Anogar

I'm moving up to Bellevue in about 3 weeks. Does anyone have experience commuting in the area? How is it? I'm looking, most likely, at something like a 5ish mile commute, from Lake Samammish up north west a bit, to where the 405 and the 520 intersect.

Cheers.

BengeBoy 

Hi Anogar,

I live and cycle on the Eastside of Seattle and I can tell you there are plenty of workable bike routes around Bellevue. My personal commuting is not done in or through Bellevue, but I can tell you it's quite doable and you'll see others out commuting.

Some suggestions:

1. Get the bike map from the city of Bellevue. Bellevue streets are laid out on a grid so it can be hard to tell just looking at a regular map which ones are bike friendly. A lot are pretty busy. The city of Bellevue map is a realliy good quick start to the best ways through and across Bellevue by map.

2. If you don't get good answers to your questions here, check out the Pacific Northwest community forum here at bikeforums -- or you can go to the website of the Cascade Bicycle Club. There is a specific message board under their "community" session dedicated to commuters and commuting.

3. You had another post here asking about Gregg's Cycles. They'd be a great first start for any of your equipment questions, especially if you own a Trek. They're probably the biggest Trek dealer in the Seattle. You mentioned, though, that you're living close to Lake Sammamish -- you might actually be closer to downtown Redmond, where there are a couple of good bike shops -- especially Sammamish Valley Cycles.

If you are also going to be riding for recreation, you'll be living in a good spot to get out for longer rides...you can do the lap around Lake Sammamish, head up the bike trail to the Red Hook brewery, bike over the Lake Washington and do the loop around it....etc. etc.

Hope this helps.

M. Rhoten

I live in Kirkland and work in downtown Bellevue, so I pass by the 405/520 intersection every day. I cut over from Lake Washington Blvd to 108th to go south from 520, as Bellevue Way is not super safe south of the highway.

Like BengeBoy said, you can definitely get around on a bike in Bellevue, but route selection is key.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

swc7916

There is a bike path that parallels 520 from just north of Marymoor Park all the way to I-405.

CliftonGK1

There are so many routes between Redmond and Bellevue that it isn't even funny. Some of them are less populated than others, so depending on how comfortable you are riding with traffic that will be the big factor in deciding your route.
I ride in Bellevue quite often. With all the construction going on there right now, the best advice I can give you is to make sure you've got good tires! You said your route takes you from Lake Sam to the 520/405 exchange. Where about on Lake Sam? It's about 25 miles to circle the lake completely, so are you at the north end of the lake by Marymoor Park, the east side in Sammamish, south in Issaquah, or right on the Bellevue side of the lake? That will be a huge influence on your route.
If you give me a start and an ending street, I can give you at least 3 good routes to take.

rnorris

Where around "Lake Sammamish" are you starting from? Since you're estimating a roughly 5 mile commute each way in a northwesterly direction to the 405/520 interchange, I'm guessing you're starting somewhere in south Bellevue, north of I-90. This is a good area for bike commuting, particularly south of NE 8th St. where a lot of the area is residential and there are some good arterials that aren't too busy. It gets a little trickier north of NE 8th St. where the area is a lot more urban. I would avoid taking 116th or 124th north of NE 8th to get to the 520/405 junction, they're doable on a bike but very unpleasant- extremely busy 4 lane arterials with no shoulders, and no one's looking for bikes or pedestrians. I would cross 405 in downtown Bellevue and ride north to the 520 junction on 112th Ave NE, which is busy but not quite as bad.

Anogar

Ah, thanks guys, you're helpful. I don't actually have a place to live yet, I'm flying up on Monday to go house hunting and to meet the people I'm working with up there and such, so I should have an address then - but I was looking at some places in the south of Bellevue, on the west side of Lake Sam, so not super far. Bingo on the location, Rnorris, that's right where I was looking. I was thinking I could find some mostly small residential streets for a lot of the way there.

