Late Night Bike + Bus Adventures

Contributing Author:  Kathy Dunn

On April 17th, a hot tip told me the Tokyo String Quartet was performing at UW Meany Hall that night…it would be their last performance in Seattle since they are on their final tour.  Transportation plan: take my bike and Metro to Ballard, then bike the final four miles along the Burke-Gilman Trail to the 7:30 pm performance.

I had an hour and a half to get from Alki to the UW.  They don’t let you into the concert if you arrive late.  I could probably have biked the whole way but I wanted to arrive dressed up a bit and not too sweaty.  I loaded my bike first on Metro Route 50 and then on the  Rapid Ride C Line.

I was traveling comfortably on “Rapid” Ride toward my stop at 15th and Leary Way in Ballard when I realized in my hurry to catch the bus I had changed to a fancier bag and left my bike lights at home.  How was I to get home in the dark?   I have a bright red flasher on my helmet so I was OK from the rear but what about the front white light?  I don’t keep one on my bike since they are pricey and easily stolen.

At 7 pm I left Ballard on my bike while I still had daylight and made it to Meany Hall in time.  After a brilliant concert with an exquisitely performed Ravel Quartet in F (Second Movement)  I had to decide:  find a bus to downtown and transfer to the Rapid Ride C on 3rd Avenue, or hazard four miles of the B-G trail in the dark without a front light.  The weather was mild so I decided to cautiously bike the trail to the Rapid Ride D which would take me from Ballard to the Alaska Junction.

There is a detour on the B-G trail to the street for several blocks near the University Bridge.  The UW is constructing a test section of their upgrade to the trail.  Returning from the concert, I stayed on the sidewalk through the detour route and never had to bike on the street.  Yeay (!) for Seattle letting cyclists use the sidewalks as long as we are courteous and give right of way to pedestrians.  The sidewalks have pretty good lighting.  Not so much on the multi-use Burke-Gilman Trail.  It is extremely dark in many places.  It could really use some low level lighting shining on the path.  I think UW plans to install some of this in their upgrade.  I used my bell a lot when approaching other bikes to let them know I was there. As overcrowded and dangerous as the B-G Trail can be on Sunday afternoons, on a Wednesday night at 10 pm you pretty much have the trail to yourself. I resisted the temptation to stop at  Brouwers Cafe or  Hales Brewery; I didn’t want an  “RUI” accident while traveling without  a front light.  At the edge of Fremont, I gave the “Missing Link” a pass and stuck instead to the south sidewalk of Leary Way.  This is a much safer route between Ballard and the “U” in my opinion.  A big plus is that the sidewalk is fairly well lighted and has nice wide curb ramps at every intersection.  The sidewalks could have been wider but that is true just about everywhere in Seattle.  Timing was great at the RR stop on the north end of the Ballard Bridge, one minute after I arrived at the stop I was riding it home to West Seatte.  At the Alaska Junction I just missed the 50 bus to Alki and it only runs hourly late at night.  So to kill an hour I had an overdue dinner and that long awaited brew at the Matador where I watched the 14th inning of Mariners v. Detroit.

I could have carefully biked on the sidewalks from the Alaska Junction to Alki, but then I wouldn’t have had that nice dinner and beer.  I could have driven my car to UW and parked in their garage for $10 along with several hundred other concertgoers (there was quite a traffic jam coming out of that garage).  But I only had to spend $4.75 for bus fare.  And I had a little more adventure on my trip.

When the Link is extended to UW in 2016, It will definitely be faster getting from West Seattle to Meany Hall by public transportation.  I might just get season tickets to some of the fantastic Meany Hall Performing Arts Center events.

The last 50 bus of the day that leaves Alaska Junction at 11:48 pm was nearly full.  It’s a shorter bus now, but still, I was impressed with the ridership at that late hour, and most riders rode all the way to Alki.  Alki lost its late trip from downtown (until 1 pm) when the 56 stopped running off peak in the September service change.

