I rode ALL kinds of Seattle transit in 4 hours (even the monorail)
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
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This video relied heavily on the Sound Transit and King County Metro websites:
www.soundtrans...
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Produced by Dave Amos in sunny San Luis Obispo, California.
Edited by Ryan Alva in Los Angeles, California.
Audio by Eric Schneider in cloudy Cleveland, Ohio.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
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I'm dumb! I called an audible to ride the light rail between the ferry and streetcar, which means I didn't need to include my first light rail trip in the total time. So my real speed run time is: 3:58. I'm sure some Seattleites will figure out a way to beat that time.
Speedrunner here: Routing runs like these is the most difficult part. You already are aware you can cut out the initial Light Rail from the time since it's already on there later on too. No big deal, a moderator for the leaderboards would've noticed this and done this for you if you hadn't.
I don't know how many stops your express bus made. If it was more than one, you can save time on this same route on the next run by only starting the run and getting on at the penultimate stop. The same goes for monorail at the end, which it looks like you did.
Good job!
Call it deadheading.
8:40 Seattle already has a way to pay with your phone for most modes of transit, the TicketGO app from Sound Transit
Side note, there is a mode of tranist you left out: the King County Water Taxi
funny how london Speedruns of only one mode an last 8 hours or more
You forgot my favorite busses and what I used to ride every day. Sound transit express busses are a great commuter option to get to other major areas like Redmond (545) and Bellevue (550). They are also the comfiest busses I’ve been on! A true missed opportunity!
During my freshman year of high school in Seattle, they got rid of the school busses and gave every student an unlimited orca card. It was awesome.
When I lived there in ‘’07-‘09, they had a “ride free” zone in the downtown area for all students during the daytime. Not sure if they still have it. That was pretty cool for a starving college student 👍
Bellevue lookin ass
@@Pretermit_Sound -- No more ride free zone. :( Gone forever.
@@buckyharris9465 I wondered if they’d keep that going. That sucks. Thanks for the update.
@@Pretermit_Sound SPS gives all Middle and High school students orca cards
Honestly if Hong Kong, Istanbul, Sydney, and Vancouver have taught me anything, it‘s that ferries are an underrated system of public transit
What about Amsterdam haha, from Noord to the center theres 5 lines which have ferries leaving every 10 minutes. Everyone on the ferry w the bike as well, amazing!
Yup in Lisbon for example there are 10 ferry lines (with more planned for the future) which in 2019 carried 28 million people, about 40 thousand per day
Shummy Booy - Ah yes of course! How could I forget the free one in Amsterdam?
As a person forced to use WA state ferries, I beg to differ sir.
what about toronto?
As a Seattle resident, I would argue that there is a bigger distinction between our WSF ferries (like the one you took - slow, targeted more towards cars than foot commuters) and our express/commuter ferry network (connecting various cities across the sound, even West Seattle) to the same downtown terminal you rode out of. They are so much smaller, newer, and FASTER it feels like a totally different experience! Much more modern, and really feels like a great way to move commuters into and out of the city.
True, however, the Bremerton, Bainbridge, and even lesser so Kingston runs bring a lot of passenger only commuters west. So I think he grouped them loosely together because it basically does the same unique thing.
@@Fakeaorta Then I think it would be easy to improve this speedrun a lot if you take the Water Taxi to West Seattle, a bus to the Alaska Junction, and the C express bus back to downtown... Over all these three modes shouldn’t take much more then an hour. Definitely shorter then a round trip to Bainbridge
@@rokksula4082 I live in Edmonds my experience with depending on three modes of transportation each way is troubling.
@@Fakeaorta If WS ferry and KC Water Taxi is considered the same mode, I guess the free shuttle bus 773 from the Seacrest Park ferry terminal to the Junction would be considered a Metro bus. It takes less then 20 min and is connected to the arrival of the ferry. So in theory you could finish the ferry + bus in around 30 min.
Then there you have to wait around 10 min for a 20 min ride on the C (express bus) to Downtown. Timed correctly you could finish the three modes in just over an hour.
Way more pedestrian commuters ride WSF than the fast ferries tho.
Seattle native who loves your channel, Seattle transit has been ramping up recently and our light rail system is expanding to be one of the biggest in the country. Im so excited to see where our city will be in the next 5 years!
The shot of Seattle from the ferry made me miss Seattle so much.
Your honesty not missing much the views are nice but it's becoming ungodly expensive and homelessness is out of control
@@andrewputnam2717 local government incompetent as always, though the mountains are beautiful
@@andrewputnam2717 Becoming? Its been that way since the turn of the century. Atleast in the 90's it wasnt as expensive, even though the homelessness has always been an issue "thanks" to the city's open arm policy to addicts
Welcome to Seattle! Unfortunately I’d say you forgot one mode of transportation, the water taxi system. They’re small, pedestrian-only ferries that run fast! lines between Seattle, Vashon Island and the Kitsap Penninsula. Check it out the next time you’re in Seattle, they also have great views and good chances to see marine wildlife!
I grew up there and rode the ferries but I didn't know about the water taxis! I'll have to check that out next time I visit.
I'm not sure but I think the film got a picture of a Water Taxi at 11:44. Or is that boat corporate? It doesn't look like a pleasure craft.
@@oregonsenior4204 That's indeed a Water Taxi, says it on the side of the boat. Nice catch!
