I've commented before about how we've been riding the bus here more than we ever did in Dallas or Fort Worth. Riding the bus here is pretty popular and most of the buses we've ridden on have been pretty full. However, while the buses are used much more than DART in Dallas or The-T in Fort Worth and our location in the city makes them more accessible to us, I can't say the system itself is that much better.

While many of the buses we've ridden on have been full, too many of them have been packed full, requiring us to stand. This hasn't been during rush hour or after a special event, it just seems that the route that goes by our apartment is always full. We can see the bus pass by from our window and it's often crammed with people. And, they're not even regular-sized buses, they're double-length buses with an accordion-style section in between to allow the bus to turn. However, that bus only runs every thirty minutes, I think, and it's just not frequently enough considering the number of people who ride it.

Oh, and the buses are never on time. Unless you're late, in which case they arrive early. Whenever I wait for a bus, I look at the posted time and add ten minutes to it to have a better approximation of when the bus will arrive.

Plus there is no light rail system (yet). A small section of light rail will open next year, but I can't believe it's taken so long.

There are a lot of bus routes, but the problem is that I think that there are too many routes and there doesn't seem to be much difference between them. The 66,70-74, and several other bus lines all go between Downtown and the University District but they have different numbers for some reason. Plus, what makes things worse, at least for people not familiar with the bus system, is that there isn't just one bus system. There's King County metro, which operates within Seattle and the rest of King County, but there's also Sound Transit, which provides bus routes between Seattle and many of its suburbs. The Seattle Streetcar is operated separately as well.

Then, there's the ticketing confusion. Sometimes you pay when you get on, other times you pay when you get off. Sometimes the bus costs $1.50, other times $1.75 (during peak-hours), other times $2.25 (two-zone peak-hours), unless, of course, you're a senior or a child and then it's all different. And sometimes it's free downtown but sometimes it's not. And there's a special bus that goes downtown after Mariners games and it's $1 and stops at different places each time we've ridden it.

A lot of people buy a monthly pass for the bus, since they use it all the time, but since we only use it occasionally, we buy a booklet of tickets. However, you can't buy a ticket book on the bus, you can only buy it at certain stores. But, we can't pay with credit card, we have to pay with cash. The tickets come in a confusing variety of options, depending on what type of tickets you want ($1.50, $1.75, etc.). Since we normally travel outside of peak hours, we got a booklet of $1.50 tickets. However, if we ever want to travel during peak hours, we have to carry around a quarter with us, which kind of undermines the point of buying a booklet of tickets.

These nuances of the bus system may not be much different than many other cities, but for a city in which so many people can and do ride the bus, it's disappointing that the bus system doesn't make things friendlier for everyone, especially considering that Seattle is a tourist city and the bus system is full of complexities that only a local can understand.

Still, it's a viable alternative to driving that we can take advantage of in the city and I'm appreciative when I can ride the bus and avoid having to waste gas and search or pay for a parking spot.