I got an offer from Meta in the Bellevue office and I might need to meet the team in Bellevue 2-3 times a week. I want to live in Seattle and would like to know what the commute is like. I do have a car. I have heard that there's construction going on the 520 bridge that impedes traffic. I am generally concerned about commute time in the morning for the route - Seattle to Bellevue and for the evening - Bellevue to Seattle. Google Maps shows a consistent 12-20 minute commute via car for all days for these routes. But a lot of people I know complain about the traffic situation on the 520 bridge during office commute hours. What's true and what isn't? Note: I am relocating from another location so idk about Seattle all that much. Meta TC: 295k
If you don’t know much about Seattle. Why do you need to live there? Live somewhere closer to Bellevue imo.
I have a lot of friends there. But I guess I can travel into the city for hanging out. I just won't be able to drink because I will have to drive back
Because the Eastside has the vibe of an empty mall.
Bellevue and Kirkland are much much nicer, cleaner and closer, why live in Seattle?
First of all, congrats! What role/level did you get out of curiosity?
E4 product SWE
Very nice. Well again, huge a congrats!
Why not consider living in Bellevue?
Lots of people do this.
+1 that this is quite common
Just live in Bellevue, much nicer city. You can always commute to seattle for fun. Unless you plan to go out in Seattle every day, saving 3 days of rush hour commute is much better.
Very doable. Lived in Bellevue downtown my first year in the area, then moved to SLU (and then stayed there for about 6 years). Working at MSFT the entire time at the main campus (building 34 gang rise up). As long as you pick your living place strategically (i.e., quick access to highway or public transport), you will be totally fine. My commute to Redmond was 20 mins with no traffic, and, at worst, 45mins-1hr (with peak traffic). However, I just simply arrived to work earlier and left earlier, so I never had to worry much about traffic, and never even had a second thought to move back eastside. And my team/org were absolutely chill about “i will leave at 3pm and finish the rest of the day from home.” And I am saying all this as someone who values low commute times heavily. Hell, I picked my current place in NYC based entirely off the transit access and commute times. I know for a fact that I am willing to pay premium to not deal with a sucky commute. So tldr, you are gonna be totally fine living in Seattle and commuting to Redmond/Kirkland, as long as you have a fast/easy access to highway. Just one word of advice: don’t base your estimates off the actual distance, look at the streets and things like access to highway. I used to live within a 5 min access to highway (basically near the Fairview and Mercer intersection in SLU), and it made the world of difference. P.S. Very situational advice that isn’t applicable to most - a motorcycle license made my commute way less boring and much faster due to being able to use HOV lanes (motorcycles are allowed to use HOV lanes even if you ride on your own in every single state) and cops not bothering with speeding motorcycles lol. But it is a major tradeoff, especially during summer when it’s hot outside. Note: I commuted to work exclusively on motorcycle only for 1 year out of my 7 years in the area. So my take on the whole thing is not coming from the perspective of it being applicable only to motorcycle riders.
Thanks for the advice. I will keep access to highway in mind
Tech Industry
Yesterday
25088
How did this happen? (Meta Stock)
India
7h
496
People who like Modi, are you okay with your country’s leader using words like “infiltrators” for a community?
Tech Industry
17h
1082
Tiktok offer
Tech Industry
12h
1542
Lack of diversity in engineering division at X
Tech Industry
12h
2278
Tech companies to avoid as a white guy?
4-6pm theres a lot of traffic coming back but other than that it’s pretty chill! Definitely doable Mornings not much traffic
Google Maps shows 14 mins consistently for all days during the evening which is great tbh
That’s not realistic during the peak hours - not sure where in Seattle you’re looking up the directions to I’m using capitol hill as reference. It’s showing 24-45min coming back during rush hour When there’s no traffic, sure