Free City of Seattle

Transportation

For information on all the methods and options on entering and exiting Seattle's borders, specifically getting in and out, see the book Emerald City, pages 26 - 30.

Seattle: Moving Around the Sprawl

Let’s talk about moving around in the sprawl. There are plenty of options for getting around Seattle even if you can’t afford to own your own personal vehicle. Walking is not completely out of fashion in many areas, and Seattle has a great public transportation system alongside the XGuide-controlled transit options. Let’s break it down.

We’ll start with feet. Seattle has made sure to continue its pedestrian-friendly design, and while foot traffic is most common Downtown, sections of all the districts have areas that are pedestrian-focused. That said, it’s important to keep the local topography in mind. I’ll cover more on it later, but just remember when you’re planning to walk to check out the ground situation. Seattle is a hilly place, and some of those hills are significant. That short jog to the meet or those last few blocks on foot, could be a grueling trek through the hills of the Emerald City.

If you have your own ground transport, like a car or motorcycle, the city is your oyster - as long as you don’t mind being controlled by the various aspects of the XGuide system. Parking Downtown is at a premium, but you can always set your autopilot to use XGuide for parking or to just circle your destination and return when called. Around the rest of the Districts, the same tricks work as long as XGuide is up and running. The system gets a little glitchy in the rural spots and is complete trash in the heart of the barrens. Throughout the rest of the city, the XGuide system keeps traffic flowing smoothly 95% percent of the time. The last 5% comes during high-traffic events, but even then, the system will redirect portions of the traffic to approach the busy venue from different directions. The other hiccups to the system occur when those who decide not to use it end up messing up the rest of traffic. The most often perpetrators of that are motorcycle riders and, particularly, go-gangs.

On the roads, XGuide-controlled vehicles take up the bulk of the lanes, with manually controlled vehicles relegated to the edges. Every good rigger in the shadows knows that manual drive is not as limiting as the average citizen is taught. XGuide systems are designed to automatically avoid collisions and are constantly detecting other vehicles, even those not linked to the system. As long as the movements aren’t too fast or erratic, XGuide vehicles will allow manual vehicles to move through their flow.

If you don’t have your own wheels, you can always utilize the vast system of public transportation that goes all over the city, operated by the Metro Transit Company. Around the heart of Downtown and down to Sea-Tac, you can ride the aboveground monorail. It has major stops at King Street Station, Seattle Center, and the Shiawase Arcology, with lesser stops dotting the route of the loop. Seattle doesn’t have a subway, but they have a bus system that covers the entire metroplex, including the barrens. The barrens buses are not, however, exactly the same as the Downtown models - they look more like armored transports, and to transfer to them at the edge of the barrens. Redmond has a station in Touristville, south near Issaquah, and north near Maltby. Those are the only stations available for transfers to head into Redmond or catch a transfer once you get out. Puyallup has Parkland, Summit, and Bonney Lake stations for transfers, depending on which way you’re leaving the lava-flat slums.

If you need something a little more personal but not quite private, you can take advantage of the various cab services. Emerald City Cabs and Yellow Cabs operate throughout the sprawl, and you can always find a Jitnee ride share. The level of mental stability your driver possesses determines exactly where they’ll drive you - well, that and the balance on your credstick. If you want a less personal system, hop in a GridCab. They’re autopilot controlled and guided via GPS. They don’t have any limits on where they’ll take you, but prices for heading into the barrens are pretty steep. You can also get a limo service run to or from the airport, but I don’t know many runners who ride in limos. Then again, this isn’t always about what runners do, but instead knowing what a target may do.

For the last level of personal ground transport without owning a car yourself, you always have KeyCar. For those not familiar, it’s a subscription service you pay for by the year, and then pay as you use it. The cars are registered and tracked, but at least you have a little more freedom in their use. Rates vary by the model of the car.

Getting around via the water isn’t too tough, as there are plenty of waterways to use in the city. The most common way to cross the waters is one of the many ferries. The various ferries run out to all of the Outremer islands, including the artificial ones, and they also make runs from the different coastal districts. The hub of the system, operated by the Seattle Ferry System, is at Pier 66 in Downtown.

Those with a little more money can rent a private boat to move around, though these are usually just as monitored as the ferry. XGuide has HarborGuide under its net, and most boats, whether they have a tracking system or not on board, are monitored by the other boats. The advantage is that you can load items that aren’t normally acceptable in public onto one of these private boats as long as you trust your captain.

