King County Metro Route 62 travels inbound from Sand Point to downtown Seattle, via Roosevelt, Green Lake, Wallingford, Fremont, and South Lake Union. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In February 2025, Route 62 had 7,015 average weekday boardings.
As shown by the solid red line on the map, the northern terminus for Route 62 has two variations, depending on the time of day. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) campus hosts Route 62’s outbound terminus on weekdays between 7am and 6pm. On weekdays before 7am and after 6pm, and on weekends, Roue 62 terminates at Sand Point Way NE & NE 74th St. When a Route 62 trip starts or ends at NOAA, it serves a few additional stops: one at Sand Point Way NE & NE 77th St and three stops on the NOAA campus. When an inbound trip starts at Sand Point Way NE & NE 74th St, it immediately turns right to 74th St then right again to 62nd Ave NE. These linked maps show the stops served by inbound trips from NOAA, outbound trips to NOAA, inbound trips from 74th St, and outbound trips to 74th St.
Average Ridership Per Trip
The plots below show the average weekday ridership by stop in each direction, color-coded by time of day. For a more detailed breakdown of how the plots are set up, please refer to the How to Read the Plots section of the article discussing Route 70.
The ridership patterns for Route 62 show a route with strong ridership between the neighborhoods it serves and to downtown Seattle. Some observations:
- The NOAA stops primarily see passengers board inbound trips in the mid-day and afternoon and depart outbound trips in the morning and mid-day. These stops collectively serve 2-4 riders per trip.
- On weekday evenings and weekends, the stop at Sand Point Way N & NE 74th St serves as the route’s terminus. This stop is located next to Magnuson Park and several small apartment buildings. Ridership is highest for inbound trips in the afternoon and for outbound trips in the morning. Riders can transfer here to Route 75.
- Route 62 travels east/west on NE 65th St between Sand Point and Roosevelt. Per stop ridership along this segment is quite low, with a few exceptions. The dominant land use along 65th St is single family homes.
- The stop at 65th St & 35th Ave has moderate inbound boarding counts during the day and moderate alighting counts in the afternoon. This stop is adjacent to a few small apartment buildings and townhouse developments. Passengers can transfer here to Route 65. Route 65 ridership data show some passengers alighting at this stop, especially in the morning. Some of the passengers may transfer to Route 62 and contribute to the higher ridership at this stop.
- A small commercial area and a few apartment buildings are along 65th St between 20th Ave and 25th Ave. The stops along this segment have a bit more traffic, primarily with passengers boarding inbound trips during the day and alighting outbound trips in the afternoon. Passengers can transfer to Route 372 on 25th Ave.
- Roosevelt High School is located one block north of the stop at 65th St & 14th Ave. There is a spike in inbound morning departures and outbound afternoon boardings, suggesting a fair number of students take Route 62 to school.
- One of the busiest stops on the route is at Roosevelt Station. Inbound trips drop off about 5 passengers in the morning, mid-day, and afternoon. These trips generally pick up a few a passengers as well, especially in the afternoon. Outbound trips pick up 3-6 passengers all day and drop off up to 5 passengers. Passengers can transfer here to the Link 1 Line, routes 45, 67, 79, and Sound Transit Route 522.
- In the heart of Green Lake, the stop at Ravenna Blvd & Woodlawn Ave has some ridership all day. Trips in both directions drop off more passengers in the afternoon than at any other time of day.
- South of Green Lake, Route 62 meanders through neighborhood streets in Tangletown to Wallingford. Ridership along this segment is minor, primarily consisting of riders boarding inbound morning tips and alighting outbound afternoon trips.
- In Wallingford, trips in both directions have decent all day ridership at 45th St & Wallingford Ave. Ridership is a bit stronger in the afternoon. Riders can transfer to Route 44 at this stop.
- Lincoln High School is located adjacent to Route 62’s stops at 45th St & Woodlawn Ave (inbound) and Stone Way & Allen Pl (outbound). Both these stops have a decent number of passengers alighting in the morning, suggesting some students use Route 62 to get to school.