You forgot the water taxi to West Seattle. I’m afraid you will have to come back and do another video. Also if you consider the monorail legitimate mass transportation and not a tourist trap, you have to include the Duck too.
And the actual express buses
The monorail is legitimate mass transportation. Unfortunately, too many people don't realize it. If you don't live close to the Seattle Center, you would probably not think of it that way. But there are a lot of people who take it from downtown to Lower Queen Anne (Uptown). That's why they pushed to force the operators (who are hired by the city) to accept ORCA cards. Eventually they will increase frequency and make other improvements, as it will play a significant role in getting people to and from the hockey games (and hopefully basketball games).
@@rossbleakney3575 of course a lot of people who live in the lower Queen Anne neighborhood or currently now known as uptown officially by the Seattle City council ride on the route D or the one the two the three or the four or the number 8 or the 32 along with several others
Despite its problems, the monorail does in fact transport you from one place to another. The Duck does not.
I was going to say the same, specially since there is a water taxi in the video
What do you think of transit speed running? Which city should I speed run next?
LONDON :)
London xD And do it with Geoff Marshall :P
London
Speed run Washington DC, Fairfax county, Arlington county, Alexandria, Prince George's county, and Montgomery county public transit. Basically the speed run the DC metro area
Try doing Rotterdam!
As a Vancouver resident, it's great to see how transit is like with our neighbours to the South!
Also from Vancouver :) I agree
Fully vaxxed Seattleite here. Can't wait for the border to open and I get to use your super-modern SkyTrain and exploit the purchasing power difference to splurge on poutine, wine, and Chinese food!
Vancouver transit is sooo much better! Love visiting 🇨🇦🍁
@@AnywhereChrista Canadian Weeb🙂
I feel like you really skimmed over future expansions in this. They're doing a lot more than just a few light rail stops each direction, there's 3 whole new lines going in over the next 20 years and much more expansion to the existing one than you mentioned. They are also building a real BRT system along 405 (i think it opens in 2024, edit oops it's been delayed to 2027) and expanding the Sounder.
Speedrunning tip: you should've started with the ferry as it takes the longest round-trip. Start the timer getting on the ferry at Bainbridge and go from there. Going to Tukwila round-trip takes a while too but you get 3 modes done so it's worth it.
right, i'm living in the lynnwood area (between everett and seattle) and theyre tearing out so many businesses and buildings for some huge expansions to the light rail coming in 2024 i believe as well, i was confused why he didn't mention that
@@abaddon2148 Ikr Lynnwood station is something thats huge
I agree, but it’s not just future development; the whole video is taken out of context, which is that the Seattle area had no light rail system for decades and only in the late 2000s did they decide to build it. So the link light rail is brand new by light rail standards; the rail didn’t run to the airport until 2009 I believe, and didn’t run through the downtown tunnel until the mid 2010’s (before that, it was just buses. Then it was both light rail and buses for several years, and now it’s just the light rail). So it’s not like there is some existing system that they decided to expand, it’s that we are in the process of building the overall system in the first place.
@@asmodiusjones9563the light rail opened in 2009 and has always gone through the downtown tunnel, but for around a year it ended at Tukwila International Boulevard Station before going to the airport
That boat at 11:45 is actually another kind of Seattle transit you missed! That was a county-run, walk-on-passenger-only water taxi. There’s one that runs between downtown Seattle and West Seattle.
I know, but it used to be part of the WSDOT ferry system, so I counted it as a ferry.
@@CityBeautiful - IIRC, there's also a -water taxi- 'fast ferry' between Seattle and Bremerton that uses the same station, which makes the trip in half the time of the car ferry (30 minutes, about the same as the Seattle-Bainbridge trip). Something to keep in mind if you ever want to explore Kitsap County in the future.
@@CityBeautiful I think that’s true for 1/4 (the Bremerton line, although it used to be faster but had to slow down because waterfront property owners complained about the wake. That apparently killed the political will for future expansion with WSF in Olympia). But I think the other 3 (4 if you count the one opening soon and 2 of which are Metro not Kitsap) are new
This was so fun to watch! I'm from Costa Rica, and since I graduated high school my biggest goal in life has been to make the move to Seattle. Getting to see not only how different transportation is in Seattle in comparison to here but also getting a different view of the city itself from all the means of transit you rode was so amazing. Thank you so much for uploading this! I really hope in the future I get to do something similar to this myself.
Man I'd love this to be a series of some sort. Just going around and speedrunning transit in different cities.
Maybe I'll make it a habit when I travel.
I'd ask for you do this for Leeds, England but that would be really boring. We have Bus, Rapid Transit Bus, and Commuter rail atm. A West Yorkshire speed run might be fun tho, or a Leeds in a couple year if the WYCA mayor keeps her promises.
@@tsareric1921 I think that for the UK Geoff Marshall is more or less doing just that.
@@CityBeautiful Would love to see one for the Bay Area (or just SF?), given that you mentioned taking the Capitol Corridor it seems like you might be more familiar with transit around here
@@sirBrouwer Agreed, has he done sommat like this in the UK for the tube or sommat? Leeds Transit is still Shit AF tho.
The nice thing about the "Compass" transit pass in Vancouver is it's linked to your online account (it's a plastic card) so if you have money loaded on it, you don't lose the money if you lose the card (you just get re-issued a new card connected to your account). This was a big issue previously, when you'd buy your paper 1 month pass for $90 and be screwed if you lost it during the month.
Seattle's ORCA cards are also connected to the online account, but I'm guessing he didn't register his.
