Transportation in Seattle

thumb|The now-demolished [[Alaskan Way Viaduct in downtown Seattle]]

thumb|[[King County Water Taxi and downtown Seattle]]

Transportation in Seattle is largely focused on the automobile like many other cities in western North America; however, the city is just old enough for its layout to reflect the age when railways and trolleys predominated. These older modes of transportation were made for a relatively well-defined downtown area and strong neighborhoods at the end of several former streetcar lines, now mostly bus lines.

Due to Seattle's isthmus-like geography and the concentration of jobs within the city, much of the flow of transportation in the metropolitan area is through the city proper. North-south transportation is highly dependent on the Interstate 5 corridor, which connects the Puget Sound area with southwest Washington cities and the Portland metropolitan area, as well as cities to the north such as Bellingham and Vancouver, Canada. I-5 continues as British Columbia Highway 99 at the U.S.-Canada border's Peace Arch crossing, between Blaine and Surrey. State Route 99 is also a major arterial in the western half of the city; it included the now-defunct Alaskan Way Viaduct along the Seattle waterfront. The Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel was opened in place of the elevated viaduct in February 2019 on account of seismic instability.

Transportation to and from the east is via State Route 520's Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and Interstate 90's Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Third Lake Washington Bridge, all over Lake Washington. Those bridges are respectively the first, second, and fifth longest floating bridges in the world. State Route 522 connects Seattle to its northeastern suburbs.

Two public transportation agencies are based in Seattle: King County Metro, which operates local and commuter buses within King County, and Sound Transit, which operates commuter rail, light rail, and regional express buses within the greater Puget Sound region. In recent years, as Seattle's population and employment have surged, transit has played an increasingly important role in transportation within the metro area. By 2017, nearly 50% of commuters to downtown Seattle arrived via mass transit.

Washington State Ferries, the largest ferry system in the United States and the second largest in the world, operates a passenger-only ferry from Colman Dock in Downtown to Vashon Island, car ferries from Colman Dock to Bainbridge Island and to Bremerton, and a car ferry from West Seattle to Vashon Island to Southworth. Seattle was once home to the Kalakala, a streamlined art deco-style ferry that sailed from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Seattle contains most of Boeing Field, officially named King County International Airport; but most airline passengers use Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in the city of SeaTac. Seattle is also served by three Amtrak routes from the King Street Station: the Cascades, Coast Starlight, and Empire Builder lines.

History

thumb|[[Horsecar|Horse-drawn streetcar at what is now the corner of Occidental and Yesler, 1884]]

Even though Seattle is old enough that railways and streetcars once dominated its transportation system, the city is now largely dominated by automobiles but has recently started rebuilding streetcar lines and light rail routes. Seattle is also serviced by an extensive network of bus routes and two commuter rail routes connecting it to many of its suburbs.

Organized land transportation in Seattle dates back at least to 1871; by that date, a wagon traveled twice daily from what is now First Avenue (near Elliott Bay) to Lake Washington; the fare was 50 cents, no small sum for that era. In 1880 a two-horse carriage carried passengers and freight from roughly today's Pioneer Square to Belltown every two hours at a fare of 12.5 cents in an open coach or 15 cents in a covered coach. This was shortly followed by similar services connecting out to Lake Union and Madison Park on Lake Washington.

Water transport was important even within what are now city limits. A steamer connected South Lake Union to Latona (between today's Lower Wallingford and the University District) and another steamer crossed Green Lake.

The first street railway, Seattle Street Railway, came in 1884, with horse-drawn cars plying of track up today's Second Avenue to Pine Street, then up First Avenue to Battery Street. Yesler Way and Jackson Street got their cable cars (from Pioneer Square to Lake Washington) in 1888, allowing public transportation on routes over hills too steep for horses. Electric streetcars appeared in 1889, making Seattle one of the first cities in the United States to adopt this innovation.

The Great Seattle Fire did not slow this progress at all: by 1890, there were lines along the waterfront from South Seattle (today's South Park) to Lower Queen Anne and from the center of town to Capitol Hill, Madison Park, and Madrona.

thumb|Map Showing Lines of Seattle Electric Company c 1907

At that time, there were about 25 independent transit lines in Seattle. By 1907, the Seattle Electric Company, owned by Boston-based Stone & Webster, leveraged its foothold in the electric power industry to consolidate these into one operation, known after 1912 as the Puget Sound Traction, Light and Power Company. It cost a nickel to ride. Puget Sound Traction was bought out by the city in 1919 for US$15 million. However, under the city's management, the streetcars chronically ran a loss (even after a 1923 fare increase to three rides for a quarter, a fare of 8-and-a-third cents), and the quality of the system deteriorated.