- Along Stone Way N, inbound trips primarily pick up passengers throughout the day. Outbound trips primarily drop off passengers in the afternoon. Apartments and retail line Stone Way between 35th St and 45th St.
- In Fremont, Route 62 stops at Fremont Ave & 34th St. This stop is busy all day, each inbound trip picks up 3-5 passengers and drops off 2-3 passengers. Outbound trips drop off and pick up 2-4 passengers. Passengers can transfer here to routes 31, 32, and 40.
- South of the Ship Canal, Route 62 travels along Dexter Ave N between Fremont and South Lake Union (SLU). Stop use along the northern part of this segment is minor with the exception of inbound morning and outbound afternoon trips.
- Ridership on Dexter Ave pick ups as the land use along the road shifts from townhouses and single family homes to apartment buildings and offices. The stops at Galer St and Aloha St both have a decent number of passengers boarding inbound trips in the morning and mid-day and alighting outbound trips in the afternoon.
- The remaining stops on Dexter Ave at Roy St, Harrison St, and Denny Way have similar ridership patterns as most passengers depart inbound trips and board outbound trips. Inbound trips drop off more passengers in the morning and mid-day and outbound trips pick up more passengers in the afternoon. The land around these stops consists mostly of apartment buildings and offices. Along with the Aloha St stop, these stops also have a fair number of passengers boarding inbound afternoon trips and departing outbound morning trips. This pattern suggests some commuters use Route 62 as connection between SLU and Link, Sounder, or the many bus routes on 3rd Ave. Passengers can transfer to Route 8 at Dexter Ave & Denny Way.
- The stop at 7th Ave & Blanchard St is the busiest on the route, with 6-8 passengers departing each morning and mid-day inbound trip. Almost 10 passengers board each outbound trip in the afternoon. This stop is located between several Amazon buildings in South Lake Union.
Daily Totals per Stop
The average daily total boarding and alighting counts show a similar pattern to the per trip data. The distributed ridership highlights the many destinations connected by the route.
Looking Ahead
Metro has not indicated any significant changes planned specifically for Route 62 in the near future. Starting on March 29, 2025, the southern terminus will move one block east from S Washington St & 4th Ave S (stop #625) to S Washington St & 5th Ave S (stop #626).
As part of the Northgate Link restructure, Metro proposed rerouting Route 62 in Tangletown to run on Latona Ave NE and NE 56th St. This routing change would require SDOT to harden the street and SDOT has not prioritized this ask. Route 20 previously ran Latona Ave; however, it was deleted in the Lynnwood Link restructure and only partially replaced by Route 61.
The 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy (Page 5) mentions NE 65th St will be “evaluated for specific paving extents through a design process” between 2nd Ave NE and 35th Ave NE. Repaving construction will likely temporarily disrupt Route 62 service and riders will have a smoother ride when completed. Additionally, the Levy lists Dexter Ave N under “Anticipated initial Vision Zero projects” (Page 4). No direct transit improvement projects for Route 62 are outlined in the Levy.
What is the status of Seattle’s NOAA facility under DOGE these days? Is it even being used anymore, or are all the employees laid off? If the latter, should the 62 simply switch to its evening/weekend routing for every trip?
Word from a friend who works with NOAA in Seattle is that probation layoffs and early retirements had very mild impact. They say most folks drive in, mainly because they live in areas poorly served by transit, so commutes via transit have always been low but non-zero.
I don’t understand why planners feel compelled to take these neighborhood connector routes (this one and the 40 for example) downtown. Why not use them to continue across town to SLU, First Hill and points south (maybe using 8th Ave. to get under the convention center)? The downtown segment seems like a separate ridership base well served by other routes.
I don’t follow you. The only section that is a connector route is the tiny bit along 65th (and maybe the piece in TangleTown). Meanwhile, it does go to SLU. If this bus was to continue across town it would skip TangleTown and turn north, taking over the 45. Then the main part of the route (from downtown to Roosevelt) would continue northeast to Lake City. I could see that, but for whatever reason they decided to favor these ‘L’ shaped routes. While not “by the book” it doesn’t force many three-seat rides and it is possible it adds to the one-seat trips (especially if the future Lake City Way bus ends at the U-District instead of Green Lake Park & Ride like the current 522).