@@DanielHeppner This is correct. You have to go online and register your ORCA to transfer funds.
Portland's Hop system ties to your Google account, so if your phone has NFC, you don't even need a separate card.
I want the same video for every major city on earth. Should keep you busy for a decade or two
as someone who lives in Seattle, I have friends who had this as a daily commute until covid made the employers realize they did not need them to do all that and just work from home
Brave of you to take the 8 bus, a.k.a. the Late Bus. In morning or afternoon rush I've seen triple-bunching and it's faster to walk if you can handle the hills.
Great song about the number 8 being late. ua-cam.com/video/aHJE99hrRQQ/v-deo.html
Ha! I had the same thought. I let out a slight gasp when he said he was waiting for the rt 8 😂
Looks like fun and something I'd want to attempt someday but maybe include trolleybuses.
One unique feature of the ORCA card and Puget Sound's regional fare system is the acceptance of transfer credit across all operators (except state ferries). You get two hours of unlimited rides of equal or lesser value from the moment you pay. If the service you are boarding has a higher fare than your first boarding, you only pay the difference and your two hour transfer clock resets.
I got massive sticker shock when I visited the Bay Area to ride a bunch of transit and realized that transfers between BART and Muni and other operators are not free even with a Clipper card.
Atleast for the MUNI operated transportation, there is a day pass for like 5 $ for buses and the historic street cars, but not the cable cars where a single ride is 8 $. But BART is a problem. Bart only has transfers to pay for. They will also lock you in until you have paid for the fare. This is unflexible.
Awesome video! I love and miss the Northwest! In my 25 years of growing up and living in the Northwest/Seattle metro area (been gone several years now), I used the following forms of transit: bike, skateboard, car, bus, train, light rail, monorail, canoe, row boat, small/local cruise ship, ferry, small prop plane, commercial airplanes (prop and jet). This video made me realize how many forms of transportation are available there. Wow!
the steamed up glasses is a big mood
That's what people with glasses always experience during the pandemic, lol
Yeah, I hate that. Finally got some good masks today. Life changing.
😆🤣🤣
Great video. Yes, Seattle was late to Light Rail. After the subway vote failed, Seattle went to build one of the most robust bus systems in the US, which included the downtown transit tunnel that light rail runs in now, so while light rail didn't run until 2009, having a tunnel beneath the CBD of Seattle was a huge advantage. While Portland definitely was ahead, and their system is longer, its only built for 2-car trains. In downtown Portland, their light rail runs on the surface sharing the street with other traffic. So Seattle LRT has been more expensive and has taken longer to construct, but has higher ultimate capacity.
I briefly lived next to a bus tunnel station right before they switched to light rail only, and it was *really* nice to be able to take the long distance bus (the 550) to Bellevue (the city on the other side of Lake Washington) through the tunnels- once that bus line stopped being able to use the tunnels traffic became a much bigger problem for it.
Fortunately that bus line will eventually be replaced with light rail when the East Link extension finishes in 2023, I’m excited for that!
Awesome video! I think you forgot to ride the trolleybuses. I think they should be considered different from regular buses because they have extra infrastructure that is exclusively used by said trolleybuses. It's also worth mentioning that Seattle is one of very few cities in America that has them too!
High time we got some videos on seattle. What a complicated transit city this is. You have all the competing interests (wsdot, sound transit, king county metro, swift, everett's bus system) and public aversion to rapid change (the Seattle process). But the biggest problem for Seattle is LAND. Seattle is squeezed between the ocean and the mountains (or at least hills), with a whopping ONE rail line going along the coast to the north, ONE highway dividing the city, and TOO many people for these modes to support. When the light rail is finally finished in 2040 (!!!) transit might have progressed to using teleportation it will be so far in the future
I think we have more than enough land, seattle even without west seattle (which is basically a fogiegn country with the bridge out of service) is double the area of Manhattan Island. The biggest problem is Seattle is actually has a split identity between the 80% single family home zone suburban area and the rest, with everybody commuting between sprawling suburbia and dense ubran downtown within the same city, it makes cars hard to use with traffic and puts strain on a transit system because most people cant walk or ride bikes to work, the store ect. the limbo of being both a urban and suburban city makes a bunch of unsatisfactory half measures necessary. I mean I live near the heart of the city and still mostly use a car, like, its really dumb, I just want a grocery store thats less than a 10 min walk but nope, stuck half way inbetween 2 dense cores that I cant afford to live in
@@SuicidalLaughter Seattle definitely COULD modernize and fix the problems. But to do so, you'd need to tear something down, even temporarily. Nobody is going to give up their waterfront house for another bridge, for example. The city suburbs are too disconnected from the main city to be linked by anything but a central transit system like the red line, and we only have one tunnel below the city.
@@SuicidalLaughter You are absolutely right. Seattle's transportation and homelessness problems both stem from its widespread and rigid single family housing zoning.
It's always fun to watch folks moving about in your town. Glad you got one of our sunny days - just don't tell too many people how nice they are.
15:55 Convention Place station won't reopen...it was closed permanently in 2018 because the expansion of the convention center was ON the Convention Place station site. The light rail didn't even stop there to begin with, it was for buses only
just stayed in seattle this weekend. i rode the regular bus, light rail, ferry, and ride share bikes all around downtown. hope to come back to try the other public transport
You really ought to try this again. You missed a few modes of mass transit, such as the Water Taxi, the Kitsap Fast Ferries, the actual Express Busses (Operated by Sound Transit) and the Community Transit busses in northern Seattle. I would also suggest the waterfront shuttle if they were still operating; after all, it is another form of tourist transit like the monorail. The bike carriage guys down on the waterfront would also be a great meme. Nice video.
