Archive for November, 2014

 

 

Snowflake Lane – George White Location Photography

Magic Season is upon us in Bellevue and while Santa’s got his sleigh and reindeer to keep him off the roads, you’ll be facing some congestion and looking for parking. Not to worry! Choose Your Way Bellevue can get you into the city so you can spend more time enjoying the festivities and less time— or no time— in your car!

Follow these guidelines to getting into the city to enjoy Magic Season!

Magic Season Commuting and Transportation Tips:

TRAFFIC UPDATE: Nightly closures of Bellevue Way between Northeast Fourth Street and Northeast Eighth Street will begin Friday, Nov. 28, from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Full closure details can be found on the City of Bellevue website.

TRANSIT UPDATE: Beginning Friday, Nov. 28 through Wednesday, Dec. 31, from 1 to 9 p.m. each day, Metro Routes 246, 271, Rapid Ride B and Sound Transit Route 550 will be rerouted near Bellevue Square due to holiday traffic. Visit King County Metro for specific reroute information.

RIDE TRANSIT: More than 20 Metro and Sound Transit bus routes come through the Bellevue Transit Center in the heart of downtown. Park your car at one of the nearby park-and-ride lots, such as the South Bellevue, Eastgate, or South Kirkland Park-and-Ride lots and take a bus the rest of the way downtown for shopping and attending downtown events. Visit the online trip planners at King County Metro or Sound Transit to plan your route.

TRY THE B-LINE: Metro’s RapidRide B Line route begins at the Redmond Transit Center and ends in downtown Bellevue with stops through Overlake, Crossroads and all along NE 8th Street.

TRAVEL WITH FRIENDS: Carpooling is a great way to shave time off your trip downtown. Be sure to use the direct access ramp at NE 6^th Street off of I-405, as well as the HOV lanes on I-405, I-90 and parts of SR 520. Transit and 3+ carpools and vanpools can now take advantage of the new direct-access HOV ramp on 108th Avenue NE to SR 520.

AVOID CONGESTION: Heading to the Bellevue Collection? Save time and skip the NE 8th Street exit off of I-405. Use NE 4th Street instead. Or make a jog to NE 2nd or NE 10th to avoid backups.

PARK NEAR THE PARK: Free on-street parking is available for up to 2 hours on and around Main Street in Old Bellevue. You’ll be just steps from your favorite Old Bellevue restaurants, boutiques and ice skating!

SAFETY FIRST: With even more people out and about, please use caution when making turns, and look out for pedestrians.

VANPOOL PERK: If you’re a primary authorized driver in your vanpool, you can use a certain amount of mileage for personal use. Round up your family and take a trip downtown with your vanpool! Refer to this official King County Metro Vanpool manual for details on “Personal Use.”

Download these mobile apps to help you get around in real-time.

• ONE BUS AWAY: Taking the bus to complete holiday shopping? Download the OneBusAway app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone and have real-time bus arrival times at your fingertips. onebusaway.org.
• INRIX TRAFFIC OR WSDOT: Both apps will keep you in the know on real-time traffic and travel information. Save time by avoiding the backups! inrixtraffic.com and wsdot.gov

 

It’s a quarter to seven and you’re circling the park-and-ride for several minutes only to find almost no parking spaces. The clock is ticking and you see the lights of your bus approaching the park-and-ride. Luckily you find what seems to be one of the last parking spaces. You zoom in and rush to catch your bus as it pulls in front of your stop. It’s a reality some of us face as commuters who park and ride transit for our commute. Hopefully that struggle to find a parking spot at a park-and-ride will subside with a new program that is being implemented by Sound Transit and King County Metro. The agencies are currently running a Vanshare promotion that could guarantee you a parking spot.

The King County Metro Vanshare program provides groups of five or more a van to use for the first or last ten miles of their commute. Vanshare is intended to bridge the gap between transit, trains and ferry and a user’s destination. But how does it work? Think about five different people taking three different bus routes all meeting at a park-and-ride and hopping in a van together to head off to a work site or office park. They don’t all have to work at the same building, just the same area where they could park once. They are saving money on the front-end by riding a bus to the park and ride, and are saving money on the back-end not paying for three parking spots.

The reverse is also true. You could find five people that are all driving alone to a certain park-and-ride to catch their specific bus. All five could meet at a common parking place, hop in a van and park in their reserved spot at their park-and-ride and then all go their separate ways to work once they arrive.

Metro will provide a van, gas and insurance to any commuter starting or ending their trip in King County for just $185 per month. On The Move Bellevue can help you find your vanshare partners.

Not only that, Metro and Sound Transit are currently partnering on a promotion to get more transit riders to form home-to-station vanshare groups. For a limited time Metro and Sound Transit are offering half-off the monthly fare to the first six groups to start a home-to-station vanshare driving to Sound Transit station lots or Park -and-Ride facilities. Additionally during the first six months the minimum ridership requirement will be lowered to three from five riders and the van will be provided with a guaranteed parking spot at the Sound Transit park and ride or transit center.

In short, if you find two other people to share the ride in a vanshare to a park-and-ride, the cost would be lowered to $92.50 for the group, or $30 per person per month for a guaranteed spot. The more people you get to fill your van, the less expensive it will be per person. Simple, right?

Sound Transit Park-and-rides that are eligible for the promotion are:

Auburn Station (633 spaces)
Federal Way Transit Center (1,190 spaces)
Issaquah Transit Center (819 spaces)
Kent Station (996 spaces)
Mercer Island Park-and-Ride (447 spaces)
North Seattle Interim Park-and-Ride (156 spaces)
Overlake Transit Center (222 spaces)
Tukwila-Int’l Blvd Station (600 spaces)
Tukwila Station – Sounder (208 spaces)

Call 206-625-4500 for more information and to form your vanshare today!