That will be a brutal commute on public transit. Just a quick look at the metro trip planner http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.pl?resptype=U puts you at a 2 hour (each way) commute. If a carpool/vanpool from Tacoma isn't an option, there is a intercity transit (the Olympia area bus company) connection at the Lakewood P&R. I take public transit from Seattle to Olympia to visit family all the time and it's not a bad way to go, but I would hate to do it every day.

It could have been a bus transfer. When you pay in cash, you get a slip of brightly colored paper to show to the driver. When you pay with an ORCA card, the transfer is noted automatically.

There are also various programs around the city that buy bus passes in unusual ways. Until recently, UW students had a colored card that they had to show to the bus driver. The city also distributes reduced-fare bus tickets to homeless shelters and low-income programs. I'm not sure if those tickets look like regular cards or if they're printed on paper.

Perhaps these people are showing their bus transfers, small square to rectangular pieces of paper that allow riders to switch busses without having to pay again - if used within two hours of initial payment of course.

This is what the email I got said: "Because of persistent icy conditions, Community Transit will provide limited commuter and local service on Jan. 19. Downtown Seattle and University District commuter routes will operate first and last scheduled trips, except for Route 414. Route 414 will not operate. If possible, additional trips may operate in between.

Local service will be limited Jan. 19. Buses will operate on every route, but they may not be on regular schedule due to conditions. Local bus routes will operate the first and last scheduled trips. Other than that, buses may only operate every hour or every two hours, but there could be even longer periods without service.

Regular Community Transit 40-foot coaches will operate on the Swift route. Swift is scheduled operate on its Saturday schedule.

For the morning of Jan. 19, Sound Transit will operate its Sunday Route 512 schedule, with an additional trip at 4:55 a.m. The Route 512 trips will include a sign to remind passengers that the Route 512 will replace Routes 510 and 511.

Sound Transit also will operate the Route 535 on its Saturday schedule with additional trips at 4:48 south from the Lynnwood Transit Center and 5:45 a.m. north from 10th & 102nd.

Routes 513 and 532 will not operate. Route 532 passengers wishing to reach the Eastside can take Route 512 to the Lynnwood Transit Center and transfer to Route 535."

Yes- Sundays and holidays run on the same schedule, so it should all be the same. Also, if you use the "trip planner" option, you don't have to monkey around with trying the read schedules yourself (if you're not familiar with them). I hope your travel goes well!

They are listed, but not easy to find:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/bus/neighborhoods/downtown_seattle.html

Scroll down to the ones in the 80's, they have "Night Owl" listed after them. The 8x ones serve Seattle Neighborhoods, and the 280 does a large loop around the eastside also. The 7/49 also runs late night, keeping the same number.

You can see a map of the routes here:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/cftemplates/show_map.cfm?BUS_ROUTE=081&DAY_NAV=WSU

The SoundRunner ferry is a new service for M-F commuters. However, it will occasionally, more so during summer, make a special run on the weekends. For more information you can contact the Port of Kingston at 360-297-3545.

We've gotten this question before. For full Connector details, contact the HR person who facilitated your hiring, or your new manager. Both should be able to get you the info you need.

I found this -- a map of all of the Connector stops in the Seattle area. I think it's public, but if you can't see it, I can look up the stops specifically on Cap Hill.

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.5039=id:4B9F35C26A47D7CF!1161/5872/style=auto&lat=47.611321&lon=-122.271075&alt=90.728293&z=14&pid=5874

The Goog's has a result from circa 2009...buuuut really, this is a question you should ask your friendly* Microsoft receptionist - that is, if you don't want to search the sharepoint yourself.

[Having been one, I know they're not all friendly and not all competent, but there're still helpful people at those desks...]

If you don't have access to a Microsoft receptionist or the Microsoft sharepoint, you probably have no business with the Microsoft Connector.

[SNRK at this being in the 'public transportation' section - if the Connector was public I would have been able to use it when I worked there. Ha!]

If it's the accordion bus and they have that sideways facing three seat option right in front of the second set of doors that open, I sit in the farthest back seat of the three (there's a bar that runs between seat 2 & 3). It gives me easy off access, the ability to keep a bar between me and someone else, and people don't like to sit in the middle between two people, so I'm more likely to not have a nearby seat mate for a while.
Otherwise, any side facing seat on the front half of a bus is choice since I don't get blocked in and have to hustle out around another person to get off or vice versa. I can come and go at my leisure.

After normal run time, they often use the light rail cars to bring horses from the Port of Seattle to Emerald Downs racetrack in Auburn. Metro attendants try to sweep out the cars before service resumes at 5am, but often there is hay under the seats.

In the door well of the back door. Absolute favorite.
Proper PC seattle natives shun my rebellious mutiny, and the crazies ? -perhaps too awed by my brazen act to bother me. Both keep the ride less eventful than riding in the accordian seats - my second favorite.

I've wondered the same thing... It's almost a leather lime smell. But it's not every train. Weird. I'll ask my boyfriend.

Asteria's got it: tell him / ask him.

But I'd take it a step further and try a little guilt trip pressure too - tell him his choice is his choice, but you're going to have to go to another stop because of what he's doing. If you can do it in spanish and/or improvised sign language, and pretend you don't habla the ing-layz, then all the better, as that 'might' discourage him from the super talkative crap.

You could also go for value-added request, and let him know about a free meal or clothes program -if this applies- during the same time as your usual busstoppery.

It's public transportation. The bus smells the same way sometimes.

Such is life.

l'd say, "No."

