Getting Around In Seattle

I flew to Seattle and back yesterday with my wonderful wife to get my last test before I have cancer surgery in the middle of February. The good news is that the tumor responded well to the radiation, and there's no reason to believe the surgery won't be successful. The bad news is I found I was a n00b when it came to the best way to get around in Seattle.

I figured that a cab from the airport to the hospital wouldn't be too bad; it's about 12 miles. I'd heard from a resident that King County had a decent bus system (albeit with a colorful ridership), so I figured that Seattle taxis would have low mileage rates to compete with public transportation. Turns out I was wrong -- or I haven't ridden a taxi in so long that I had no idea how expensive they've gotten. Our cab from the airport, plus all others I saw downtown, cost $2.50/mile ( ! ). That's $41 for a ride from the airport to downtown at 6:45 am that took about 20 minutes.

Not wanting to pay that much again, we looked into the Metro bus system for getting back to the airport. Turns out we could board the 194 bus about 6 blocks from the hospital at the "Downtown Transit Tunnel", and we got to the airport in about an hour total (including walking and waiting for the bus) for $1.50 each. Plus, I saw not one person with purple hair, and only one gentleman carrying all his belongings on the bus (consisting mostly of a large number of macaroni and cheese boxes). Thanks to the King County taxpayers for subsidizing my transportation while I visited your fair city! (We ended up switching our return flight from one leaving at 8:15 pm to the 2:55 pm one that stopped in Spokane, so we ended up being out of Boise for just over 12 hours.)

Are cabs that expensive now in all major cities in the U.S.? And which city do you think has the best public transportation? (I still vote D.C.)

(If you liked my review of Seattle transportation options, please check out my earlier review of Seattle restrooms from back in 2007.)