But the core of the route is fairly straightforward. It goes from Downtown to Fremont (via Dexter) then up Stone Way to Wallingford. For those on Stone Way this not only connects them to Fremont but also to downtown. Are you saying the bus should do something different when it reaches Fremont? By going downtown via Dexter it is providing unique coverage. I guess at around Denny it could cut over to Boren and go up First Hill but you could say that about almost any bus coming from that direction. If anything because this provides unique coverage on Dexter there is a stronger case for it to go downtown. In contrast maybe the RapidRide E or 5 could turn and go on Boren while the other one goes downtown.
In any event the two parts of this route seem to work together fairly well. There are a fair number of riders coming from 65th (east of the station) headed to TangleTown, Wallingford, etc. It is highly unlikely they are riding the bus all the way downtown but that hardly matters. My guess is very few people ride the 49 from the U-District to downtown anymore but it is still a useful bus.
@Ross….Quasimodal, I believe, is reflecting my sentiments that I’ve already shared: the route is too dang long and should be split at a location that makes sense. No one is riding it from Wedgewood to downtown or SLU. As seen in the ridership data, there are predominately two groups of people:
1) cross-town users who are mainly getting on/off at Roosevelt or Green Lake
2) And those who are going downtown /slu and are getting on between Wallingford and Fremont. It should be split up in the Green Lake area. He also referenced the 40, which has the same characteristic. No one is riding that bus from Northgate to downtown.
Ideally, the 62 should be broken up at Green Lake.
@Jordan
The only break that would make sense is at Roosevelt Station, since that is the point where there’s the most rider churn and the most transfer opportunities. That would put the eastern end of the route at a very high risk of reduced service, since it has significantly fewer riders than the rest of the route.
No one is riding it from Wedgewood to downtown or SLU.
Who Cares? No one said otherwise. What is clear is that lots of people are riding it past the very spot where you think it should be split. Consider the numbers:
1) Roughly 875 board the bus east of Roosevelt Station.
2) About 525 alight before the bus crosses under the freeway.
Now imagine you split the bus at Green Lake. 525 riders east of Ravenna would not notice while 350 would be forced to transfer. But wait, there is more:
3) Another 200 riders board the bus at Roosevelt heading towards downtown.
So this means that if we adopted your plan, 525 riders might have a more reliable bus but 550 would be forced to transfer. In what world is that a good idea?
I think you are confused as to the trade-offs inherit with bus routes. Consider this quote from Jarrett Walker:
All other things being equal, long, straight routes perform better than short, squiggly and looping ones.
(Emphasis mine)
Why would long routes perform better than short routes? In general people take shorter trips, not longer ones — so why would longer routes outperform shorter ones? Because there are more combinations! There are more potential trips from one stop to another. Someone in Wedgwood headed to Fremont. Someone in Roosevelt headed to Wallingford. It is all these types of trips that make a bus like the 7, A Line or E Line so popular. It is what enables them to carry more riders on a single bus ride than the capacity of the bus. At every stop there are people getting on and off the bus. Of course some stops are bigger than others, but the combination is what makes those buses so effective. Those buses are really long as well. Very few people ride them end to end. So what? They work extremely well because of all the combination inherit with a longer line.
Note that Metro wants to send the 7 to Rainier Beach Station (RBS). The area around the station doesn’t have much. It is mostly just the connection to Link. Using your logic, that is absurd. “No one will ever take Link to RBS and then ride the 7 to downtown!”. No, they won’t. What they will do is take Link to RBS and take the 7 to somewhere at the south end of Rainier Valley, sparing them the backtracking (and awkward transfer) at Mount Baker Station. Again — it is about combinations.
Of course there are trade-offs. The longer the route the more likely it is to be late. But the answer is not to build something that would benefit a very small minority of the riders — the answer is to make the bus faster on the rest of the route. The vast majority of riders get nowhere near Wedgwood. What matters to them is everything east of Roosevelt Station. The fact that this would benefit people on 65th is just a bonus.
