questions about water taxi

[saney]

well, i finally hit my breaking point with gas prices. i traded in my parking pass at work for a company provided bus pass. it takes about 40 minutes to get to work on the 55. i am thinking of trying the water taxi.

my questions….

what is the parking situation down at the dock? taking the bus there defeats the purpose since i will have to change busses just to get to the dock.

also…

i was looking at the schedule. to get to work, i would need to catch the 16 bus once i get to the downtown side. it seems scheduled 3-5 minutes after the water taxi arrives. does anyone here take the taxi/bus 16 route to work? how is that? are you having to wait the 20 minutes for the next 16?

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[WSB]

Parking situation is a challenge. There’s a limit (I can’t recall if it’s 2 or 3 hours) in the lot at Seacrest itself. There’s not a limit along Harbor Ave. nearby, so you might be able to park within a block or two and walk to Seacrest. Watch the curb striping very carefully for bus zones, etc. — TR

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[Erik]

Have you checked into the free shuttle route for the watertaxi?

The route for the Admiral/Alki shuttle is from Harbor Ave up California, down Admiral to 63rd, over to Alki Ave., then down Alki/Harbor Aves. to the water taxi. There is a schedule at the Metro site.

On the Seattle side I’ve only walked to and from the watertaxi (5-10mins and 100+ stairs) as I only need to get to the Westlake park area.

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[barmargia]

saney, parking is a huge challenge down there. The couple times I did drive down, I would get home at the end of the day unable to move my car because people parked so close to me that I would surely hit them if I tried to get out of the spot. The free shuttle is a great option if it’s not too far from where you start. I only had to walk a few blocks to the corner of admiral and california. One big complaint with the water taxi is that it doesn’t necessarily take the “only 12 minutes” that the website mentions. Not a big deal if you don’t have far to go after you get to the other side, but I had to get down to the far south end of pioneer square so it was a little frustrating, also if there is a lot of freighter traffic the little water taxi has to go around and yield for them. It’s a relaxing ride if you aren’t worried about making a specific time. I have to be to work at 6 a.m. so it really doesn’t work for me at all.

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[celeste17]

I use to take it all the time (when I worked in Downtown). If you get down to the boat for the first 2 runs the parking is usually pretty good. The only time the parking wasn’t good was when the fishing season was open and then all the trucks and trailers where parked on the street. I would often take the 16 and what I found is that if I was the first one off the boat and really walked fast I would make the bus. The bus needs to wait for the foot traffic from the Ferry so sometimes we would be waiting a few minutes. There is also the 66 so sometimes if you miss the 16 the 66 would be an option. There is also the waterfront streetcar bus that runs but I am not sure when and where to catch that bus.

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[JayDee]

I concur with Celeste17, the WT is great, and parking at along Alki Ave on weekdays isn’t that bad. Weekends, like today, would be darn near impossible. If you are going downtown, you can walk to the Harbor Steps building south of the steps and take the public elevator to the 1st Ave level. Or walk to the Market Garage and take the Market Elevator. Assuming you don’t want to climb the Harbor Steps (saves one from the ciggy fumes too–the last thing you want to do when you gotta breathe is inhale someone else’s cigarette smoke.)

The WT is no more faster than the Bus (barring a Ms game or traffic tie-up) but it is much more relaxing–The Argosy crews are efficient and polite.

BTW, the shuttle leaves the Junction and drives straight to the WT. Besides, if you are on the shuttle, the boat will wait for you to arrive. Just look for the little green shuttle signs on the bus stop signs.

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[Ashley]

I live in West Seattle and drive to Lower Queen Anne for work. I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint and now walk around West Seattle as opposed to driving. But paying 3.00 each way seems like it would cost me more to pay 6.00 a day then drive to work and park for free. Does anyone have any suggestions?? The bus is not an option because 3 out of the 5 days I work I leave at midnight.

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[austin]

If you use the bus and water taxi a few times a week you could look into a bus pass. They also have a single day pass for $5.50 which is worthwhile if you’re going both ways on the water taxi more than two hours apart and using the bus in between, and might be more cost effective than a monthly pass if you’re using metro two out of five days (or seven).

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[JayDee]

My company helps subsidize our use of the Metro Bus by helping pay for a bus pass, which also works on the Water Taxi. The city and county offer these “Flexpasses” to employers with a certain number of employees, and 5 years ago, the first year was free to me, now my share is $14/month taken pre-tax, so really painless, seemingly.

The neat part is that as long as you remember where the pass is, every bus is “free” so you can even use them for errands if you can deal with the infrequent runs (compared to a city with real bus transit–like Vancouver BC).

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[Sue]

This was very helpful to learn about about the Harbor Steps elevator – I work right near there, but haven’t been down to the waterfront (or considered the taxi) for a while since I’ve been having problems with my leg and there was no way I could get up/down the 104 steps right now. I had no idea this elevator existed. So thanks for opening up that possibility with this info!

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