Amy Le’Feat wants her life back.
She works in Seattle, because that’s where she was able to find a decent-paying job. She lives in Lake Stevens, because she can’t afford to live in Seattle or south Snohomish County.
In between are 12-hour days that leave her with an hour for her son, an hour for her husband, an hour for herself and, if she’s lucky, one bonus hour to tie up loose ends.
"If my commute were shorter, it would drastically change my life," Le’Feat, 28, said Friday morning while buzzing down I-5 on her way to work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "It’s almost like there’s not enough time left in the day to do what I need to do."
The only thing that makes all 30 miles of her 65-minute drive to work bearable is being able to use the carpool lane, just one of the creative ways commuters in Snohomish County have to chase down good-paying jobs in Seattle.
Le’Feat commutes with her mother, Vaughn Blethen, who lives in Marysville, and a friend who lives in Mountlake Terrace. All three work at the EPA office in downtown Seattle.
Up at 5 a.m., Le’Feat is out the door with 7-year-old Isaiah in tow by 5:45 a.m. She drops him off tired and bleary-eyed at day care at 6 a.m. She won’t see him again until she picks him up at about 6 p.m., or 6:15 p.m. on bad days.
Father and husband Jason Le’Feat works long, odd hours as a roofer, and often has to travel as far away as Olympia and Bellingham for jobs, so it falls on Mom to pick up and drop off Isaiah.
At 6:10 a.m., she pulls into Everett Station, where she meets up with her mother, who has been carpooling to Seattle for 17 years.
On Friday, they drive in Blethen’s car. Although they’re supposed to rotate drivers, it’s usually Blethen who drives, because she doesn’t like the rambunctious way her daughter drives.
"It’s nice to be with family," said Blethen, who is always looking for new people to carpool with. "I have carpooled with over 25 different people. Carpoolers come and go with changing jobs, homes, families and personality clashes."
On the drive, mother and daughter spend a lot of time talking about family, about raising kids, paying the bills and small stuff. There’s some newspaper reading and some dozing off, but mostly there’s talking. The radio stays off.
"We try to avoid politics, religion and sex," Blethen said, especially when nonfamily members are in the car.
At 6:20 a.m. the duo, cruising past the stop-and-go traffic on the other freeway lanes, has to leave the relative paradise of the carpool lane in Mountlake Terrace so they can pick up their third passenger. There’s an immediate slowdown from 60 mph to 40 mph as the car crosses three lanes of traffic and exits.
The mother and daughter wish for another, quicker and less stressful way to get to work. Both hate the bus schedules, saying that more routes at better times might allow them to take the bus.
Both also hope they can ride Sound Transit’s Sounder commuter rail service, but doubt whether the one train a day that will start running from Everett to Seattle by the end of the year will coincide with their work hours.
At 6:50 a.m. the duo heads onto the I-5 express lanes, and exits a half-block from the Park Place Building, which is next to Seattle’s Freeway Park, a popular park on top of I-5.
Always looking for more potential carpoolers, Blethen sends out a call at the end of the ride.
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find me another" carpooler, Blethen said.
So, if you start work at 7 a.m. in downtown Seattle near Seventh Avenue and Spring Street and are willing to take your turn driving, call Blethen at 360-659-7758 to discuss becoming part of her and Le’Feat’s carpool family.
Reporter Lukas Velush:
425-339-3449 or
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