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10 21

Seattle at nighttime.

A beautiful city next to Puget Sound and surrounded by mountains.

But it's a nightmare to drive. I stopped going to Seattle almost a decade ago. It's maddening being stuck in gridlock traffic with nowhere to park downtown. After driving hours over the Cascade Mountains to get there.

Locals wisely take the bus. Outsiders like me don't know where bus stops are located nor which buses go downtown.

LiterateHiker 9 Mar 18
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10 comments

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1

There must be a website for the public transportation system. My city is a small one, and we have a great online system for the buses.

2

Lived in Seattle 🥀 for over 22 years and took an express bus to work every day. The city had one of the country's best bus service. For a while one could even take the bus in the downtown area for free. Unfortunately, the drunks screwed everything up. Slowly traffic got worse and worse. Now there is a pay tunnel which is great but one misses the wonderful views from the raised roadway. In my part of the city there is a huge bridge connecting that part of the city to the central portion. I have driven over that portion literally thousands of time. A couple of years ago it was found to be in danger of collapsing and is now closed. This bridge carried tens of thousands of cars and a lot of busses every day. The problem with this city and many other large cities in the country is they are so busy building more infrastructure there is no money for maintaining the existing infrastructure. Trying to build a way around problems only leads to more problems.

3

Born and raised in Seattle, I had a view of the Space Needle from my house growing up. Used to be easy to take the bus into town when I was a girl. I moved away in 2007, but before that I used to drive into town a couple times a week from the suburbs and usually found parking, though I admit to timing my trips for non-peak traffic times.

Now when I visit Seattle, I'm happy to be driven around by family who are more comfortable with getting around and best places to park. I've gotten used to island driving where I live now, which means no one is in a hurry and other drivers let you in, so no stress with merging. None of that mainland big city driving, which I don't miss a bit!

1

Love Seattle. I used to work there once a year.

3

I miss Seattle. I worked at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the early 1980s until the joint operating agreement took effect with the Seattle Times. Then at various print shops around the area. I've been to a couple of baseball games and just use the park and ride right by I-90 in Bellevue and take the bus to the stadium. I am sure there's a site you could find for a park and ride at the northend of I-5 since you'd probably go over Steven Pass. I regularly shopped at Pike Street Market for vegies and cheese.

2

Great shot. Sooo very colorful for nighttime.

2

Ah, memories...

I don't have much to add but my agreement. We lived ten years mostly on the east side of Lake Washington in Bellevue and Issaquah and for us there might as well have been a wall in place of a lake.

It just wasn't worth the trouble to go towards the city. We loved the people in the area but avoided the society.

2

Boston likewise. One of my favorite sights is riding the red line across Longfellow bridge at night, with the skyline aglitter in both directions across the Charles basin. I don't even bother trying to drive the city, it's too much chaos.

3

I live 9 miles away across the sound and only get over once or twice a year.

5

I loved visiting Seattle, and I loved leaving it as well. I loved living close enough to visit. Some day I will get back there.

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