Community Transit partnered with famed travel writer Rick Steves to create a series of four neat videos highlighting travel destinations in Snohomish County made more accessible with yesterday’s major restructure. Check them out!
44 Replies to “Sunday Miniseries: Travel Community Transit with Rick Steves”
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And if you want to explore the Japanese Gulch trails going downhill only (the canyon is steep) you can take Everett Transit 18, or CT 103 to 44th & 84th St SW and walk north along 44th until you get to the hilltop trailhead at 44th & 76th SW. The sidewalk on the west side of 44th is the one that goes all the way through.
Steves certainly uses his professional voice in this series.
Rick Steves is quite the urbanist too…
https://thewaroncars.org/2024/09/03/134-what-we-did-on-our-summer-vacation-featuring-rick-steves/
No pictures of the Alderwood Mall area when he talks about it. Maybe because it still looks like a car-oriented mall and strip malls from hell. The property owners and city of Lynnwood could do something about that. Are there any plans to make it more like the Bellevue Square area or the emerging Northgate renovation, and more pedestrian-friendly?
The HMart block with its own Wallingford-style indoor mall and Asian food court has a more urban feel and accessibility to it, but the shops are not as bougie as Wallingford. The competing less-fancy Regal Alderwood theaters are just to the west.
All that is a short hike north from the Orange Line stop.
The Orange Line could really benefit from having a stop there. It wouldn’t slow the busses down much, but some infrastructure and likely a new crosswalk would need to be added for the stops themselves. In addition to the H-Mart, there is the new apartment complex with some ground retail/eateries that just opened across between the Alderwood Mall and Costco. Quite a hike and not very pedestrian friendly to get to the actual Alderwood Mall stop.
The east side of the mall feel much more like a “Bellevue Square” type setup, which is just as much a dining and entertainment complex as it is a mall. All it would need is a decent sized hotel;). Unfortunately, Community Transit decided to put the Orange Line stop on the more desolate western side. This keeps the bus out of some traffic, but it also makes the bus stop itself less convenient. It is not immediately clear which way to walk to get to the mall once you get off the bus, most people seem to cut across the parking lot or walk along the grassy area. The mall doesn’t seem very interested in building a better pedestrian connection, and I doubt much will happen with those parking lots on the western side of the mall until Link itself is extended there in a decade or two.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/09/04/lynnwood-city-centers-growth-aspirations-hinge-on-two-slow-moving-megaprojects/
I think Lynnwood projects will generally wait for the pipeline of projects around both Shoreline stations to be worked through first. Also, around Alderwood Mall if I was a developer I would wait until there is more clarity around the station location & opening date for that first ST3 station.
The city of Lynwood certainly can be more generous with zoning, allow Lynnwood to be zoned more like the U District than Northgate, but I don’t think the city needs to be too worried about the timing of the development, in particular around the mall. The develop will come in time.
One thing I’ve found curious is both of those developments were on former Sears properties. Shoreline place will be converted from a demolished sears and so was the Alderwood Avalon Apartments also built ontop of the former sears at Alderwood mall.
Near overlake that sears is being redeveloped to apartments as well https://www.djc.com/news/re/12155356.html
Perhaps might be a nice mini article about sears to apartment pipeline lol
The H-Mart location is a strip mall from heaven. That store in and of itself is a tremendous one-stop location for the huge Asian population, plus there are one of the biggest and best comic-book stores I’ve ever seen, a rare Filipino restaurant, and a katsu burger place I loved pre-elevated cholesterol level. I don’t care about the architecture or the size of the parking lot, strip malls are terrific places for retail, dining and specialty gems that are getting priced out of more recent mixed-use developments. If a strip mall offers great occupants, they can have parking lots the size of Iowa for all I care, and it’s on the local transit authorities to improve access for non-drivers who want to get there. Although there’s an H-Mart in Redmond, I still make the drive up to Lynnwood to that strip mall because I enjoy the other stores so much.
Also, H-Marts require huge parking lots. Their customers tend to be families on weekly grocery hauls, who have to load up their cars with all that food and kids. An H-Mart on a streetfront or without a parking lot simply wouldn’t work.
Lynnwood is also a great place for furniture shopping. I got my new coffee table up there, despite all the good furniture stores on the Eastside, because the piece was a great deal, the sales tax was lower, and the service was spectacular. I also saw several other good furniture stores that offered a range of styles and price ranges. Those places also need parking lots for customers who want to take their purchases home directly instead of delivery (my table was flat-packed).