Last on the list of likelihood is owning your own boat. They’re expensive to buy and maintain, and usually they require quite a bit of regulation and registration. Shadow docks exist all over the sprawl, most of which will pull your craft out of the water to hide it in a warehouse when you aren’t using it. Most boat owners use these docks a lot to make the most out of their investment.

Now we take to the air for the pathways of the wealthy. Regular, everyday Seattleites will likely never use an aircraft to travel within the sprawl, but as anyone who looks up at all hours of the day, someone is certainly doing so. These local aircraft are mostly utilized by corps and their executives to move valuable assets around the city. Most of the flights are VTOLs, but sometimes flights bounce between the smaller airports or hop down to SeaTac in order to catch a flight out of town. The major arcologies and hospitals all have helipads, and the rich and powerful can often go weeks or even months without ever needing to come down to street level with the rest of the plebeians.

Even though it is usually the rich using these aircraft, the regular folk can occasionally join the aristocracy for a brief moment as they splurge to get a beautiful view of the city from the sky. Five major services offer air-taxi options around the metroplex. Emerald City Air is run by the city government and offers some of the best rates. They usually fly government officials around, but some tourist flights occur. Renraku Air handles municipal overflow, Renraku corporate traffic, and the rare tourist expedition for Renraku citizens. SeaTac Express runs hops from dozens of sites all over the sprawl down to Sea-Tac. Quetzal Shuttle Services operates primarily for Aztechnology execs and citizens, but they also offer private tourist experiences that take off from the Aztechnology pyramid. Last, but not least, Federated-Boeing Air Carriers offers a mix of personnel and courier services, along with a tourist arm for visiting VIPs who have come to visit F-B’s airport.

Law Enforcement

The big boy in town is Lone Star - they're back in the saddle after spending roughly ten years out thanks to the Tempo Drug Wars and Knight Errant. The Star is in high gear, making themselves look good, and they’re working smoothly with security providers and megacorps all around the sprawl. This isn’t likely to keep up, but for the time being, Lone Star is making nice with everyone they can. Don’t expect that niceness to carry over to runners, but their niceness with the corps means they need more shadow assets to clear out the bile they keep swallowing.

Seattle is developing and shifting over the various alphabet agencies that provide intelligence and various kinds of law enforcement, and they’ve already changed them several times in the first few years of independence. You can completely expect their offices and efforts to be just as mercurial as their standings in Seattle. The disorganization of law enforcement means it’s a good time to be a criminal.

It’s important to remember the whole metro is covered by the PANICBUTTON™ system, which is linked to commlinks and public access points all over the metroplex. Slap that PANICBUTTON™ and just wait for the law dogs to come a howling. The response time is what you’d expect based on the neighborhood, and so is the actual response. It may take a hot minute for the Star to respond to a call in Redmond, but they come rolling in fourteen deep in a set of Goliaths.

Regional Geology

The topography of Seattle is simple—hills, hills, everywhere. The Downtown area is generally hilly, with the classic seven hills of Seattle reference being slapped on the area. Of course, in the true fashion of legends, the specific seven hills are never defined, mainly because there are far more than seven hills in Seattle. Beyond Downtown, the hills rise towards the mountains, and direct routes to anywhere are extremely rare if you can’t fly. Megacorp construction has smoothed out some large swathes of land, but that doesn’t necessarily help the overall topography, as these swathes often create large drop-offs or force the creation of switchbacks.

The weather here isn’t rainy all the time. It’s generally cloudy most of the year, with about two hundred days of clouds, another one hundred of partial clouds, and only sixty or so with abundant sun shine. The rain mythos comes from the general drizzle that falls on those cloudy days and leaves this place in a perpetual state of moistness, with only about a meter of water falling across the whole year - significantly less than falls in New York. Temperatures average 21 degrees Celsius in the region, but will get up over 30 degrees Celsius in the summer and down to about 4 degrees Celsius in the winter, though neither extreme holds for extended stints, thanks to the moderating effect of the Puget Sound and Lake Washington. It’s important to note that Redmond sits a bit up in elevation, and its temperatures aren’t quite as regulated by the waters. They regularly get snow and sit below freezing for a week or more at a time.

While not precipitation but still a part of the local weather, the southern portions of the metroplex get a significant amount of ashfall thanks to local eruptions. Air quality often sucks, and breathing masks are a common accessory and regularly get used as a fashion statement. Strong winds in spring and autumn tend to clear things up, and the consistent breeze created by local waters keep Downtown from getting ashy. Most areas south of Lake Union, however, get a covering on a consistent basis.

Individual Districts