Seems like something Geoff Marshall would do in London
Great video! Thanks for showing off our city's multi-faceted transit system! FYI: the Convention Place station won't be reopening. Permanently closed due to convention center expansion. You'll have to come back in 2024 after the big boom of light rail expansion!
Love this! I live in Tokyo (been here in Japan for 6 years now), and thinking of moving to Seattle. But the transit here is just so amazing and I have been worried to leave it - this is great to see what Seattle transit looks like! Thank you!
Hows the comparison between transit systems if you ended up moving?
been following your channel for a while, welcome to my city Seattle. The weird thing here is there are many options -- buses, light rail, ferries, bikes, cars, ride share, scooters, but none of them work particularly well.
for the year, everything just ran empty, hope it recovers soon. The pandemic made cars work well without the congestion while they put up all the bike lanes and street parking to make streets narrower. I philosophically support bike lanes, but I barely used myself and dont really see them used by others even in this good weather.
Jack of all trades master of none
As someone who moved from Denver to Seattle, I was blown away by how well the transit system works in comparison lol I think the express busses and light rail are great here!! They’ve always been on-time, frequent, and reliable for me. Also I love the ferry between West Seattle and downtown, it’s gorgeous
I just got a job in Seattle and am moving soon. I came to your channel a week ago to see if there was Seattle content and I'm happy this popped up on my feed today :)
I really wish the Sounder went to further places, especially Olympia. Still, it's my favorite thing ever in the Seattle area to ride on, its fun and relaxing. I also love the ferries when it's beautiful weather.
Can't wait for the galleys to reopen on the ferries. Nothing beats ordering a beer and kicking back while in transit :)
I'd love it if Sounder reached to Olympia. First, the area would need to be part of ST, and second, there would need to be agreements to get into the capitol area of the city via the tracks that serve the port area because that Amtrak station in "West Olympia" is too from any job center to end there.
Great video, and always happy to see my region represented. I can definitely confirm as a RapidRide user that you indeed do not usually look at the schedule, in fact if the buses are ahead of schedule they will just keep on going, unlike many lines. If buses are coming every 5 minutes, traffic is going to make schedules more of a suggestion
2 minor nitpicks:
- there's only 1 light rail line at the moment, the 2nd line is being opened very soon, the 2-line, is nearing completion and a lot of signage is being updated, so I could imagine thinking there's 2 lines based on signage being updated
- not all Seattle city buses are KCM, but they are the main one you will ride, Sound Transit also operates buses, albeit those buses usually connect cities, in some neighborhoods of Seattle you will use them to go between stops in Seattle. I ride the bus with my dog, and the two agencies have different dog policies so I had to be cognizant of that, lol
They’re expanding the light rail north of Northgate, too, and are building a station just down the road from my house! The city upzoned everything around it and I’m just excited to see that R-1 zoning come down 🥰
Also fun fact: the federal funds that were earmarked for Seattle in the 60s ended up going to Atlanta after Seattle passed on the opportunity
Rapid Ride doesn’t usually have its own dedicated lane, but the right lane along much of 99/Aurora (along with many other streets Rapid Ride runs on) is restricted to right turns & bus only
I moved to Seattle last year and coming from a city with a subway system, I did find the city's transit system to be underwhelming (COVID probably added to the fact).
That being said, I love this type of content, gives you a feel for different areas and when I travel I do tend to take public transit so this is super cool to me!
Pyongyang transit is superior
Berlin U-Bahn Class D rolling stock traveling through beautiful stations and Czechoslovak trams for the win. And the fare for our metro is dirt cheap. 5 Won, even less than a penny in USD (.0006 USD). Cheap, efficient, and reliable
You missed the foot ferry from downtown to Alki. It’s really fun especially in inclement weather.
With the West Seattle bridge closed that would be a HIKE! 😂
Luckily there is ongoing renovation for the monorail thanks to the Seattle Kraken. Hopefully it can improve by October
There are actually 3 types of buses in Seattle: Commuter buses (like #8, #250, etc.), the rapid rides (A-F), and then there are SoundTransits that are basically for express rides between far areas, such as 550, 566 - some of them go outside of King County.
When we were courting, my now wife and I planned in advance a trip using the Sydney's $5 day rover ticket. We started at about six in the morning one Saturday and caught Every ferry route in Sydney linked with one bus trip, our journey ended after 9pm and every meal was taken on board a ferry. It was a very memorable thing to do.
yeah, I used to take the buses that went to the bus tunnels for some family trips, a particularly fond memory is of going to the Intl. district and visiting this fantastic restaurant
I too wondered about trolley buses. Like Vancouver, Seattle's trolleys plug in to hydro dams so their carbon footprint is zero.
I agree that they are better than regular busses but I wouldn't call it "zero emmissions". The power from the dams goes into the national grid, which means that anything using it is preventing the power from going somewhere else and someone who would have had their home powered by the dam is now using coal.
Most of the buses in downtown Seattle are dual electric (meaning, they have a normal diesel motor but can run exclusively on electricity from an external source, which are these two huge antennas on the back that maintain physical contact with power lines above). This was how the buses were able to operate in the underground tunnels; no exhaust.