I'm all about finding the right routes, so I'll post the address and do some scoping when I'm there in a few days. What is the general attitude towards bikers, are people general friendly, or are main roads to be avoided?

I'm currently living in San Diego, where biking is damned near an impossibility for commuting, so anything is going to be a big step in the right direction.

Thanks again.

BengeBoy 

Here's a link on the Cascade website that leads you to a number of area bike maps. I'd suggest you take the Bellevue map w/you when you are house or apartment hunting.

https://www.cascade.org/Community/maps_routes.cfm

As you can see, a couple of the routes across Bellevue are marked "caution", they're pretty busy -- but not impossible. A bunch of other routes are just fine.

Also, you may want to consider living up in Kirkland and biking down to your job, or even up in Redmond, and cycling across on the north side of 520.

mattm

on the east-side (bellevue, redmond, issaquah, etc) i think drivers are a bit more pushy, and they seem to drive larger vehicles. that said, even in seattle there are plenty of idiots in cars; sometimes I don't think this place is liberal at all! there's nothing green or liberal about autos but what else is new?

also see the King County bike map, it covers Bellevue as well. https://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/roads/bike/map.cfm

re: the 520 trail - you can take this from Redmond to just about 405. see here for a partial map, but keep in mind it also extends further east to Redmond. https://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=5685
once you're off it, take 24th ave to northup way, and you're basically there.

see also https://seattlecriticalmass.org (if you're into that kinda thing, it's a great stress-reliever after a hectic month of battling cars - i mean commuting)

Anogar

Thanks guys. After looking at the maps, I think I might see if I can't find something a little north of my office. I'll make it work either way, but anything that makes it easier for me to stay out of my car is a good thing.

vrkelley

To the OP. Welcome!

I ride to Bellevue alot. Some more advice....Unlike other places, these cagers don't take kindly to "Take the whole lane and hold up traffic" riders. Also, you'll need to signal longer before turning and Get Out That Hi-Vis Gear...you're gonna need it

Anogar

I'm shopping for a new set of rain gear. Bright ORANGE it is!

CliftonGK1

What other majour cities and suburbs have people commuted in, that they think the east side has overly pushy drivers? I ride errands during evening rush hour from Redmond to Bellevue, and commute Rt. 202 from Redmond to Woodinville when I don't take the Sam. River Trail. On the weekends, I ride through Bellevue on my long rides. I've never lived anyplace that treated cyclists better. People may get irritated and honk, but I've only had one instance in Woodinville of someone blatantly attempting to hit me.
Between Cleveland, Athens, and Cincinnati, Ohio in 15 years of riding I was in 5 bike/car accidents due to driver aggression and I was hit by a city bus. All over the midwest (Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cinci, P'burgh, Louisville, Indy...) I think it was way worse than anything I've encountered here.

Seattle's east side has a very distinct passive-aggressive B.S. about it. Drivers will lay on their horn, or rev their engines behind you, but the second you make eye contact with them or call them out on their actions, 99% are going to back down.

"Lean on the horn, pumpkin. I can't believe this bike guy is taking up the whole lane and only doing 2mph over the speed limit."
"Sure thing, sweetie." *Hoooooooooooooonkhonkhonk*
"Ummm... Honey, he looks really angry and I think if he gets any closer he might sweat on our new SUV. Turn into this parking lot and hope he doesn't follow us."

serac

I road from the south side of lake sammamish to Kirkland for nearly a year until my office recently moved. I road along W Lk Sammamish Pkwy then took Northup the rest of the way. This goes right past the junction of 405 and 520. Once on Northup there isn't any bike lane and later no shoulder. Riding at night and in the rain down there would be rolling the dice. In general, I found Bellevue drivers to be intolerant and sometimes hostile. In daylight, I could do the ride every day. After daylight savings ended I was thankful the office moved to a location more easily accessible by bike in traffic and the dark.