“Swift Blue will extend to reach Shoreline station.”
I guess from Snohomish County’s perspective there’s only one Shoreline station.
Rick goes all the way to the ID for pho. That must be some tasty pho.
“Seattle Paine Field airport”
That’s its formal name? Sounds strange to locals, but I guess it’s part of positioning the airport as a regional satellite. Although Ontario airport isn’t called “Los Angeles Ontario airport”.
I hope nobody goes to Seattle Paine Field airport thinking it’s near Seattle, as opposed to people going specifically to Snohomish County or the counties north and east of it.
How long is the walk from the Swift station to the airport terminal?
Ah like University Street Station… “Stay on the plane for Seattle Tacoma International Airport”
~8m (0.4 miles) to the swift green line stop.
> I hope nobody goes to Seattle Paine Field airport thinking it’s near Seattle
Chicago-Midway vs O’Hare, Paris-CDG vs Orly, Tokyo, NYC, London, …
I’m quite sure this happens regularly all over the world.
Apparently Oakland is renaming their airport “San Francisco Bay Something or Other” and people associated with SFO are claiming it’s confusing to people and suing over it.
IDK, like… if someone visiting Seattle flies in to Paine they’ll have somewhat longer ground-travel times but they’ll survive. If someone tries to order a cab to SeaTac and accidentally goes to Paine Field because they confidently chose the wrong answer out of an autocomplete selector… I guess that’s funny in the same way that it’s funny when someone gets off at University Street trying to go to the University of Washington.
The thing is, smaller airports, such as Paine field, always cost more to fly into, so I don’t think a traveler would pick it for price.
If someone is just clicking on any SEA option, it serves them right if they’re lost.
(I’ve learned over the years that I keep an eye on layover times, sleeping in an airport isn’t really restful)
During the winter Olympics in CANADA, they’re were way too many people booking hotels in Vancouver WA.
PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE!
(Speaking of Paying Attention,…
THERE, not They’re)
They recently renamed it Seattle Paine Field Airport.
One thing I’ve noticed about Community Transit: the buses are impressively fast compared to King County, even if they’re infrequent. It must be the wider average streets and lower population density. I hate waiting for a CT bus, but when it comes, it zips along.
It is the shorter dwell time due to fewer passengers, in general.
For Swift, it is the extreme stop spacing. The Orange Line skips the entire city center to go straight to the west side of the Alderwood Mall parking garage. There is a strip mall east of the stop with a total fail on ADA accessibility from the street. The mall itself needs more sidewalks to connect to the bus stop.
There is a lot of TOD housing along the way that gets skipped along with the municipal buildings. If the Orange Line is going to be more than just an express between Lynnwood Station and the Edmonds College Transit Center (which I think is in walking distance of the campus), it will need more stops where lots of people live in mid-rise housing, and also to serve the City Center.
Yeah, that will slow it down, but a lot more people will ride it.
TBF The main intention seems to be for the Orange Line to serve as a faster regional connection from points north and east to the mall, light rail, and Edmonds College, as opposed to serving Lynnwood itself. They want you to take a local route like the 166, which unfortunately is not as frequent, or the Zip Alderwood Shuttle. Hopefully they will add more stops and BRT upgrades (bus lanes, signal priority) to the Alderwood – Lynnwood City Center portion of the Orange line. This upcoming holiday season will likely show the need for more bus lanes, as the busses get stuck in the holiday shopping traffic.
I wasn’t talking just about Swift; local routes have also impressed me.
“They want you to take a local route like the 166, which unfortunately is not as frequent, or the Zip Alderwood Shuttle.”
Is that why the shuttle is promoted as a way to the mall. I assumed the Orange was intended to be the primary way to get to the stores, but I haven’t gotten there yet and have never been to the stores.
Would be nice if the Orange line was extended to the Edmonds ferry.
Similarly, the Green line could go to Boeing’s Future of Flight and the Mukilteo ferry.
The Zip Alderwood Shuttle has its own bay at Lynnwood Station. I’m pretty sure you don’t have to be a resident to book it. I’m also pretty sure it will take you to the front doors of all the stores, so actually faster than the Orange to get to the destination, unless another passenger has a side trip first.
Taking the 201, 202, 512, or 513 between Lynnwood and Ash Way is certainly faster than the Orange.
The other two stops on the Orange between Ash Way and Lynnwood are Swamp Creek P&R (next to a TOD apartment building), and a SFH street where one side seems to be the back side of a mansion.
