Microsoft Connector makes its West Seattle debut

Bridge traffic had 40-plus fewer cars this morning, thanks to that shuttle: It’s a Microsoft Connector bus heading east on Alaska from 40th after picking up riders at the Masonic Temple lot (where MSFT has rented park-and-ride spaces, as reported here) this morning — its first official run from West Seattle to Redmond after announcing the service expansion last month. The wifi- and bike-rack-equipped Connector also picks up WS riders further north (the route map’s in our original report). If you work for another non-WS company that provides a commuting solution to cut down on car traffic, we’d love to hear about that too.

Jason October 6, 2008 (12:02 pm)

This is such a great idea for Microsoft to do this! Anybody considering taking a job there knows that their commute to the eastside from West Seattle will be way better now.

Joe October 6, 2008 (4:25 pm)

Kudos to Microsoft for not only offering a great benefit to employees, but a great way to help the environment and traffic congestion. Cheers!

Orange Badge Holder October 6, 2008 (4:48 pm)

I thought the Connector was an awesome idea until two things happened:

1. I learned the MS contractors are not allowed to use the connector.
2. I was heading back from the east side in my car next to the Connector that MS contractors are not allowed to use. It was occupied by two people, one of them was the DRIVER.

It’s a step in the right direction, admittedly. But running empty vans while denying use to those that could be filling the seats seems, um, what’s the word? Wasteful?

islewrite October 6, 2008 (7:00 pm)

Are you called orange badges now? In my day you’d have simply been a “C-dash.” :-)

Sadly, this sounds like one of the lines of demarcation that MS has had to draw over the years in order to distinguish full-timers from contractors for tax and compensation reasons. In other words, it’s something they can point to to clarify, as necessary (if someone sues, claiming they were actually a full-time employee) to reinforce the stance that, “no they weren’t a fulltime employee.”

I suspect that this will be temporary and that eventually they’ll let everyone ride. It just won’t make sense otherwise.

My two cents. I will now stand back and let flamers of MS wield their torches. :-)