Expedia should consider trebuchet to launch workers to Seattle

Expedia is willing to pay its employees up to $1,500 each for their commute to Seattle, once the company moves from Bellevue.

There’s just one requirement: the Expedia employees can’t drive alone.

Knowing that it will add about 3,000 people to an already congested Interbay neighborhood, the company is rewarding those who carpool for three months, KIRO TV reports.

But there’s at least one person who wouldn’t be willing to give up his freedom of driving in a single-occupant vehicle for that kind of money. Feliks Banel told KIRO Radio’s John Curley that he can’t live without his car. Even when he’s out of town and his family has to rent a car, Banel puts it in his name so he can drive any time. The sense of freedom of having a car still exists in Seattle, he added.

“I’ve ridden public transportation maybe half a dozen times in the last 10 years,” he explained.

That’s not to say public transportation is bad. Five to 10 years from now buses, for example, will be incredibly important, Banel predicts. For now, however, he doesn’t want to give up his options of driving wherever he pleases.

Maybe there’s another option for Expedia employees to commute, without contributing to Seattle’s traffic mess.

“Trébuchet,” Curley suggested. “I always say that is a more efficient method for getting across Lake Washington.”