What's the deal with Microsoft's bus service?
Dear JobsBlog: I just read the blog article Anne posted about the Connector in Seattle. I am going to be a new hire with a start date at the end of August 2008. I'm starting to figure out moving/living situations, and was wondering where I could find out more about the Connector and their stops/commute time? I'd appreciate any help I could get in finding a great location to move to. - Cindy
Answer: Hi Cindy - Congratulations! Yes, the Connector service - commuter buses that shuttle Microsofties to and from our main campus in Redmond - have been a great addition. The Connector Team is always evaluating the needs of employees in terms of routes and stop times so it's tough to say what the exact service will be when you move in August. However, the Seattle Times did publish a map of the service at launch, which is similar to the route it still follows. Areas all around Seattle include Queen Anne / Belltown, Capitol Hill / First Hill, Bothell / Mill Creek, Snoqualmie, Issaquah, and Sammamish, and buses leave roughly hourly between 6:30 am and 9:30 am and 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm.
Also, the SeattlePI has a great section of their site on Puget Sound area neighborhoods, to learn more about how these areas differ.
Do any Microsoft employees or Seattle locals have thoughts on great places to live, especially to take advantage of the Connector?
- Anne
6 Comments
Luan Nguyen said:
I'd recommend Capitol Hill, near Broadway. I take the Connector every day, and one of the stop is just 3 blocks from my apartment. Super convenient.
Ariel @ Microspotting said:
<P>I hate to sound like a zealot here, but I LOVE THE CONNECTOR! Like Luan, I ride the Capitol Hill route, and it's pretty much the most awesome commute I've ever had.</P>
<P>I wrote about it a bit here (http://electrolicious.com/2007/09/the_ariel_bus</A>), but the summary is that since Capitol Hill is so high density, it's easy to find an apartment or condo near a bus stop. For me, it's a one block walk to the stop, and since my stop is the third and final stop on the hill, basically my commute goes like this:</P>
<P>1. Walk one block to bus stop.</P>
<P>2. Get on bus, open laptop, and enjoy wifi.</P>
<P>3. Bus stops. It's Redmond!</P>
<P>4. Cross the street and walk one block to my building.</P>
<P>Since I'm on wifi and doing email during my entire ride, I actually count it as part of my work day ... that means to get in my 8 hours, I catch the 9:10 bus in, and the 4:50 bus home ... which gets me home around 5:30. There's my eight hours ... except for only 7 of them are in the office!</P>
<P>Seriously, I could gush for days about The Connector, but instead I'll focus on neighborhoods:</P>
<P>My bus stop is the one on 16th and Denny -- which is a block from 15th Ave, which is a strip full of restaurants, cafes, two grocery stores, and other awesomeness. It's a great neighborhood, and manages to feel pretty residential with tree-lined streets and the enormous Volunteer Park.</P>
<P>There's another stop near Seattle Central Community College, which is Broadway and Pine. Broadway is the heard of Seattle's hipster scene and is lined with amazing restaurants, shops like urban apparel and american outfitters. Plus you've got Pike & Pine right there, which is total bar/club central! This is a much more urban area (less trees, more hip businesses), and if you want to dive into the Seattle social scene, this is pretty much the best spot to be.</P>
<P>The other stop is up on First Hill, which isn't quite as fun of a neighborhood. It's nickname is "Pill Hill" because there are so many hospitals in the area. It's a pretty high density area, too, and right next to Seattle University.</P>
<P>The joy of living on Capitol Hill is that unlike many other parts of Seattle, you can get away with not being dependent on your car. There's pretty much everything you need within walking distance and tons of busses going to almost everywhere all over town. Thanks to the Connector and living on Cap Hill, I park my car and don't drive it for so many days that I actually forget where I parked it!</P>
<P>Sorry to deluge you with info, but I hope this is helpful...</P>
A new Microsoftie said:
Any such service for the Vancouver center?
Please do a post on the Vancouver facility, how it's doing, the people, facilities, etc. I hope it's not a refugee camp for the H1B affected.
Thank you.
Anne Cheng said:
There isn't a service for Vancouver yet - but from my understanding they are looking into it:) One of the ideas was to have a shuttle service from downtown Vancouver to the Richmond Development Center. Another idea was to have a bus organized to make trips from Richmond to Redmond. Not sure where they are on these ideas.....
As for your idea on another post - I'll definitely try to do something soon. It is such a fun development center! I went up recently with my team to meet with some of the new employees. If I was young again - that is where I would like to work! 150+ of the brightest computer scientest working together and building a community:) I think they recently set up a soccor league and foosball tournament. The neatest part is that many of them are working on different technologies - that means you could be working on Windows, but sitting near someone working in Zune. You really get to network and find out the latest on MS technologies:)
If you haven't had a chance to check out Jim's post/video clip on the new center - might be fun! <a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2007/11/29/roadtrip-microsoft-canada-development-center.aspx">http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2007/11/29/roadtrip-microsoft-canada-development-center.aspx</a>
A new Microsoftie said:
Thanks Anne :). We will be waiting to listen more on MCDC.
Thank you.
Microsoft's JobsBlog said:
We've gotten lots of questions about the Microsoft Connector bus stops and routes. Well, wonder no more.