I was surprised the Orange didn’t go to downtown Edmonds in the first place. It was marketed as a line between Edmonds, Lynnwood TC, Mill Creek, and Silver Firs (although McCollum Park was substituted instead). I and probably many other people thought Edmonds meant downtown Edmonds, not the outskirts of Edmonds.
Would be nice if the Orange line was extended to the Edmonds ferry.
I think that is the long term plan.
Similarly, the Green line could go to Boeing’s Future of Flight and the Mukilteo ferry.
That seems like more of a stretch. Edmonds itself is a major destination (relative to the rest of Snohomish County). It makes sense that it has some sort of frequent connection to Link. I would run a semi-express via SR 104 to 185th Station. But extending the Orange to Edmonds gives you additional benefit (in connecting to the college). So while it leaves out 5th (one of the more urban areas of the county) it at least gets you plenty in exchange.
In contrast, there isn’t much at Mukilteo except the ferry. Thus timing the express bus with the ferry (which fortunately runs every half hour) seems just right. Detouring to Paine Field would be worse for those ferry riders, and not get many riders in return.
I guess I could see the Green Line detouring to the main passenger terminal for Paine Field. My guess is it doesn’t because there aren’t that many flights out of there (yet).
“the Green line could go to Boeing’s Future of Flight”
Doesn’t it?
Future of Flight is on the west side of Paine Field (Paine Field Blvd) while Swift runs on the east side (Airport Rd). When Airport Rd ends, Swift turns east to terminate at Seaway TC, whereas serving Future of Flight would be a turn west to circle around the top of the airport. Seaway TC (i.e. Boeing) seems like the more important destination.
Future of Flight is served by the 103 at the 84th St & 44th Ave intersection.
The bus still gets stuck behind stoplights that have a tendency to stay red for a very long time, and not all buses have straight routes. If you want to see what a circuitous route looks like, try going to Gold Bar on a bus, and enjoy the Grand tour of Monroe along the way.
When does the CT sales tax for transit expire? Are there plans to renew it?
I thought it was permanent like Metro’s. Does CT’s include short-term levies?
Community Transit’s 1.2% sales tax funding is permanent.
Metro alert: “Expect significant delays on Routes 3, 10, 11, 12 and 49 today due to a fire response near E Pike St and Minor Ave.”
Metro should hire Steves for a Seattle and King County series. That’s probably the best thing it could do to promote tourism on transit and local culture transit trips. And it would be a long-term reference that people would refer people to.
Today is the first commute day in 50 or so years without any* CT commute service from SnoCo to DT Seattle. The 400 and 800 series are gone.
Any reports on the crowding situation on Link? I can’t check it out until tomorrow.
And does anyone know if ST has deployed any gap trains yet? Does the 515 have any riders?
*Note; the 424 is still running to DT Seattle, but it is mainly an eastern route and comes across SR 520. It won’t get truncated until Full ELE opens.
I just posted an open thread to collect comments on that.
Feel free to move my comment to the new thread.
Welcome four new CT 900-series peak-direction-only express routes!
Is anybody riding them? Or are most of the former 400- and 800-series riders driving straight to the covered, secure parking at Lynnwood Station, where they can pick up their cars any time, but just not leave them overnight?
Welcome also to the first day of the Swift Blue Line serving North Shoreline Station with 10-minute headway matching the train!
Shoreline now has fourteen routes criss-crossing the city, providing a grid of connections and more-frequent service, plus the peak-direction-only 303 until the Great Conjunction.
In order of frequency:
* The RapidRide E Line comes every 7.5 minutes or better all day.
* The 1 Line and the Blue Swift Line come every 10 minutes, but 8 minutes during peak hours for the 1.
* Metro routes 5, 65 (now reaching South Shoreline Station), new route 333, and straightened route 348 now come every 15 minutes on weekdays, except the western tail of the 348 to Richmond Beach, which will only be half-hourly still.
* Metro routes 331 (now diverting to Mountlake Terrace Station), 345 (changed), 346 (now just South Shoreline Station to Aurora Village via Meridian), and new route 365 come every half hour-ish. CT routes 101 and 114 terminate at Aurora Village, half-hourly.
* Hourly CT 130 has a stop at Aurora Village.
Feel free to move the above comment to the new open thread, and thank you for your great work holding the blog together, Mike!
Rick can show where all the potheads gather. He is good at that and not much else.