West Seattle scenes: Private park-n-ride; cruise season ebbing

| Seen around town | Seen at sea | Transportation

One week ago, we were first to break the news (outside the company, anyway) that Microsoft’s Connector employee bus service had picked the date to expand into West Seattle; today, a tip from Sue led us to signs like that one in the parking lot by the Masonic Hall on the east edge of The Junction, one of several pickup/dropoff spots with which the service will launch next Monday (and we’re told it’s already full up!). Now, a seagoing sight from Alki:

During the heart of the summer cruise season, you don’t usually see the big ships in Elliott Bay on Mondays. But now it’s shoulder season and schedules are different; late this afternoon, Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas (left) and Celebrity Cruises’ Mercury both headed out. Serenade was the last non-Celebrity ship scheduled to visit this year (according to the schedule on the Port of Seattle website); Celebrity’s Infinity stops in tomorrow, and Millennium on Wednesday, then Mercury is in four more times (running a schedule of short Northwest cruises) until its departure ends the cruise season on Wednesday, October 15.

What September 29, 2008 (11:29 pm)

So where exactly does Microsoft plan for the employees to park at this park and ride? West Seattle has only cut down on actual parking, especially in The Junction. I hope Microsoft plans to add a lot of money to help with the parking situation. I don’t want to deal with their employees taking up the little bit of parking that does exist.

WSB September 29, 2008 (11:59 pm)

I’m going to see what I can find out about how many spaces are set aside there – I know a couple of those lots there are somewhat underutilized, and there’s ex-Huling land in the area too; will report back what we find out, but thought the sign sighting was an interesting mini-update for starters.

CandrewB September 30, 2008 (5:26 am)

Microsoft adds more than enough money to the Puget Sound area.

Andre September 30, 2008 (10:31 am)

What,

Microsoft is renting parking spots on a private parking lot that belongs to the Alki Masonic temple. In addition, the MS connector bus service is actually taking cars off the road through its service. If others would follow their lead we might actually get our traffic mess under control.

Andre

WS CARPOOLER September 30, 2008 (10:59 am)

Burton – WHAT raises a good point and asks a good question – for those who will be using this service will be needing a place to park there vehicles at the meetup point and there is not much on street parkeing in the area – no reason to insult anyone because of there opinion – personal assults are a NO NO on here – so voice your opinion without insulting others. Would be nice if the city would create a PARK N RIDE for the other commuters in the area.

WSB September 30, 2008 (11:12 am)

I deleted that comment. Rules summarized as follows:
Criticize the post (opinion/statement), not the post’er (person).
Sometimes it’s as little as one word of difference.

Bob Loblaw September 30, 2008 (12:04 pm)

MS has rented 50 spots for parking at that location. Bob Loblaw can’t wait for next week. He lives within walking distance. Now both his cars are completely off the road M-F.

I love this company :-)

WS CARPOOLER September 30, 2008 (1:36 pm)

Way to go BOB! Lucky you – I carpool with 3 other people so only drive one week out of 4 – found my partners on rideshareonline.com – works out great and I am saving alot of $$ this way and they even offer prizes and rewards on a monthly basis.

Canderson October 1, 2008 (1:17 pm)

I’m thrilled about this new Connector location, as I’m currently taking the city bus into downtown and then walking to Belltown to catch the Connector there. I don’t mind the walk, but won’t miss the two-hop commute.

Not all of us will be using parking spaces, BTW. I’ll be walking.

What October 1, 2008 (1:59 pm)

Glad to hear Microsoft has leased out parking spots for employees to use. Pretty amazing they were able to find some since land is being consumed by builders for all these condos going up.

Hopefully as time goes on they’ll add more than 50 spots, hard to imagine a company with 90,000 employees world wide would only have 50 people driving from West Seattle. Maybe Amazon and Starbucks will add shuttles from West Seattle and help with that much more traffic. That or help Metro expand express bus services from West Seattle to SODO, downtown and S. Lake Union.

Geeb October 3, 2008 (8:57 am)

As I understand it, MS has designated two stops in N. Admiral and one in Alki. What about the junction area? If there are MS employees outside of N. Admiral, I suggest you let the Connector folks know that there is much more to West Seattle than N. Admiral.