Good lord, this is a thread that is exemplary of what is wrong with this town. Any place that so easily advocates lying is not the moral or ethical giant it claims to be.

I'll generally take the seat closest to the front that is vacant with the following exceptions: (1) Unless I have one of my kids or a bag or bags of groceries, I won't sit in the center facing seats at the very front and (2) If it's dark outside, I always go back far enough to where the overhead lights are on (usually the raised seats at the back of the front half of an articulated bus).

That said, I think the best bet for avoiding the worst in the way of smells, infringements, etc. is to simply sit down next to someone who is already there, even if there are plenty of vacant seats available, as you never know who is going to be getting on behind you or the next stop. To my regret, I've often not followed my own advice.

I always try to sit on the left hand side of the bus (as you walk down the aisle from the front door) because you can see out the windshield. The right hand side is blocked by the driver's seat. I like the seats between the accordion and the back door if I'm on a route I know well- preferably not the one closest to the accordion. I'm also a fan of the raised front-facing seats right in front of the accordion if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar- I can usually see better from there, if it's hot the breeze from the window goes straight to that seat, and I know I'm not in the way of elderly or other disabled passengers because they can't climb up there anyway. I HATE having to sit in the very front (people are more talkative over there, you're always getting crushed by people trying to cram themselves into a space that's too small for them or who can't sit up through the turns, there are other riders on both sides, and the crazies congregate there).

As far as the tactics for avoiding other riders go- I always try to sit in an unoccupied seat and I sit on the outside with my purse on the inner seat until all the unoccupied (no one in either seat) benches have one passenger. I'm not going to make it easy for a creep to come get up in my personal space, and that's the only reason someone would choose to sit next to me when there are empty seats available. I usually have earbuds in (even if I'm not actually listening to music), sunglasses or a hat on, and a book in my hands. If someone is getting into my personal space or continuing to talk to/harass me after I've clearly stated that I don't want to talk to them, I'm not shy about getting up and moving. I'll also move if I think someone's working up for a scene (getting loud or agitated, looking/acting drunk or high, etc.).

My morning bus gets crowded after I get on, so I like to grab a front-facing seat across from the back door. Non-articulated bus.

Center aisle-facing seats or the accordion seats. I like the leg room.

When I am on my own I sit on the left, front-facing seat immediately after the "starboard"-facing seats. Or the right, if the left is not available.

With my family we try for three seats together: sometimes we face the rear door, and sometimes we're on the "port-facing" or "starboard-facing" seats.

When I'm going uphill and am too encumbered/tired/hot to walk the six or so stops between my embarkation and disembarkation, I'll risk sitting near the driver, hoping someone who needs the seats doesn't get on immediately after I do.

I bring ear plugs and a library book when I go solo: I recognize that many youth who cannot afford personal vehicles cannot afford decent earphones or ear buds and they're unaware I can hear their tunes. There are also people with phones who shout over the rumbling of the bus in motion: I wear ear plugs so I don't have to hear either of these types of noise polluters.

The library book ensures that I am regarded as too poor/strange/anachronistic to talk to, unless someone sits by me who is very well-read/outgoing or similarly anachronistic tries to chat with me about the book, in which case I remove the ear plugs and start chatting.

In the back. The cool kids always sit in the back of the bus. Duh.

Generally I sit closer to the front when the ride is shorter, to expedite getting to the front to pay.
If it is a longer ride, I like sitting up at the back of the bus in the draft of an open window. Or, when it's warm, in the draft of the A/C.
I generally don't like the center-aisle-facing seats as I take a pack to work each day and it is cumbersome and gets in the way of people walking down the aisle.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm the guy who pipes up when someone won't vacate a seat for a disabled person or the elderly. Had to regulate a few weeks ago - a regular rider I've seen immediately said aloud "I'm not moving!" when he heard the chime/alarm for the wheelchair ramp. He was in a fold-up seat that was reserved for the ADA rider, and I was stunned that he wouldn't move. What a dick. The bus driver appreciated my efforts to get the guy to move. I think the rest of the bus was in shock because "people just don't DO THAT in Seattle." Fffftttt.

My favorite seats are the raised seats facing each other right in the middle of the bus (not the twisty accordion ones though). If they aren't available, I'll often sit in the front seats that face each other.

It's my favorite place to sit mainly because I'm a people watcher. I can easily watch people up and down the bus without being the creepy girl.

I'm a jerk who sits at the front because I enjoy getting out early and hate getting elbowed in the rush to get out.

Wherever there's an open seat. The bus I ride most often, the 358, rarely has any, so I take what I can get. With the preponderance of wide stances, a good number of open seats are being taken by double-seat hogs, but those are precisely the people I hate to interact with, so I'll stand.

My LEAST favorite are the sideways ones in the accordion, which heave and twist and sway like mad. I get motion sickness, and these are the worst. The ones right behind them that Alithea below likes are just as bad. LURCH.

Since the most likely passenger to shit or piss or vomit or describe their genital infection into their phone or perceive the nearness of Jesus, Satan, or millions of tiny bugs on any bus is the person closest to me, or the person who was in my seat immediately before, there don't seem to be any defensive tactics available.

In an empty bus I'd take the third or fourth row behind the driver. The very back isn't too bad, although it is often full of teenage hoodlums drinking quart bottles of Gatorade and looking at me funny, but I can cope.

on the accordion buses, there is usually a seat across from the back door that has an extra 6" of leg room. between this and the fact that it has less people walking by it (and less chance of smelling something rather unsavory!) makes it my ideal spot.