Category: public transporting

This one doesn’t follow the normal format of letting you know how much this trip will put you back, but if you were a Mariner fan in Forks lacking your own vehicle, would $50 (I assume the high range of this trip) stop you?

Probably not.

So, you’re an Ms fan in Forks, you want to see a game. What time do you need to leave to catch a 7 p.m. first pitch in Seattle?

Clallam County, Route 14
Leave Forks, 9:30 a.m.
Arrive PA Transit Center, 10:50 a.m.

Clallam County, Route 30
Leave PA , 11:00 a.m.
Arrive Sequim Transit Center, 11:35 a.m.

Jefferson County, Route 8
Leave Sequim, 12:43 p.m.
Arrive Four Corners, 1:19 p.m.

Jefferson County, Route 7
Leave Four Corners, 3:34 p.m.
Arrive Poulsbo, 4:27 p.m.

Kitsap County, Rt. 90
Leave Poulsbo, 4:37 p.m.
Arrive Bainbridge Ferry, 4:57 p.m.

Washington DOT Seattle/Bainbridge Island Ferry
Leave Bainbridge, 5:30 p.m.
Arrive Seattle, 6:05 p.m.

And, you can walk the rest.

What surprised me about this trip is that the huge lag is in Jefferson County. I always understood Jefferson to be the more liberal of the three counties represented here, but their cross county transportation sucks. You might as well go all the way into the north side of the county before you can catch a bus out.

It might be the geographic orientation of Jefferson County, being North/South rather than East/West like Clallam. Most Jefferson County citizens moving within the county would go north/south, while you could assume folks from outside the county (and therefore don’t play into public transportation decisions) would be more interested in east/west.

Of course, since the inspirational post for this series was written by Archie Binns more than seventy years ago in The Roaring Land, I should document the same journey from just around Shelton, nearest to Archadia, to Seattle.

It was a big shopping trip for the Binns’, but for us, it’s just a lets-look-and-see.

First, you need to set out for a walk. There is no bus that’s take your from where Archie grew up on a stump farm, so walk to the Red Apple Market. To catch the 8:20 a.m. Route 6 bus and cover your 5.8 mile route, you’ll need to leave the house by 6:00. Leave a bit sooner, you can buy some coffee and an apple at the Red Apple for breakfast. Either way, you’re already behind Binns, who had the boat pick him up right on his beach.

The bus to Olympia gets in pretty early, you’re there by 11:25 a.m. You have some time in Olympia to get over to Bayview and pick up lunch.

The trusty 603 picks you up at noon and gets you into Tacoma by 1:10 p.m.

So, instead of actually going into Seattle, I’m going to take it easy and drop down into the South Center mall, since this is a memorial of a shopping trip. And, where else would you go shopping in King County, if not the mall?

The Sound Transit 594 picks you up at 1:28 p.m. at the Tacoma Dome Station, dropping you off at the Spokane Street Transit Center at 2:04 p.m. Of course, that’s way to far north, so you have to turn around and take the King County Metro 150 back down into Tukwila at 2:41 p.m.

So, just cross the highway over-pass on foot, and you’re shopping like the Binns family.

I’ve started a new project here called “Public Transporting,” in which I used local public transportation agency schedules to try to get from one part of the state to another. My first effort was Ocean Shores to Seattle.

I eventually want to get all the way across the state, but I’m going to work across just Western Washington for now.

This project was inspired by this chapter from “The Roaring Land,” in which Archie Binns as a kid travels from outside Shelton to Tacoma by steamboat ferry. It amazed me how they’d catch a ferry just out in the salt, instead of stopping in a town first.

This early mass transportation on the water made me realize how much we’ve changed from a water focussed region (canoes, fishing, and ferry boats) to a land and road focussed region. Seemed like an interesting topic of study.

You’re in Ocean Shores on a Monday morning, its just after 8:30 in the morning and you’re going to Seattle.

The 50 Bus of Grays Harbor Transite picks you up at 8:35 a.m. and takes you into Aberdeen.

You get into Aberdeen about an hour later and then wait for the bus into Olympia, which leaves at about 11:00. The Aberdeen Library opens at about 10:30 on Monday, so you can get a quick visit there. Pick up a book or something.

You get into Olympia at 1:00 in the afternoon. You can drop off your book from the Aberdeen library at the Olympia Library and then catch the express to Tacoma at 1:30 at the Olympia transit center.

The Olympia Express gets into Tacoma at 10th and Commerce at 2:40 p.m. Quick turn around in the City of Destiny, so you get on a 2:45 bus into Seattle which drops you off at almost 4 p.m. on the north side of downtown Seattle.

Overall seven hours over three different transportation agencies. Eventually I’ll get down to calculating the cost of this trip.

This is my first time doing this sort of thing, so I think there were some kinks in the system. I’m pretty sure I could have saved some time

I’m somewhat curious about how the various schedules of local public transport agencies can work to get you from one place to another in Washington. Specifically I was inspired by the first chapter in Archie Binns’ The Roaring Land, and I’ll explain that later.

View Larger Map