Coming in from the the north would be much easier than traversing Bellevue.

CliftonGK1

Maybe I'm just jaded. I ride 202 (bike lane/shoulder for some parts, winding, 45mph speed limit, 2 lane road with lots of 18-wheeler traffic) in the dark, rain, and fog. Never really bothers me. My new commute (starting next week) is going to have me on Novelty Hill Rd. and Avondale Rd. I'm more worried on foggy mornings if I take the MUP that I'm gonna run into a ninja jogger in the fog.

Anogar

Mm. This is an excellent forum. Alright, I'm going to focus my house search around accessible bike routes, but I think it'll be okay either way, and I'm more than willing to go well out of my way to take a longer safer route. I'll make sure to get brightly colored rain gear and a good set of lights and whatnot.

serac

That's a lot different than semi-urban riding across Bellevue with cars pulling into/out of parking lots every 50 feet. Lots of fun stuff happens around the traffic lights too.

It's been nearly 20 years since I've ridden 202. It used to be a very pleasant country road. Ditto for Novelty and Union hills. I used to ride out there and through Carnation as a teenager. Novelty Hill doesn't have a shred of its identity left but the road still looks sane.

CliftonGK1

I didn't really think about it that way. I guess there are a lot more things to watch out for on my weekend rides that put me up Main and past Bellevue Square Mall. Especially near the mall, since people get the blinders on when it comes to going shopping.

202 is busy but OK to ride. Union Hill isn't very busy, still has no shoulder or lights, and is an excellent training ride to come up from either the Ames Lake or Avondale side. Novelty Hill needs some work: The road's getting to a poor state of repair and there's no lights except at the 2 big intersections.

serac

Don't get me wrong. There are good paths in and around Bellevue and it *can* work. I did it for the past year and it really isn't that big of a deal.

Now, I commute across the bridge to downtown and there is a noticeable difference. In Seattle, drivers seem to expect things to get in their way and riding is smooth. In Bellevue, drivers seemed to expect everything would get out of their way.

rnorris

In my commute I cross the complete spectrum of public awareness of cyclists. It begins in the cyclist-populated neighborhoods around the University of Washington and ends up on the Sammamish Plateau (Klahanie) where cyclists are nearly an alien species,particularly bicycle commuters. I don't notice much of an increase in arrogance in drivers on the Eastside, but they have less experience with cyclists on the roads in general than drivers do in Seattle, and I always keep that in mind when I'm riding there. Once in a very great while someone will honk, or kids will yell something unintelligible, but I haven't had a bad experience riding on the Eastside (knock on wood). My work schedule puts my commute during non-peak hours, though; that and the fact that I avoid the busiest arterials (NE 8th or 148th NE in Bellevue, for example) may explain some of my luck.

I also ride 202, but farther south between Duthie Hill road and Snoqualmie Falls. Used to do it after work, but there's so much traffic on it now that I only ride it on weekends or late on summer evenings anymore.

CliftonGK1

That south section of 202 (Issaquah-Fall City Rd segment) is pretty narrow with a shallow shoulder. I was scoping it out as a potential part of my new distance rides once I get moved up to the top of Novelty Hill, but I may try to avoid taking it all the way into Redmond because of the construction near Sahalle (sp?) around 188th or so. That's just a nightmare with all those barrels and closed lanes and a looong uphill slog to make.
I'm kind of partial to the backroads of the Tour de Cure 44 mile route from last year (Union Hill, Redmond Ridge, Cedar Crescent, and Trilogy) which have some pretty nice hills to tackle, especially Union Hill Rd coming up from Ames Lake area.

Keeping it on topic: The 25 mile route from the Flying Wheels Summer Century goes around Lake Sam, and hits some of the calmer residential roads in Bellevue which make for a good side route to get to any main arterial roads like Bel-Red or Northup and NE 8th, but you don't spend a lot of time on the main streets.