@@asmodiusjones9563 They need to find a way to do that with battery busses. Imagine a system where instead of spending a bunch of time recharging (and refueling isn't instant either), busses were just reassigned to a trolley route to charge while they operated.
@@RRW359 They have found a way and it's been in common use for a few years already. It's called "in motion charging" and most newly built trolleybuses in Europe can run for 15-20 km in battery mode and then they recharge while driving under the overhead wires. Even Dayton's new trolleybuses have this feature.
@@ganz3995 I knew Dayton was doing interesting stuff but I thought the reason Battery-only busses usually have 100+ miles while Trolleybusses have a dozen or so is because it's meant for sections of a route not having wires rather then running on fully wireless routes.
What I'm envisioning is that smaller cities could get battery busses with trolley connections and then run them without wires like normal battery busses, but then slowly make wires if demand becomes too much to have lots of time spent charging.
Nice tour! I do want to submit a few small corrections to the voiceover:
- Light rail expansion is actually under construction in 3 directions: north to Northgate (2021) and Lynnwood (2024); east to Bellevue and Redmond (2023-24); and south to Federal Way (2024). Fun fact: the eastern extension (Line 2) will be the first railway to travel over a floating pontoon bridge, having taken over the former freeway express lanes on Interstate 90.
- The Convention Center's station in the bus tunnel will sadly not be reopening, as the space was used for the loading zones for the new convention center addition.
And some special mentions:
A recent addition to the transit smorgasbord here is the smaller passenger ferry fleet, which has two modes and operators: fast ferries operated by Kitsap Transit from 3 suburban/exurban terminals; and slower water taxis operated by King County.
Metro also runs the second-largest trolleybus network in the U.S. (behind San Francisco Muni), which are the successors to a pre-1941 streetcar network. The trolleybuses are needed because of the hilly terrain and survived two attempts to abolish it altogether, with the latest fleet debuting in 2016. From 1990 to 2016, this fleet included a special dual-mode bus made in Italy exclusively for routes using the bus tunnel; after the first battery hybrid buses were added, these dual-mode buses were converted to electric-only, which meant we had high-floor suburban buses on urban routes...quirky but ultimately a pain.
The region's suburban buses (many of which are operated by other agencies), including one of the largest double-decker bus fleets in the U.S. Sound Transit Express buses are in fact operated by three local agencies (King County Metro, Pierce Transit, and Community Transit) but with common branding. These suburban operators also have (or are building) their own BRT systems that are leagues better than RapidRide. Swift (Community Transit) has 2 lines and stations spaced a mile apart with full off-board payment, rear door boarding for bicycles, automatic stops, signal priority/queue jumps, and semi-exclusive lanes that make for a quick ride.
Three cheers to Dave for undergoing this ordeal! I love hearing how a savvy visitor perceives our awkward, fragmented transit system. A few things made me grin. 1) The Pioneer Square light rail station! That's my transit home -- I catch the train there several times a week. I love the high vaulted ceiling. 2) Our 2 streetcar lines -- yes, they seem primarily an instrument of gentrification, rather than practical transit, and walking is sometimes faster. But Dave really should have ridden the First Hill line, which is much longer & more useful (I ride it all the time). 3) The number 8 bus -- I guess it was well behaved that morning, but regular riders will probably tell you that it's almost always late, and usually VERY late.
That underground light rail is absolutely perfect! They basically made a subway without having to invest in heavy rail. That's a genius idea.
Except it sadly had the same cost of a subway at the end, so... Yeah. :(
Seattle Run: Every Transit Type Any % CHALLENGE!! NEW WORLD RECORD???
RIDING EVERY TRANSIT TYPE IN SEATTLE AT 3AM!!!!!! (GONE WRONG) (I ALMOST DIED)
I'm way late, but the Monorail is also used extensively before and after Seattle Kraken hockey games and is a safe, quick way to transport large amounts of people later in the night between Seattle Center & Westlake station, as you don't have to exit Westlake Mall & can take the escalators all the way down to the platforms.
Cool idea! I want to do this in Rotterdam now, with bus/lightrail/train/waterbus/metro
Cool idea!
You and I think alike! Nothing better than exploring a city transit system. I’m in Rio de Janeiro right trying to ride all the transit types. Would be fun to make a video like this here. They’ve got a similar mix of transit including ferry, old tram, lightrail and buses.
As a monorail frequent, I can say with 100% certainty that the monorail opens at 7.
I was looking for a comment about this. I’m certain that the hours he’s referencing were the covid hours!
Great video Dave, I've lived in Washington my whole life (but never in the Seattle metro) so it was great to get this overview of all modes of mass transit in and around the city. But one note, learning that you lived in Portland makes you pronunciation of Vancouver even more upsetting.
Gonna go do this for Boston: Metro, Light Rail/Streetcar/Whatever the Green Line is, Rapid Bus, Commuter Rail, Bus, Ferry, Blue Bike.
I live 5 minutes via public bike away from a commuter rail/metro station, so taking the train to South Station, taking the Silver Line to the airport and the ferry back, taking a downtown green line trip, and returning to home via the commuter rail and a short bus ride would be a full round trip on every mode.
So Boston also has a small fleet of trolley bus lines, mostly around Harvard with the other one being the Waterfront part of the Silverline. I’ve lived on the Belmont trolley bus line and didn’t know it is interpreted as a different mode.
