It was a bit of a slog for sure, but I learned a lot and consider it a very valuable experience!

Agreed! It's a great off-peak option for Seattle-Tacoma-Lakewood!

Absolutely, I love traveling to Olympia just for fun as well, great city to explore!

Yes, it was definitely an adventure, and I learned a lot!

Yeah, and something I definitely am hoping for is stronger regional transit lines to allow for easier travel on this corridor as well as other similar corridors!

That’s fair - modal preference does exist for a reason. Personally, I love the bus but I can get why you’d prefer trains. For this commute, you could in theory take Amtrak, although it would cost more and take around the same amount of time, but for some it can definitely be worthwhile.

That was me most of the time with college! I get that though, it can be a slog

Yeah, it can definitely be a slog, that’s quite wild!

That's pretty interesting! What's it like to take transit in Miami? I've always been curious about Miami as a city

The 594 and 620 are great in that they have fairly usable and reliable weekend service, something I've definitely taken advantage of myself!

Wow, what a trek!

That's a long ride! I've been looking into commutes in that region and it definitely sounds like a long haul for sure.

@@thetransitbandit She just uses the time to nap before work.

@@pacificostudios I won't lie, I napped many times during my own commute haha!

Sounds like that would get old pretty fast, but must’ve been an adventure!

Wow, those are both really impressive commutes! Quite wild to hear about.

Yeah, it would be really great to have better Sounder service - fingers crossed it happens soon!

For sure, makes sense! It’s always nice to have extra comfort on those longer trips

Time: About 1 hour 20 minutes. Price: About $20 each way. Considering the need for local transit from the U District to King St. Station and from Lacey to ICT HQ, the time savings isn't worth the expense.

I definitely considered Amtrak, but to me it didn’t justify the cost. It would be a marginally shorter trip for much more money, and taking local transit from the Amtrak station to the office would take nearly an hour anyway, so for me it was much easier and cheaper to take the bus - the bus also had better frequency. That being said, if I ever missed the last 620 to Lakewood, I would’ve had Amtrak as a backup which would’ve been nice.

Thank you, glad to have you onboard! Seattle - Oly on transit is a lot of fun, definitely recommend it, and Oly is a fun city to explore by bus - it also helps that Intercity Transit is totally fare-free, so you can get around the city pretty easily! As for my headphones, they're just the standard Apple EarPods that used to come with iPhones, I believe you can still buy them from Apple stores though!

For sure, I love commuting in Seattle

That’s still a super commute, quite wild!

If there were more reverse-peak Lakewood trains then it would be possible - it’s definitely possible, even easy for a peak-direction commute though!

I did go to Lakewood Station, but the Olympia Amtrak station is unfortunately in a farm field in Lacey, so I didn't go there.

Yeah, sounds like quite the trek, glad you don’t have to do that anymore!

@@thetransitbandit definitely haha now I just take a single 25 min light rail ride to work

@@GirtonOramsay Used to live in Orlando and the public transit there is quite awful.

I would've if I could! I was traveling in the reverse-peak direction, and while Sounder does operate a few reverse-peak trips, the majority are only between Seattle and Tacoma, and I needed to be in Lakewood for my bus. There is one reverse-peak Lakewood train in the morning, but it would've got me to work at either 10 or 11 AM, and I usually tried to start work at 9. I did take it to work once though on a more chill day where I came in late!

I pull out my laptop and hotspot on the train so I'm earning. Because my transit timetable doesn't get me to the office much before 11am and I have to leave at 3pm to make the last bus. I've done the super commute once: four hours each way including waiting for transit using two buses and two trains. I might do it again later this month. They shut down my local office during pandemic so now my closest office is 200km away. They do put me up in a hotel overnight so it's not right hours of travelling in the one day!

I doubt most students could find short-term jobs at $50 an hour and he also did he only did that once a week.

Let me clear a couple things up - I live in a University area, so subletting in the summer is incredibly difficult. While rent in Olympia is cheaper than in Seattle, it would probably have cost me more than what I was paying, especially since I wouldn’t have been able to commit to a 12-month lease. I was not paid even half of $50 an hour as an intern, and was actually paid for a portion of my commuting time, as my boss saw it as a valuable opportunity for me to learn more about transit. And as others mentioned, I could be somewhat productive during my commute as well. So while there would be a compelling argument to move to Olympia if it had been a longer-term or higher-paying job, in my situation the commute definitely made more sense.

To me, it was an introduction. I acknowledge that there are people who have to do it more often and for longer, but I don’t believe that invalidates my experience.

that's a very strong argument for express commuter rail service

@@heyitstobias Assuming there is a large number of commuters that would take it, I agree. But if that's not a very commutable route, that money on transit is better served elsewhere.

@@Mike__B Then maybe, city planning should take this into account and plan where they put housing and industry. Instead of allowing developers to go all british empire on the map. Also, if everyone had a car, that route would still take 3 hours even in a car, look at LA traffic Or you know, build actual commuter transit options that cover arterial routes so a 100km commute isn't 3 hours.

@@anivicuno9473 Lets not jump to conclusion that a guy who wanted to do a summer internship type of job and didn't want to move for just the summer translates into housing and industry is just bonkers. Yes, if everyone had a car, if everyone had a car, everyone isn't doing that 3 hour commute every day.

It’s an argument for stronger regional transit. There have long been discussions of a Sounder extension to Olympia, which i would strongly be in support of. Additionally, considering the traffic volumes on I-5, there would certainly be demand for more transit on the corridor. My commute was just one example. Unfortunately, commutes between Thurston, Pierce and King Counties aren’t all that rare, and do need to be accounted for with our transit systems. My next video, going deeper into my commute reflections, will further explain some of these ideas.

What?

@@rowenadebenham7821 Something you wouldn't know about. Old Intercity Transit (pre-countywide, 1989-90). Initiative 695, which decimated transit funding as well as road maintenance and public safety funding. If your last name is Benham, tell the ghost of Monte that datura is a spirit drug for me. Park Lake Homes Site 2, now known as Seola, and someone from Portland who knows me.

A car would’ve been about an hour and a half each way, but even if I’d had the ability to do that I would’ve preferred my transit commute personally - I’ll explain more about that in my next video!

It was definitely not ideal, but a direct bus route wouldn't help. I was the only person making my commute, so a U District - Olympia express bus wouldn't really help LOL. However, I do think that this shows the need for better and more frequent regional transit lines!

@@thetransitbandit So you don't think people with cars do the same commute as you?

@@norbertmayer7005 There are definitely Seattle-Olympia reverse commutes, but as you'll see in future videos my philosophy isn't necessarily to run commuter peak-hour buses - I personally believe creating transit systems that can be used efficiently all day, all week are more important.