Seattle public transit is pretty great

Wanted to offset some of the negativity about our city and public transit you tend to see online.

We moved to Capitol Hill in March after a year in the SF Bay Area, and it has been such an incredible quality of life improvement to have so many reliable public transit and walking options around us.

This weekend my partner and I got groceries, had an impromptu meetup with friends at a beer garden, and went shopping at a plant store, hardware store, and frame store all without having to drive anywhere.

In our Bay Area apartment, we couldn’t even get a coffee without driving at least 20 minutes. Even where we lived in West Seattle we couldn’t get groceries without a 40 minute walk one-way.

Between taking public transit most places and walking, we’ve felt so much more connected to our city. We tend to wander around and explore more, and find places we never would if we were driving.

I know these are just standard Big City things, but it has without a doubt improved our health and happiness. It’s going to be really hard for us to leave again.

Could things be better? Absolutely. We can and should be building more housing to solve the affordability and homelessness problems. More rapid ride lines, dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes. More frequent service. But what we have now is pretty damn good, and we shouldn’t take that for granted.