Observations Getting Around Bellingham by Bus on a Busy Saturday

This may not have been the most representative Saturday around Bellingham to think about transportation and mobility. In addition to the Bellingham Farmers Market that drew its normal crowd of Bellinghamsters and regional visitors downtown, Western Washington University had commencement ceremonies in the Carver Gym, and Bellingham, Sehome, and Squalicum high schools hosted graduation ceremonies at Civic Stadium. For many families and friends celebrating the graduating students in their lives around town, there were brunches, lunches, and dinners, plus for the vast majority, the cars they drive in. 

BhamByBus made a handful of trips by bus around Bellingham on Saturday — eight separate WTA bus legs to be exact — amid the spotty showers and sunbreaks, including trips to the farmers market, swim laps, and explore the northeast end of Bellingham via Routes 331 and 540. 

One of the questions BhamByBus has been pondering exploring Bellingham on the weekends has been: How do we get more people to use transit to do the things they want to do around Bellingham on Saturdays and Sundays?  

All this comes at a time when many transit agencies, as they continue to recover ridership losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, are seeing strong demand for weekend service and agencies have been rethinking traditional weekday "commuter" service to instead support better all-day transit service. For instance, as The Urbanist in Seattle reported on Saturday, Sound Transit is studying how its Sounder S Line rail service, connecting Seattle with South King County cities like Auburn and Kent, plus Tacoma and Lakewood in Pierce County, could be realigned to better serve demand middays, evenings, and weekends.

What does that mean in Bellingham, a small-to-midsize college town and regional travel destination where there can sometimes be more traffic congestion on weekends compared to weekdays? In Bellingham, many WTA routes see reduced or no service on the weekends, so it's more challenging to encourage people to turn to transit when it may not exist in some places or is less frequent elsewhere. Despite all that, BhamByBus has found that weekend WTA service, especially on Saturdays, can still be very useful, especially for Bellinghamsters going to and from downtown.

Some observations this Saturday going around town …

BhamByBus likes to say that the later start of WTA service on many bus routes on Saturdays is a reflection of Bellingham liking to sleep in on the weekends. On Saturdays, the first Route 1 bus that leaves Fairhaven for Downtown Bellingham departs at 8:21 a.m. from the Fairhaven Transportation Center. When BhamByBus has been on the first downtown-bound bus on Saturdays, there are usually a half-dozen riders by the time the bus reaches downtown. And that was the case this Saturday. Despite Route 1's later start on Saturday, BhamByBus found a spot at Little Cheerful Cafe (133 E. Holly Street at Railroad Avenue), a short walk from Bellingham Station. 

This Saturday, a free bike valet service, courtesy Walk and Roll Bellingham, started at the Bellingham Farmers Market in the western market shed facing the Railroad Avenue sidewalk. While BhamByBus is more of a pedestrian and bus guy than a bike guy, we certainly endorse biking downtown to the market and hope to see the bike valet service well utilized on future market visits. (You can always use a WTA bike rack for your return trip back if you're overloaded with produce and local goods.)

While Saturday's earlier Route 1 trek from Fairhaven to the downtown farmers market (and back) to Bellingham's Southside was very timely, by early afternoon on another trek north toward Bellingham Station, the situation was different. Route 1 was running about 7 minutes behind schedule and slipping. But it was easy to see the likely cause: Weekend special event traffic heading into downtown on E. Holly Street colliding with Community Food-Co parking lot traffic on N. Forest Street. (It was similar to a previous Route 1 experience on a Sunday in early May en route to the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra.) As the City of Bellingham assesses the experience of the Holly Street bike lane pilot project, BhamByBus wonders about possible impacts on WTA bus service reliability, especially on weekends when there are special events downtown. That's not a question framed to cast doubt on the recent sensible restriping and traffic calming along Holly Street — where one of its three, one-way westbound travel lanes was eliminated — but more to start thinking about a longer-term question: With a future expansion and redevelopment of the WTA's downtown transit center on the horizon (hopefully), including a potential future bus rapid transit line connecting the Blue and Green GO Line bus corridors through Downtown Bellingham, what needs to be done to maintain reliable bus service on the pathways leading into and out of Bellingham Station? (If a relatively simple bike lane project can generate weeks of Cascadia Daily News letters and commentary, imagine the fervor of the community discourse around introducing transit-priority lanes downtown if they're deemed necessary to maintain reliable bus service. To be clear: Nothing of the sort has been formally proposed.)    