The advent of the automobile sounded the death knell for rail in Seattle. Tacoma–Seattle railway service ended in 1929 and the Everett–Seattle service came to an end in 1939, replaced by automobiles running on the recently developed highway system. When the city received a US$10.2 million federal grant to pay off transit-related debts and modernize its transit system, rails on city streets were paved over or removed, and the opening in 1940 of the Seattle trolleybus system brought the end of streetcar service in Seattle in the early hours of April 12, 1941. This left an extensive network of buses (including of trolleybus lines) under an independent Municipal Transportation Commission as the only mass transit within the city and throughout the region.

The new transit system was jammed and profitable during the gasoline and rubber rationing of World War II, but the automobile reigned supreme after the war. Fares rose to 10 cents, the first of many increases that would lead to a present-day regular adult fare of $2.75. Various proposals to expand mass transit were rejected in the 1950s and '60s. In 1972, voters approved the establishment of Metro Transit to run bus lines in King County. A further expansion was approved in 1996, following yet another defeat in 1995.

The city is described in a mid-20th-century civics textbook as "a city of islands—islands created both by water and by abrupt valleys that can be traversed only by bridges." Already by 1948, 221,500 vehicles a day crossed the city's bridges across the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Duwamish River; except for the high Aurora Bridge (officially George Washington Memorial Bridge) across the Ship Canal, these were all drawbridges. This was before the construction of the Interstate Highways or State Route 520; the original Lake Washington Floating Bridge (opened 1940) provided the only road out of town to the east; construction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the first limited-access highway through the city center, was still underway.

Even with the lesser population of that time and fewer major highways, difficulty parking downtown had already become "practically an institution". The total number of vehicles parking downtown in a day would already have filled a parking lot the size of downtown had they all been there at once; naturally, many of these were there only briefly for shopping. Parking meters had been introduced in the early 1940s, and multi-level parking garages provided some relief (and would later provide more), but the impact of the automobile on the city was very apparent. The city was considering various proposals, such as the establishment of large parking lots on the periphery of downtown with shuttle buses into the center. The city was seeking (and failing to get) state permission to use the right of eminent domain to acquire property for multi-level parking lots. , 13,500 blocks lack sidewalks. The largest system is King County Metro (also known as Metro Transit), which has 143 routes and carried 270,000 passengers on an average weekday in 2024. Metro also maintains a network of trolleybus routes in Seattle that is among the largest in the United States. Sound Transit is the regional transit authority, commissioned by voters in 1996 to build a system of light rail, express buses, and commuter rail within the Central Puget Sound area. The agency provides a number of regional express bus routes connecting Seattle with neighboring suburbs and cities.

The Sounder commuter rail system consists of two lines, linking Seattle with Lakewood along its South Line and Seattle with Everett along its North Line. Several stations in intermediate cities along the lines are also served; the trains run primarily during peak hours in the peak direction.

The light rail system, called Link light rail, includes the initial from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport, which began service in 2009. Extension to the University of Washington via the University Link tunnel and Angle Lake station began service in 2016; they were followed by the Northgate Link Extension in 2021. It was named the 1 Line and was joined by other lines in future extensions approved by voters in 2008 and 2016. A second line, the 2 Line, opened in 2024 to serve the Eastside and is planned to be extended into Seattle in 2026. By 2025, the 1 Line had been extended to over and 26 stations between Lynnwood and Federal Way. Above the tunnel, 3rd Avenue through downtown serves as a major bus arterial, with access restricted to buses only during peak commuting hours.

The city is currently in the process of expanding a modern streetcar network. In December 2007, the city inaugurated its South Lake Union Streetcar line between Westlake Center and stops in the South Lake Union neighborhood. In 2009, the Seattle city council approved a second line, the First Hill Streetcar, to connect First Hill to Link light rail at Capitol Hill and International District/Chinatown stations. The line began service in 2016 after two years of delays. Metro Transit also operated a historic Waterfront Streetcar line that ran along Alaskan Way, but the streetcar's maintenance barn was demolished to make room for the Olympic Sculpture Park, resulting in the subsequent closure of the line. King County Metro now operates a replacement bus line that mirrors the route. The proposed City Center Connector project would connect the South Lake Union and First Hill streetcars into a single line with a routing along 1st Avenue in Downtown Seattle.

In 2009, the ORCA card was introduced as a new way for fare payment between the seven transit agencies in the Puget Sound region. The card uses RFID technology to handle payment from either passes, vouchers, or the E-purse, a stored value debit account. ORCA's precursor, PugetPass, will be retained as one of the several passes that can be loaded automatically onto the card. The system also calculates transfers for a two-hour window for those paying with the E-purse. Since 2022, all transit agencies in the Puget Sound area have waived fares for passengers under the age of 18 as part of a statewide program.

thumb|[[Seattle Center Monorail]]

The Seattle Center Monorail, constructed for the Century 21 Exposition, runs approximately between Seattle Center in Lower Queen Anne and Westlake Center in Downtown.

