plane at Glasair factory in Arlington. The traffic was bad at times but I don't recall it was anywhere as bad as what we experienced on our return leg on this trip.
We still love the OP but after learning more about transportation issues in this thread, we think that we should also consider other places such as Anacortes which appears to be easier access to the mainland.
So I will add Anacortes to my PA, Sequim and PT house searches. If there is another special house like the one on Old Eaglemount Rd in PT or one meets our requirements at a good price, we will check it out asap.

Thank you.

[Dendrite]

Originally Posted by BellaDL

So I will add Anacortes to my PA, Sequim and PT house searches.

We like Anacortes a lot. It's one of our favorite towns. Fidalgo Island overall is beautiful. Timbers mentioned checking out Whidbey Island and I agree with his suggestion, particularly the central area of Whidbey (between Coupeville and Langley). You do have to pay attention to jet noise from the NAS in that area though. Another possible location to look at while you are in/around Anacortes would be Camano Island. Northern Camano, like Anacortes, catches some of the rain shadow weather. As it is for Anacortes, Camano is within easier striking distance of larger metro areas- Bellingham to the north and Everett to the south.

[BellaDL]

Dendride,
Yes, I did check out Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. I was surprise by the cheap real estate price then learned that jet noise was likely the reason for bargain homes.
We spent a day in Camano Island in 2010 after finishing building our plane. It was a very tranquil and pretty island. My recent research showed that it also benefited from the Olympic rain shadow effect. Unfortunately, the airport on the island is very small with a runway of something like 1700' x 26'. Our Sportsman could take off and land there but we would like a runway of at least 2100'.
Anacortes has both a nice airport and a rowing/boating club. The housing stock especially ones with acreage is somewhat limited.

[elkotronics]

Camano Island is largely undeveloped and beautiful. We rented an apartment in nearby Stanwood for three years and I love that area.

[Gardyloo]

A lot of people recommend the Edmonds-Kingston ferry which frankly baffles me. The Bainbridge - Seattle boats are bigger, more frequent, and you avoid I-5 north of the city (as well as the Edmonds - I-5 leg, which can also be slow at times.)

Time of day in transiting Seattle is key. In the afternoon, the I-5 reversible "express" lanes (which run between the northbound and southbound "main line" lanes) are dedicated to northbound traffic, from downtown Seattle to Northgate, where they merge back onto the main line. If you're heading south at that time (e.g. from Edmonds, Mukilteo or anywhere north) you will often hit a wall of cars right at the Seattle city limit (145th Street) that will extend all the way to and through downtown, because the southbound capacity of the freeway is so constrained. This is true on weekdays, weekends, doesn't matter.

Coming around through Tacoma can be equally vexing too, depending on traffic through south Tacoma and downtown. There, the coming and going of commuters to and from the military bases (JBLM) south of Tacoma, and, to a lesser extent, Navy traffic to/from the Kitsap Peninsula, can slow things down to where - again - the Bainbridge option might well be faster. From downtown Seattle to the airport, you have both the I-5 freeway, SR 99 freeway, or surface streets, so more options than just I-5.

[CrazyDonkey]

Yeah, if looking for a house with acreage, you might want to fan out a little further from Anacortes: Bay View, LaConner, Bow, Fir Island, Stanwood, Lake Goodwin, etc.