Since the Route 1 bus arrived late coming in from Fairhaven, BhamByBus missed the departure of numerous buses at Bellingham Station, including the elusive hourly (on weekdays and Saturdays) Routes 3 and 4. BhamByBus was initially interested in taking Routes 512 (Downtown to Sudden Valley) or 533 (Downtown to Yew Street) out along the Plum GO Line corridor, but a Route 331 (Downtown to Cordata/WCC) bus had pulled in, so on a whim (and with an open-ended itinerary), we detoured to head out the Gold GO Line corridor via Alabama Street instead. Mostly, BhamByBus was interested in checking out the infamous Trader Joe's parking lot in Sunnyland (2410 James Street at Alabama Street). While many Trader Joe's parking lots across the United States regularly spark frustration — there's are good reasons why Trader Joe's management is quite content with limited parking at its stores — the Bellingham Trader Joe's is the location closest to the Trader Joe-less and Pirate Joe-less Metro Vancouver in British Columbia. making it a crossborder travel destination for scores of Canadians in the Lower Mainland of B.C., especially on weekends. Canadian shoppers have led to plenty of online consternation in Bellingham over the years when viewed through the lens of parking demand and availability of certain TJ's snacks and provisions. When BhamByBus passed by Saturday afternoon, the parking lot at Trader Joe's was packed (surprise!) but Route 331 still had a good amount of room. BhamByBus doesn't shop at Trader Joe's but is happy to know that the store has good transit service via the Gold GO Line. If one parking lot can induce so much local stress and disdain, imagine the greater happiness that could come with improved transit service along Route 4 (Downtown to Cordata/WCC) on James Street, which lacks Sunday service. 

As BhamByBus continued eastward along Alabama Street on the Route 331 bus before turning north toward Barkley Village, the idea of trying out a new-to-us bus route seemed appealing, at least initially. Looking at real-time transit information for nearby routes using the Transit app and the WTA BusTracker app, there was a Route 540 bus (Downtown to Sunset) coming in about 8 minutes, plenty of time to walk between from the 331 at Woburn Street & North Street and the 540 at Alabama Street & Yew Street. Although that 8 minutes turned into 11 minutes (presumably, congestion on Lakeway), it gave BhamByBus a chance to observe the rider experience waiting for a bus along Alabama Street east of Woburn Street, which wasn't necessarily ideal. Alabama Street is very "stroady" east of Trader Joe's at James Street with two lanes each direction. Traffic was zooming by quickly heading up to and down from Alabama Hill. 

But the Sunset-bound Route 540 bus eventually came. The 540 is an example of a WTA route that looks peculiar on the network diagram, having an indirect jug-handle path to reach its destination, a cluster of strip malls and other shopping in the vicinity of E. Sunset Drive (State Route 542) and Interstate 5. To go there, the 540 heads out to the Silver Beach neighborhood along Lake Whatcom before traveling north along Britton Road, and snaking through a hilly, woodsy residential neighborhood, with few sidewalks, near Northridge Park along Lahti Drive, Spring Coulee Road, and Magrath Road, before connecting with McLeod Road near Squalicum High School and the aforementioned Sunset Drive. Given Route 540's hourly service, lack of Sunday service, and indirect path via Silver Beach, a harder-to-serve neighborhood where there are few businesses and services, it's challenging to build a strong ridership with this type of route. But it's essential for those who want some sort of car-free connection downtown and elsewhere, even if it only comes by once an hour and requires using a bus stop without good sidewalk connectivity. BhamByBus should check out LakeLine (601 Northshore Drive at Poplar Drive) sometime, however.

Following Saturday afternoon's Route 540 joyride, BhamByBus reconnected with Route 331 at Woburn Street & E. Sunset Drive near Barkley Village to head back downtown via the Gold GO Line corridor. At Bellingham Station, we jumped from the Gold to the Blue GO Line, via Route 196, up to WWU's Wade King Recreation Center to swim laps. The Rec Center is located adjacent to WWU's C parking lots, where a special shuttle service, provided by Bellair Charters & Airporter, was bringing WWU Commencement attendees to a point closer to Carver Gym, where ceremonies were hosted throughout the weekend. It's important to view the WTA's Blue GO Line as an important transportation asset for accessing special events on Western's campus, including at the Performing Arts Center near Viking Union. On weekday evenings and weekends, WWU's C parking lots are free for visitors, so for special events on campus (or even in Downtown Bellingham) hopping a Blue GO Line bus or Fairhaven via Route 14) can be handy.  

After BhamByBus wrapped up swimming, there was a Route 14 bus coming (Downtown to Fairhaven via WWU) that led us homeward to Bellingham's Southside. On Saturdays, Route 14 maintains weekday service levels of two buses per hour (on Sundays, service on the 14 is just one bus per hour). It was also the 8th bus leg of a busy Saturday around town, all made possible by WTA's daily and monthly farecapping. For just $3, Bellinghamsters can bounce around town by bus all day, automatically calculated when using an Umo Mobility farecard or app. And if you ride frequently enough, like BhamByBus does, you'll hit WTA's $30 monthly farecap way early and get free rides the rest of the month that makes hopping on a bus more seamless and natural. 

When BhamByBus was settling in for the evening, a rainbow emerged amid a storm cell that moved through east of town. What a nice way to end a Saturday in during Juneuary!

• Have local and regional transit and transportation news to share? Feedback? Email BhamByBus. 
• Follow BhamByBus on Instagram.