This is why I like to park my bike in the Junction when taking RR to events downtown or at Seattle Center.  You never know if you’re going to be home in time for that last trip.


Thanks Kathy for the great story!  This is a great example of how anyone can get around Seattle by combining a bike with bus rides.

Metro and Sound Transit have great info for people wanting to use transit with their bikes:

And if anyone wants to practice loading their bikes onto a bus rack, Alki Bike & Board in the Admiral District has a rack that they put out on the sidewalk every day…free to try out!

Timing the RapidRide C

Metro has been criticized about RapidRide, especially the C line from West Seattle.  So why write about it on a “bike” blog?

Well…we just want to talk about general transportation that’s sustainable.  We also feel getting around by bike is most efficient and enjoyable.  So we’re going to do a comparison today.

(Jeff Hallman is the author of this post)

I left for the bus stop at 7:24am.  Keep in mind this is a random Wednesday morning (April 17).

Left for the bus at 7:24am

My closest bus stop is at California Ave & Findlay, just a few blocks for me. I love seeing the mountains in the morning!

Views of the Olympics on the way to the bus!

I got to the bus stop at 7:29. The Orca card reader is nice, and makes loading passengers a little faster.

Short walk to the bus stop for me.

I must have gotten lucky because the bus arrived in about a minute, and I had a seat waiting for me. Nice!

On the bus in ~1 minute!

The bus was standing-room only by the last stop in West Seattle, before getting on the bridge. The upper West Seattle Bridge had a lot of traffic, but nice that the bus has its own lane.

We slogged along toward downtown through tunnel construction, but I’m in no rush and have Wifi to make this post…a real-time update! We arrived at 3rd & Pike at 8:00am. Not bad, but biking would have taken me ~25 minutes to get here.  It’s a little over 6 miles to get to 3rd & Pike, and I generally average ~15mph riding speed for a normal commute.  This would take me ~1 hour to run (yes, I sometimes run-commute).

Got to 3rd & Pike in ~30 minutes.

No major issues getting through downtown. The bus was about half full after the 3rd & Pike stop. I guess a lot of people either work downtown or are making transfers. Seems that cars avoid 3rd Ave where most buses travel.

My final destination was 15th & Newton in Interbay, just north of the Magnolia Bridge. Distance is right at 9 miles. The bus arrived at 8:16am, so it was ~50 total minutes for my commute by bus.  I take the bus maybe once per week, and generally the RapidRide (for me) is 40-60+ minutes (ride time only) depending on traffic issues, so today was typical.

Took ~50 minutes to get to final destination.

My bike ride takes 35-40 minutes (door-to-door), no matter what time of day or what traffic is like. Here’s a recent commute I did showing this (I log all my runs and rides using GPS):

[iframe height=’405′ width=’590′ src=’http://app.strava.com/activities/49032155/embed/6b5cb8dc367f94d642e71504da05d485eef2847d’]

Since it seems a lot of people commuting from West Seattle may work in downtown (based on my observations of how many people get off the bus there), I wonder if they realize it could be more enjoyable by bike.  Notice I didn’t say faster, since most people aren’t as fast as me riding a bike.  Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder (or standing) on the bus isn’t terribly enjoyable for me, but it is nice sometimes to relax, be warm & dry, and catch up on email, reading, news, etc.

This morning I got lucky and didn’t have to wait for the bus.  But some days I wait 10-15+ minutes.  And on the return trip I’ll sometimes wait nearly 30 minutes before a RapidRide bus comes along.  On my bike I can hop on and go.  Riding the bus becomes very inefficient once you factor in the time waiting for the bus.

I am lucky to have showers available to me at work.  The time for showering after a bike ride cancels out the time showering at home before going to work and riding the bus.  But in all cases, biking saves me time commuting versus taking the bus.

 

If you’re reading this and would like to commute by bike, please join us or contact us and we can help!