How to Ride the Bus:
A Guide for UW Students
For first-time bus riders or those new to the King County Metro system--a short, simple video about finding one's way from here to there.
Riding the Bus
Step 1: Plan your trip
- Visit tripplanner.kingcounty.gov, click on “plan trip” and bring up the TripPlanner page.
- Next, fill out your starting address, your destination address, and the time you’d like to be there.
- When you have completed the form, click on “Plan Trip”
- You will have quite a few choices—the first option will be the quickest
Step 2: Know where you’re going
- You can also prepare for your trip by familiarizing yourself with the location of your destination, by visiting maps.google.com or mapquest.com
- After typing in your destination address, you can find and print walking directions from your bus stop to there
Step 3: Wait for the bus
- Get to your bus stop at least 5 minutes before the bus is schedule to arrive
- If you’d like, you can check bus arrival times by looking at the time schedule posted underneath the bus stop sign
- If your bus seems to be late, or you’re not sure when it’s going to be there, you can check out onebusaway.org to see how far away your bus is in real-time (the site can be accessed online, by phone or text message)
- You should have your U PASS or bus fare ready before the bus arrives
- Most of the time, you’ll pay when you get on the bus. However, if you get on the bus in the ride free area in Downtown Seattle, you won’t pay until you get off the bus. A sign on the fare box tells you when and what to pay
Step 4: Get on the bus
- When the bus arrives, get in line and make sure that all departing passengers have left the bus before you get on
- Show the bus driver your U PASS, or insert your money into the fare box
- If you’d like, you can ask the bus driver to announce your stop
Step 5: Get off the bus and walk to your destination
- About one block before your stop, be sure to pull the signal cord above the window so the drive knows to stop
- When leaving the bus, be sure to thank the bus driver
- If you are unfamiliar with the area, you can take out your walking directions and use them to get to your destination
Helpful Links
Trip Planner: http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.pl?resptype=U
U-District Area Transit Map: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/bus/area_maps/udist_routes.html
Regional Transit Map: http://www.kingcounty.gov/operations/GIS/Maps/VMC/Transportation.aspx#351D6E0671E14D50AC7DCCA3C510EE5F
Downtown Ride Free Area: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/bus/ridefree.html
Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/
MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/
One Bus Away: http://onebusaway.org/
My Bus: http://mybus.org/
A special THANK YOU to the fine folks at Seattle Transit Blog for their helpful suggestions!
*** Created by Margitte Kristjansson, July 2009 ***