Of course there are some route — or mainly just potential routes — that are just too long. But this isn’t one of them. Not even close.
@Ross …”who cares”. My proposal to split the 62 (and the 40) and Quasimodal’s bewilderment at the long length of both routes was originally brought on by one thing: unreliability. Long routes that operate through dense urban cores hurts reliability. That’s the reason why the 150 was extracted from Auburn, the 174 replaced by the A and 124, the C & D decoupled from another – buses can’t stay on time and hurt riders. The same can be seen in my own route 28. It’s often behind schedule 15 min in the PM Peak because it’s coupled with the 131/132.
No doubt, there will be a handful of riders who will be forced to transfer at Roosevelt. That number of riders is dwarfed by the number of riders who travel between Wedgewood and Roosevelt, Wallingford and Fremont, Fremont and downtown/SLU or Wallingford and downtown/SLU. The riders who would be forced to transfer is the scant group who travels to/from past Roosevelt in either direction – no mater their origin.
To kill the reliability for the *majority* of the riders of the 62 for the quaint amount who travel past Roosevelt does not make sense and is unfair to the rest of the customer base.
No doubt, there will be a handful of riders who will be forced to transfer at Roosevelt.
No, only a handful would actually benefit. 550 riders would be forced to transfer, while 525 riders would have a more reliable trip. What part of that don’t you understand?
That number of riders is dwarfed by the number of riders who travel between Wallingford and Fremont, Fremont and downtown/SLU or Wallingford and downtown/SLU.
But your proposal does not help them! If I’m headed northbound (Fremont to Wallingford, Downtown/SLU to Fremont, Downtown/SLU to Wallingford) it doesn’t matter what the bus does after it reaches Roosevelt. I suppose it could help going southbound. Are you saying the bus is really unreliable getting to Green Lake Park and Ride from Sand Point? Really?
That isn’t what I’ve heard. Every complaint has been along the very section you are ignoring (between Green Lake and downtown). Let me repeat what I’ve written elsewhere:
1) Have the bus follow the 40 pathway until Harrison and then cut over. This would make the bus significantly faster and more reliable. It would allow riders to use the same bus stops (northbound) to get from downtown or South Lake Union to Fremont.
2) Add a northbound BAT lane on Dexter approaching Nickerson.
3) Apply the TangleTown improvement. It is rare that you can improve coverage *and* make a bus faster. This is one of the those cases.
Just consider that first suggestion. Who would benefit from these changes? Everyone! Every single rider of this bus, as well as riders of other buses (because the bus would be faster). Even if only one of these were implemented (like the first idea, which is simply a routing change) everyone would benefit. In contrast, your proposal would hurt more people then it would help.
Again, there are routes that are too long. There are routes that just don’t make sense geographically. This isn’t one of them.
It seems to me to be a good route design overall. Maybe it could be better by turning around near Harborview rather than at King Street Station but that’s the only major improvement that would make sense to me.
That snow route is a doozy though! Maybe that needs rethinking. It’s skipping Roosevelt Link station (no stops between 15th and View Ridge) and instead takes a wildly circuitous route around UW which probably will have added congestion in the snow. (Note too that the U District Link station isn’t shown but the UW Station is).
I think the biggest flaw is the one that Micheal mentioned. The route through TangleTown is really bad. It is much slower than it needs to be and it covers the area poorly. The solution that the Metro planners came up with is so much better.
Another issue raised in the comments is congestion downtown. As someone suggested, I think the best option is to follow the 40 initially from downtown and then cut over to Dexter via Harrison (a street that is slated for being transit-only). So basically this. That would give riders headed to Fremont the option of catching either bus from the same bus stop while also making this bus much faster and more reliable.
Another fix is northbound along Dexter as the bus approaches the Fremont Bridge. I don’t know for sure but it looks like it would back up there. The right lane should be a BAT lane from the moment the northbound street adds a lane until it reaches Nickerson. Since it would be a BAT lane it would mean the rightmost lane would have an arrow only for the hairpin turn (onto Westlake). The only people allowed to go to Fremont from the right lane would be those on the bus. Drivers headed to Fremont would have to get in the middle lane.