The bikes are also not part of the MBTA system but are owned municipally so I would count them in this city transit adventure, and they are an important part in addressing last mile trips from major hubs.
u throwing shade at the green line??
I would not distinguish the Silver Line by pretending it's anything more than a bus. How would you treat the Mattapan High-Speed Line?
I recognize the Seattle monorail from the episode of Frasier where the city hosts "Frasier Crane Day", and Frasier and Niles struggle to get to the park in front of the Space Needle. While they're riding the monorail, a mechanical malfunction happens and they're forced to return to the original station, so they miss the event.
That was the 100th episode of the show, and the city of Seattle hosted a real Frasier Crane Day event ... on September 11, 1997.
this seems like a genuine fun thing to do on a random weekend in your local city
yeah bruh i live near seattle im like should i do this 😂😂
Leaving this as a note for anyone who wants to do this challenge (maybe myself): I'd set a hub at U District Station, take the 31/32 bus to Seattle Center, monorail to westlake, light rail to capitol hill, streetcar to pioneer square, water taxi to west seattle, minibus to alaska junction, rapid line back to downtown, and sounder down to tukwila. Speedrun complete, then a rapid line and light rail to get back to the U District Station hub. This route also minimizes turning back on yourself and allows for the most exploration of neighborhoods :)
You make studying cities so much fun, as well as informative. Thanks for the adventure.
I grew up in Seattle and left in 2015 when I was 18. I never liked the city when I lived there (weather and frigidity), but during my annual visits, I've seen the city grow and become a world-class city (for better and worse). Seattle's public transit system is simply one of the best on the West Coast, and in the country.
Hick towns called themselves world class, Hong Kong and New York don't call themselves anything. Seattle should ban Led Zeppelin reruns and ranch dressing.
I loved this video!!! I live in South Everett, which is north of Seattle and I very much dislike our public transit. I guess living in Beaverton, Oregon (near Portland) for four years prior to moving here is the main reason as to why. I think my favorite part of the Puget Sound's transit system (of which there are many) is the ferry. Where I live, bus is the only option to Seattle and it is very limited to early morning and evening times. Unfortunately, it is much more convenient to take a car, however that may be changing due to the construction of the light rail line north to Lynwood as of now. Personally, having lived in Portland and having been to Vancouver, BC a million times, I would say that Seattle has the worst transit out of the three, with Seattle being the most complicated. I'm not sure if you noticed but you probably went through several systems of transit, there are many in our inefficient transit system such as King County Transit, Community Transit, Sound Transit, Everett Transit, Skagit Transit, Pierce Transit, and more.
Love your work. Never realized the ferry system in the Seattle area was so vast. I know you've done a Vancouverism video before and it would be awesome if you did a transit system video of my city as well.
I grew up here in Seattle. You filmed the coffee stand but there’s also a cafeteria that is closed off as well due to the pandemic. It was always a treat when our parents would get us food from there!
A great use of the Monorail now is connecting transit users for the new Kraken NHL (hockey) team Seattle has, every ticket to a Kraken game comes with free transit passes and being able to take the Link Light Rail into Westlake downtown and then hop on the Monorail to go to Seattle Center for the game has been fantastic and they gave the Westlake Monorail station a bit of a facelift and upgrade along the way.
When you went through the turnstiles to get on ferry the first time you can see where you swipe your orca card because you didn’t need to buy a separate ticket.
So a little additional info on the Orca card. There are a couple ways to use it. You can load it with a monthly pass if you are an every day user which basically gives you the return trip of the day free and you can add additional funds to your epurse for use on the ferry or to make up the difference if you take a trip past your normal stops. Pre pandemic I took the bus to Seattle from Tacoma and then took the Train back. The train is slightly more expensive so I would load my card for that amount. I miss riding transit looking forward to getting back to it.
Someone get Geoff Marshall doing London ASAP
He’s already done it 12 times since 2002 lol
@@user-de4cq6uk6l that's a tube record, it won't cover the cable car, the Thames clippers, buses and probably doesn't include overground, trams and the DLR
I guess then the question becomes: what counts as a separate mode in London?
Are Crossrail and Overground one mode (commuter rail) or two?
Are Subsurface and Tube lines one mode (metro) or two? The DLR would presumably be separate (light metro).
Would there be a separate category for express buses as in this run?
@@OntarioTrafficMan so London doesn't (to my knowledge) have any express buses I'd say crossrail and overground are separate although I have no clue how services like Thameslink and Heathrow Connect fall into this... My head hurts already
@@aston-s true
Great video!! Super fun to see all the variation in transit in one city. You should totally do this for the Bay Area as well! It has a ton of different systems, and it'd be a great opportunity to talk about the importance of different cities cooperating in regional transit. (And what happens when they don't, lol.)
As a graveyard worker in Puyallup I find the whole transit system to be useless, but I guess it's good that it's available for the daywalkers.
you would think it would be better in the heart of the city, but it isn't, if NYC is the city that never sleeps, Seattle is a city that sleeps hard, it just fucking dies from 12am to 6am, the only condolence is there is absolutely no traffic during those times so if you do have a car you can get anywhere in king county in an hour
Glad you enjoyed the ferry gangways loading passengers on and off the ferries, as I was in closely involved in building them back in the 1990's and early 2000's. I'm glad the ferry gangways are still working - and if you had seen the old gangways they replaced, you'd have been petrified with fear!
