Blog

With the March Service Change right around the corner, you’re probably wondering how bus routes running through and out of Bellevue will be different? Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s coming, starting on March 18.

KING COUNTY ROUTES

• ROUTE 245
  • The Houghton P&R will permanently close on March 18 and Route 245 will no longer serve stop 72314 inside the park–and–ride or operate on 116th Ave NE. Route 245 will operate on NE 70th Pl and serve a new westbound stop on NE 70th Pl just west of 116th Ave NE, stop #72311.

SOUND TRANSIT ROUTES

• ST 550
  • Schedule times will be adjusted to improve on-time performance.
• ST 566
  • Schedule times will be adjusted to improve on-time performance.

For a full breakdown of the March Service Change, you can check out both King County Metro’s and Sound Transit’s pages on the matter.

- Choose Your Way staffer Jake

Sources: Sound Transit and King County Metro

Have you ever wanted a personal, written guide for you to get from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible? We are here to help! If you want to commute into, out of or within Bellevue using a non-drive-alone mode, we’re the one-stop transportation shop for you. Our services include:

• Transit
  • We’ll provide you with a detailed stop-by-stop commute, listing bus routes that will make your travel the most efficient as possible. Often, we utilize the King County Metro Trip Planner to provide the most up-to-date information on routes and revisions.
• Carpool/Vanpool
  • We’ll give you resources to start a carpool or vanpool using our Choose Your Way Bellevue portal to the RideshareOnline regional ridematching service, or, the Choose Your Way Bellevue Vanpool Widget.
• Biking
  • We’ll help you with using resources like the Choose Your Way Bellevue bike map, which you can download here, and Google Maps.
• More Resources
  • Not only will we give you a detailed commute plan, we’ll also provide you with links and resources for better commuting. This includes access to non-drive-alone information on our website, details on using RideshareOnline, how ORCA works and more!

Of course, remember that you can always go to www.ChooseYourWayBellevue.org and click on a transportation mode to learn more about it.

-Choose Your Way staffer Jake

It’s App Time!

If you were ever wondering what it would be like to use the brand new Choose Your Way Bellevue app, “Commuter Carl” is here to help! In this blog post, we’ll dive into a week of commuting and how our brand-new app can help you with all of your Bellevue transportation needs:

Monday
•    Carl needed to take the bus to his hybrid job, so he pulled out his handy dandy app, selected “Actions” on the lower left, and clicked on the Puget Sound Trip Planner to plug in his origin, destination and timing information of find his bus route.
        
 



 
Then he used One Bus Away to find out when his bus would come!

Tuesday
•    Carl wanted to see what biking options were available to him, so clicked on Modes in the bottom menu and selected Bike. After scrolling down just a tiny bit, he saw a link to the most recent Bellevue Bike Map! He pulled up the map by clicking Download, and scrolled around to where he needed to go. This allowed him to successfully maneuver through Bellevue by learning where the city’s bikeways and lower-volume streets were located.

    
Wednesday
•    Carl was curious what carpooling tools were available to use in Bellevue. So he clicked on the bottom menu’s Modes icon again and then clicked “Share the Ride .”
•    By scrolling down just a little, he found the Choose Your Way Bellevue for ridematching, and an infographic telling him how to find a ridematch in the regional RideshareOnline system! He was able to find a carpool to his workplace to try out by the following Wednesday! 
      
Thursday
•    Carl works from home and checks on the status of the homepage thermometer, excited to know that he is doing his part to reach our goals
 

  
Friday
•    As Carl walks, he logs his trips for the week. With a single click he reaches the Choose Your Way Bellevue portal to RideshareOnline by clicking the “Log Trips” icon on the upper right of the app. He hadn’t logged trips in a while so he had forgotten his password, but it was easy to reset it using the app because RideshareOnline is mobile optimized.
      
 


 
•    Once he reset his password, he got busy doing something else and closed the app. Fortunately, his phone kept him logged in. So when he clicked on the app’s calendar icon again, he was immediately taken to the RideshareOnline home page/dashboard. With a click of the blue “Log Trips” button, he was off and running!

    
•    He now knows that he has an easy way to qualify for Choose Your Way Bellevue Rewards for using modes other than solo driving, which he also knows helps ease strain on the transportation system. So handy!
 
These are just a few reasons why you should be like Commuter Carl, and download the Choose Your Way Bellevue app today, available on the App Store and Google Play!
 
-Choose Your Way staffers Alex and Jake