Having the bus end at Harborview (as you suggested) would be nice. I assume it would follow Yesler. Looks good, but I’m not sure if it should be this bus that does that. First priority should be making this bus faster.
“It’s skipping Roosevelt Link station”
It has no choice; NE 65th street is full of bus-blocking hills. The snow route from U-District station is flat. Metro has done this ever since the 62 was created in 2016, so riders are used to it. The shuttle has always followed the 75 from UW station to NE 125th Street. Then it has varied, but in recent years I think it comes back down on 35th to replace the 65. The bus schedule said that from the shuttle it’s much faster to take Link to downtown than to try to bridge the gap to the rest of the 62 and continue from there, so that’s what people do. The route could go from Roosevelt station down to UW station and continue from there, but the planners realized not many 62 riders would do that, and that overlaps with several other routes (45, 67), and it wouldn’t allow a 62/65 loop.
“It has no choice; NE 65th street is full of bus-blocking hills. The snow route from U-District station is flat.”
Then why is the snow route for Route 65 staying on 65th until 35th Ave NE, but not the snow route for Route 62?
Isn’t 25th Ave a reasonably flat street to use between 65th and University Village?
It just seems to me to route a snow route bus all the way to Pacific Ave seems rather circuitous and missing the stop near Roosevelt Station seems problematic.
I looked at the snow map again: it looks like both routes go to Roosevelt Station, although the closest shuttle stop is three blocks away at 65th & 15th. That would be the least of people’s concerns during snow. That part of 65th must surely be plowed and glyas good sidewalks.
The impassable part of 65th may be View Ridge Hill east of 50th. The east side is a narrow 2-lane switchback street. Metro’s snow routes are based on an agreement with SDOT which streets will be plowed,
The problem is Sand Point to Hawthorne Hills is pretty steep (https://maps.app.goo.gl/k8GbfVr9KrU7B6gG6). Or, if you prefer looking at topo maps: https://caltopo.com/m/UT6D03F. Notice how many topo lines you pass as you get close to the top of the hill. This explains why 65th has the weird curve in the first place. The street builders felt it was too difficult to follow the standard east-west path. But even with the switchback it is mighty steep. It is also a relatively high hill (over 300 foot elevation) and not close to Puget Sound which means it is more likely to have snow. I’m sure there are kids at Sand Point enjoying the snow while much of the city has rain.
This part of 65th is also not that important for general mobility. Sand Point Way is way more likely to be plowed before that part of 65th. Mostly though it avoids the steepest section of 65th while also skipping a tiny portion of the riders. Overall it makes a lot of sense, really.
Isn’t 25th Ave a reasonably flat street to use between 65th and University Village?
It is not bad but it isn’t immune to problems. I think you are ignoring what happens when it snows really hard. Buses get stuck. Even buses on snow routes get stuck. Often times it has nothing to do with the skill of the bus driver but more to do with other drivers. They crash into things and block the road. It is best then to have a level of redundancy and resiliency. This has that. The existence of a “Snow Route” and a “Snow Shuttle” adds resilience. If one gets stuck the other runs just fine.
Meanwhile, the overall snow network adds redundancy. The snow route of the 62 overlaps the snow route of the 75. This means riders from Sand Point just take the first bus that shows up. As was mentioned below, this connects to Link fairly quickly and reliably. Meanwhile, if the 65 does get stuck going on 25th, riders have another way to get to that part of 65th and 35th. It works in reverse, too. Imagine you are heading to 35th & 95th from Roosevelt. You want to take the shuttle but it doesn’t seem to be showing up. So you just start walking on 65th until you get to 25th and as luck would have it, there is the 65.
“The problem is Sand Point to Hawthorne Hills is pretty steep…”
I’m not talking about the segment east of 25th Ave or 35th Ave. Maybe I didn’t make that obvious but thought it was.
“It is not bad but it isn’t immune to problems. I think you are ignoring what happens when it snows really hard. Buses get stuck.”