Local transit agencies offer trip planners on their web sites that provide information for public transit in Seattle and surrounding areas (King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties). Riders enter their intended origin and destination, along with optional time, date, and other information, and the trip planner displays itineraries showing the stops, departure and arrival times, and times to get from the origin to the destination. Trip planning, schedules, and real-time arrivals are also available on third-party maps, such as Google Maps, and through dedicated apps such as OneBusAway.

BoltBus began offering Seattle's first curbside intercity coach service in May 2012, with Portland as its first destination. The service later expanded with stops in Everett and Tacoma, but was discontinued by parent company Greyhound in 2021.

Public transportation statistics

The Seattle metropolitan area has historically had robust ridership for a predominantly bus-based transit system. It was one of the few major transit systems to gain ridership in the 2010s, in a period of increased ride-hailing services and lower gas prices. Only 10% of King County Metro riders rely on the agency for all or most of their trips and do not have access to a vehicle. As of 2016, 48% of all trips to downtown were on transit. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, transit use by downtown commuters declined by 55 percent and was largely replaced by remote work according to 2022 statistics from the American Community Survey.

According to Moovit, the average amount of time Seattle-area commuters spend using public transit on a weekday is 74 minutes. 27% of public transit riders commute for more than two hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 14 minutes, while 22% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 12.5 km, while 34% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

Bicycles and scooters

There are extensive multi-use car-free regional pathways linking the city and county to the surrounding areas, including the King County Regional Trails System, which has of trails throughout the county. Many of the trails were converted from former railways, including the popular Burke–Gilman Trail. The Seattle Department of Transportation aims to develop a network of bike lanes, including lanes on streets, protected bike lanes, and trails, within the city by 2034. The city opened its first protected intersection in May 2024 at Dexter Avenue and Thomas Street in South Lake Union, which was used by a daily average of 680 cyclists in October 2023.

An urban bike sharing system, named Pronto Cycle Share, was launched in October 2014 and discontinued in March 2017. A pilot program allowing private dockless bike sharing companies to operate within the city began in July 2017, making Seattle the first major city in North America to feature such a system. Several private operators debuted with bicycles and later expanded to motorized scooters after they were approved by the city government in 2020. In 2022, SDOT recorded 1.1 million bicycle trips and 2.7 million scooter trips on these systems. During 2025, over 10 million trips were taken on Bird and Lime, the two remaining operators in Seattle.

Airports

thumb|Aerial view of [[Boeing Field (left, foreground) and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (right, background) from Downtown Seattle]]

thumb|[[Kenmore Air DHC-3 Otter on Lake Union (Kenmore Air Harbor Seaplane Base)]]

The Seattle metropolitan area has several airports that support commercial use as well as general aviation. The city's primary commercial airport is Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, locally known as Sea-Tac Airport and located in the city of SeaTac, which is named for the airport. It is operated by the Port of Seattle and is served by a number of airlines connecting the region with international, national, and domestic destinations. The airport is a major hub for Delta Air Lines as well as Alaska Airlines and its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air.

Paine Field in Everett also began operating flights in March 2019 following the construction of a two-gate passenger terminal. It receives a limited number of daily flights from Alaska Airlines; prior to 2021, it also had United Airlines service.

Closer to downtown, Boeing Field is primarily used for general aviation, cargo flights, and testing/delivery of Boeing airliners. In 2005, Southwest Airlines requested permission to move passenger operations from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field but were rejected by the county. Boeing Field has commercial flights to the San Juan Islands. The Kenmore Air Harbor Seaplane Base on Lake Union, immediately north of downtown, is used by two airlines that operate floatplanes to the San Juan Islands and British Columbia.

Proposed airports

The state government formed the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC) in 2019 to investigate sites for a new commercial airport that would serve the Puget Sound region and relieve pressure at Sea-Tac. The new airport would accommodate 20 million passengers annually by 2050 and have two runways. The plan assumes that Sea-Tac and Paine Field would be expanded to handle 67 million annual passengers, which would fall below the projected 94 million annual passengers using Seattle-area airports.

In September 2022, the commission identified expansion of Paine Field or the construction of a new airport in southern Pierce County or northern Thurston County as potential options. Opposition to the Pierce County and Thurston County sites formed following the September 2022 announcement, citing potential noise and traffic impacts. The CACC was planned to recommend a site to the state legislature by June 2023. The commission was dissolved by the legislature in May 2023 due to public backlash and is planned to be replaced by a new working group that would monitor and review statewide aviation needs on an annual basis.

Bibliography

References

External links

Getting Around Seattle from Seattle Department of Transportation
Washington State Department of Transportation