As someone that lived in the Seattle area for many years, it was great to see your trip. I will suggest you consider addressing the environmental issues of the different modes. For example the ferries are notoriously horrible in air pollution per rider. Streetcars, being electric, produce a lot less air pollution and noise pollution compared to diesel buses. For those of us with asthma, that is super important. Someday, when more buses are battery-electric, this deficiency will be greatly reduced.
I can't wait for the East Link extension to the East Side. While Bellevue and Redmond are car centric edge cities as of now, with the light rail + current plans to create more walkable spaces and parks I could see them becoming really nice urban spaces in the future. Bellevue is actually a really interesting case of a suburb slowly transitioning to a proper city, you should talk about it.
I'm not looking forward to the Redmond expansion as much; going to turn an already expensive area to live into an area that's even more expensive :(
Welcome!! I moved here for grad school in 2018 from Oklahoma, and the King County Metro system BLEW my mind compared to the car-centric OK. I found it similar to what I used when I lived in the Netherlands. Mostly clean, mostly efficient, and WAY better than single commuter trips. I can't wait for it to continue to grow across the Puget Sound even more. Thanks for *accidentally* over-funding our transit! 😅
as a lifetime seattlite, you nailed most of the positives and negatives. I would probably think about moving a lot less if Seattle just had a better metro-style transit, like all of the examples you gave.
Thank you for sharing your insights and your positive energy. My friend Jimmy is a transit expert and he was able to get us to the Isle of the Rock Monastery on Shaw Island for a retreat with the wonderful nuns who run the monastery. I would love to connect you with my friend Jimmy who used to be a page for Senator Ted Kennedy before he moved out to Seattle and we became friends. I myself used to work at St. James Cathedral in Seattle where I helped run the Cathedral Kitchen where we fed hundreds of people before the pandemic. I was hit by a distracted driver and then I went into a coma for three weeks afterwards and so I’m just glad that I am alive and well. Thank you for sharing your kindness and hope that I will get to meet you one day. Bless you 🙏👍
"It's kinda strange seeing a bus in a tunnel next to a train. It's like it got lost or something."
Pittsburgh: *Am I a joke to you?*
Pittsburgh also has this concept with the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel. After the closure of the Downtown Seattle tunnel for buses in 2019, the one in Pittsburgh is the last tunnel in the US shared by bus and rail. It's a strange sight at first but a smart idea to have buses run in the Downtown Seattle tunnel so that there would be less vehicles on the streets above and less congestion to worry about. It's a unique thing to see when it comes to transit in a city, that's for sure.
LMAO
Boston has it too
@@notcarrotnose258 yup, Boston has a bus tunnel system too (Silver Line) though it's not shared with rail like the Pittsburgh one. Still a unique concept
You also have to remember a lot of King County Metro buses were also axed in 2020 due to lowridership and unnecessary Express commuter routes with one or two round trips.
Go Steelers!
Wow. I didn't even know they used busses in those tunnels. That blew my mind seeing one down there LOL
You forgot the "Water Taxi" also run by King County Metro.
Great video and I ride public transit most days to get to work. Also that gentleman by the statues by whole foods in SLU is always there.
I Drove to Seattle from my home in Northern AL to start my West Coast road trip down to San Diego and visit the University of Washington as a potential home of my graduate education in the beginning of May and was shocked by how unpopulated the whole public transit system was. The end station of the Metro/light rail hybrid at the University had maybe 15 people waiting for the train. Maybe just because of a mix of it being 2pm and during COVID, but was a harsh contrast to my time in Istanbul!
I was going to ride the monorail but the whole system closes at 7pm apparently, about three minutes before I arrived, a fact which I was quite befuddled by. Why have this really cool line only operate half the day?
Also: It was super convenient as a 'tourist' bumbling around the city for only a day to just pay for the $12 'day pass.' Didn't have to worry about putting too much or too little on it, just paid what it was, and went where ever I felt like going.
COVID hammered the transit system. There were major cutbacks in service and ridership. It is nowhere near back to normal (as of this writing).
That’s due to COVID
I grew up on Bainbridge and hopped into Seattle all the time. It's the first time I've lived out of state for more than half a year. I'm in Maine working at a ski mountain. This is super nostalgic to me.
I'd be inclined to include trolley buses as a mode; I guess one could argue how substantial the functional difference between them and local buses is, but in that case streetcars wouldn't really be separated from both light rail and buses is kind of arbitrary.
Yeah, I had to cut it off somewhere.
@@CityBeautiful The Trolleybus allows KC Metro to serve the hilly parts of the city.
Yes, as trolleybuses are the likely the least common mode in North America (six cities) that Seattle has , they’d be good to include in a sequel. Easy to do in Vancouver as well, once borders reopen!
What a fun and unique video format! I loved it. Great video on one of the best cities on the planet. It really makes me nostalgic for the Northwest! But now the whole area is so expensive that I don't know if I can afford to move back.
Buy yourself some good mask if youre wearing them with glasses. They need to have at least a small peace of metal wire, to bend on your nose, so that you're not breathing on your glasses.
Or just be a Chad and go no mask to assert your dominance
@@fartman8490 I tried that but it didn't work very well regardless. Only a good PPF2 mask (N95 for the US I guess) worked.
It was painful to watch the clip where his glasses were all fogged up and his ears were warped out of shape by the mask. I've been fully vaccinated for 4 months now -- really itching to make a bonfire of my masks (most of which never fit right anyway).
Pro tip: If you put your Orca card on the top layer of your wallet the readers can usually read it.