So this doesn’t happen in the U-District or on Pacific Ave? Wouldn’t a shorter snow route reduce the risk of this problem? Pacific Ave is a pretty far detour from 65th.
We’re talking past each other and there’s been some confusion about the route. What exactly is your concern? The shuttle loop will serve 65th between 15th and 35th.
We’re assuming the east side of the View Ridge hill (50th-55th Ave NE) is impassable for buses during snow. 35th to Sand Point Way may not be plowed. That’s the lowest-ridership area. Is there anyone who lives in the area who can confirm the conditions in recent snows?
The U-District routing is almost flat, and Pacific Street to Sand Point Way and 125th is completely flat. (That’s why the former railroad runs along it.) It’s a detour for some, but it’s snow time so they’ll have bigger things to worry about, and some of them may find the detour useful to access U-District businesses for supplies or restaurants during the snow. 90% of the regular riders disappear during snow, and the people who remain are just trying to survive until it ends.
I see the source of my confusion. It is how the Route 62 snow route stops near Roosevelt Station.
However the snow route shown for Route 65 shown on the Route 62 map does not match the snow route shown for Route 65 on the Route 65 map. The snow route on the Route 65 map does use 25th Ave and doesn’t go to the Roosevelt station.
The megaloop snow route for Route 65 shown on the Route 62 map does seem ridiculous though. I get how grades affect it. Still it looks like that loop would take a lot of time in the snow.
The Route 65 snow route loop is smaller on the Route 65 map but it still looks like that it would take a lot of time to use.
Yeah, you are right, the two snow maps don’t match up. Very weird. Based on the ESN map (https://cdn.kingcounty.gov/-/media/king-county/depts/metro/maps/esn/metro-system-map-esn-english.pdf) the 62 schedule is correct.
In general I think the overall map is easier to understand than focusing on one particular route. It also makes a lot of sense to me. The routes avoid the major hills but they also converge. This means that if one bus gets stuck (or is really late) there is a good chance another bus will come along in a while.
“the snow route shown for Route 65 shown on the Route 62 map does not match the snow route shown for Route 65 on the Route 65 map”
The 62 snow shuttle has changed over the years, and that might include merging and unmerging with the 65 or changing the number. It’s possible the schedule cross-references didn’t get fully updated. That happens sometimes. I didn’t look at the 65 schedule; I just assumed the 62 replaced it.
The 65 has no responsibility for Roosevelt Station since it normally stays on 35th-40th, and it’s through-routed with the 67, which does serve Roosevelt station. The 67’s normal route through the U-District is similar though not identical to the 62’s snow route.
Maybe I’m missing something but as long as it goes to any Link station, isn’t that good enough for the shuttle? Why does it matter which one it is (U of Washington v Roosevelt) if the idea is getting riders from downtown onto the shuttle and vice versa?
I have been using the 62 to get to NOAA for a few years now when not riding my bike. I used to do the whole run from Third and James to NOAA but now take Link to Roosevelt and transfer to 62. I’m one of those 2-4 riders getting on/off at NOAA and I love the convenience!
Some notes:
o Third and James is a pretty rough neighborhood at 0700!
o 65th east of 35th is bone jarring! I have measured 90+DB noise levels. This stretch is the poster child for why lots of people prefer trains over buses. It’s painful!
PS the cuts at NOAA have been modest so far and the recent firings may be reversed. However, the upcoming RIFs give me nightmares.
I think the eastern end of the 62 has more to do with poor pavement quality than the fact that it’s a bus. Although, it does beg the question of why buses have to have such poor suspension – when you drive over the same stretch of road in a car, it’s much smoother.
Metro buses have suspensions? I have measured over 90DB noise levels on multiple metro routes including Rapid Ride. I don’t have as much experience with ST buses but they are much quieter. As an aside, can someone explain why the 1 line trains are so noisy in many places like entering U District Stn from the south?
@oz – The loud 1 Line trains are likely due to the train turning immediately before it enters U district from the south. Practical Engineering explains what causes the noise at 3:25 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Nteyw40i9So
Part of the problem is the tunnel and track are a huge echo chamber. This means any small noise becomes much louder.