RapidRide isn't classified as an express bus around Seattle. We have highway running express buses with highway stops that are administered by Sound Transit, but usually operated by KCM or Community Transit. They all start with '5' and tend to be grouped by by where they're going (e.g. 540 to Kirkland, 541/542/545 to Redmond, 550 to Bellevue). There are some KCM busses (271, 255) that have some express legs but usually with more local stops at the ends than the express buses. You should have gone out to the East Side and back! :-D
One fairly unique thing about Link is that all of the platforms are 400ft long, and Sound Transit plans on running 4 car long consists for the Northgate Link extension. Also the Convention Center station is never reopening. it's been cut off and the new convention center expo floor is where the station used to be.
Oh and "I can walk faster than this bus" is something every #8 rider has thought, it's one of the least reliable routes on the system because Denny gets really trafficy.
I second this, if you want a true express bus, take one to the east side (like the 255 or the 545). You will also get really great views crossing 520 and some nice freeway stations.
Plus the 8 goes from Queen Anne/Seattle Center, straight up Capitol Hill, almost up into Madison Valley then down through Central and on MLK Way. It covers a ridiculous amount of town yet there’s three lines (10, 12 and 13 I think?) that go up into QA. The bus line planning in Seattle is crazy!
I wish my home city had this much transit
Coming from a place with a barely functioning bus network and a light rail system decades under construction, the Seattle transit system was mind blowing to me and really freed me to come and visit the city on my own more often without needing a taxi or someone to pick me up from the airport.
I just moved to Seattle so this 3 week Seattle series feels like it was made just for me. I'm really excited for the video about the waterfront :)
I live in lebanon and seeing that most of our cities are coastal I've always imagined what it would be like to have ferries connecting them. Thanks for this awesome video
Awesome.. Well done. Once up a time, there was another one, "Ride the Ducks of Seattle"...
Wouldn't count as it only took you back to where you started. There is a new version of the floating car tour opening "soon". www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/despite-seattles-history-with-ride-the-ducks-a-new-tour-company-hopes-to-make-a-splash-this-summer/
Really good presentation. As a native I just learned something.. I didn't know that the Monorail is part of the Orca system! I had always griped that the trip to the Seattle Center couldn't be used with a bus transfer. Ps. I attended the Worlds Fair as a kid and the Washington Pavilion is now getting it's 3rd (4th?) major remodel and is about to open this year as the new Climate Pledge Arena. You can (briefly) see the interior of the original in the film "It happened at the Fair" with Elvis Presley which almost functions as a strange sort of documentary for the original fairgrounds. [Ps. for those folks saying you didn't ride one of our trolly busses, that can also function as a regular metro bus for your checkbox- and yes the passenger ferries do need to be included.]
Monorail taking Orca is very recent. Only since 2019!
As a Portland resident, Seattle's public transit is never daunting but usually annoying. The lines seem scattered with poor planning on the routes aside from the obvious downtown routes. I think this is just me being more spoiled by Portland's public transit than any thing else.
The hop system also has one big flaw. Trimet removed the old app that allowed you to purchase individual tickets. This means if your phone is older and can't use the tap system, you're SOL and have to go buy a physical hop card. I hate this as I don't want to pull my wallet out at stops in east Portland or Gresham.
Great vid Dave. You sound like you really enjoyed being out and about. Trains are back to normal timetables in Glasgow but passengers are still thin on the ground.
You forget to mention that light rail is expanding east when you were talking about the expansions.
I used to live south of Tacoma and commute to downtown Seattle to work. Mostly I rode the Sound Transit bus as it was cheaper at the time than Sounder, but if snow threatened, I would drive to the Tacoma Dome Station and take the bus north in the morning and have the option of taking Sounder back in the late afternoon. Traffic in Seattle metro area gets very impacted by snow and Sounder would bypass everything until you were in Tacoma (which is mostly flat).
You should make a video on Seattle's upcoming east link light rail system
Wow, you rode Amtrak Capitol Corridor from Sacramento to Berkeley? Wow. I've ridden that line from Davis to Berkeley for seven years now! I really enjoy your channel. If you can get back to Portland, I used to love that town in the '90's, please do a video about how various neighborhoods are surviving outside of the disaster being reported downtown, and which places you would live if you moved back there today. Thank you for this great content!
You should cover the free transport in Tallinn Estonia, being rolled out to the the whole country.
It's great to see common elements of my commute through someone else's eyes! While I know some others have mentioned it and that the main focus here seemed to be focused on the greater Seattle area, if you ever come back again it'd be great to expand to some of the other smaller transit options. I'm out in in the Port Orchard area and used to do Park & Ride Bus -> Annapolis Foot Ferry, Foot Ferry -> Bremerton, Bremerton Fast Ferry -> Downtown. On some days the foot ferry on my way back would be the Carlisle II, a lovingly restored boat from the Puget Sound "Mosquito Fleet" originally launched in 1917!
I'd like to hype up the ferries (normal ones, not the packed like sardine "bus on the water" fast ferries) even more by calling out that if you commute off morning peak, you have tons of room to set up a laptop and get work done. Cell coverage is pretty good for like 80% of the Bremerton run, especially if you can go outside during the summer.
Seattle has the best public transport network of any American city. I would love to visit!
I love this so much, thank you from Seattle. I have been planning a trip from the Canadian border to the Mexican border solely on public transit. This re-inspires me to do it.