Try riding Amtrak through a tunnel and you’ll notice it’s a bit different. The noise echoing off the walls is still there, but the track is ballasted instead of concrete slab, so you don’t get the wheel roar anywhere near as much.
BART in the Transbay tube is loud.
“BART in the Transbay tube is loud.”
It’s not be put out there in the public realm, but the new doors on the refurbished BART cars had deficient noise insulation. Those cars are now retired in the last few years and the new ones are much quieter.
I only know about this flaw because a was good friends with a BART planner at the time. He told me that BART took the low bid on the doors — and did not test the noise from the doors before they all arrived and were being installed. By that time, it was too late and too embarrassing to reject the doors — so the problem never was mentioned in public.
It’s a cautionary tale about the many things that can go with creating and running rail transit. It’s one reason why ST should be hiring people who have extensive experience with things like this.
The transbay tube has always been loud from my visits between 1986 and 2013. I haven’t been there since.
I haven’t been on the 62 as much in the last few years but my impression of it back when it was relatively new was that it was good to have a route that connected the busiest parts of Fremont, Wallingford, Green Lake, and Roosevelt. It’s not a straight corridor or even a perfect L but it’s serving a lot of destination pairs by winding northeast from Fremont.
I lived along Dexter for a while, too, and on that side of the bridge I thought it was a pretty terrible service. You could experience severe bunching in either direction due to conditions before you boarded, then severe backups in either direction due to conditions after you boarder… plus at certain times of day (back before COVID) you might not even be able to get on due to crowding. I was usually biking and glad I didn’t have to deal with it. Since then the Mercer backups don’t seem as bad as they used to be (I guess ITS is doing the one thing it’s good for and managing Mercer backups) and the crowding isn’t as bad, either.
I’m usually quite critical about bus routes but I think the 62 is generally OK. It just needs to be fixed in the problem areas as I wrote up above. It comes down to three areas. I will list them starting downtown (and going north):
1) Have the bus follow the 40 pathway until Harrison and then cut over. This would make the bus significantly faster and more reliable. It would allow riders to use the same bus stops (northbound) to get from downtown or South Lake Union to Fremont.
2) Add a northbound BAT lane on Dexter approaching Nickerson.
3) Apply the TangleTown improvement. It is rare that you can improve coverage *and* make a bus faster. This is one of the those cases.
There may be other improvements that could be made (e. g. along Stone Way) or 45th but I think these three would be relatively easy and improve speed and reliability quite a bit.
Until 2016 there was no route serving the whole of NE 65th Street. The 71 ran between 15th and 50th-55th Ave NE. So it didn’t reach the future Roosevelt station or Sand Point. There was a steep hill between it and Magnuson Park/NOAA. Instead Sand Point had the 74, which meandered on lower-density NE 55th Street and Ravenna Blvd to the future U-District station. Tangletown and Dexter Ave N were on less-frequent north-south routes. Those routes were to be restructured away.
Metro decided to address all of those by creating the 62 as an L-shaped route. This brought important east-west service to tie several North Seattle villages together. There’s a general shortage of northeast-southwest service, which makes trips from Sand Point or Lake City to Fremont, Ballard, and far north Aurora take a long time. The 62 improves some of it. The Dexter routing allows all those areas to access SLU. The fact that it goes downtown too is kind of immaterial to northeast Seattle, but it would be silly to terminate at Denny Way or Fremont to avoid it.
If the 62 is to be split, Roosevelt Station is the best location. That won’t affect people going to the station. Those going to Greenlake would have a same-stop transfer to the 45 or 62W. Those going to Fremont or SLU would have to wait for the 62W.
Readers have noticed the poor pavement quality on NE 65th east of 35th NE. For the part of 65th descending east from Princeton Way, two stretches had been repaved in recent years: from Sand Point Way west to the bike trail, and a short stretch at 52nd NE. The part west of 52nd was falling apart: asphalt chunks missing to expose the concrete base. I took photos and notified View Ridge CC, who notified our councilperson. It was repaved with asphalt a few months ago. Now the section from 54th to the bike trail is shot: needs to be scraped and repaved.