Microsoft fights traffic, expands

Some Seattle-area Microsoft employees will soon get a break from traffic after a new company bus service starts up and some new buildings downtown open.

On Thursday, the day of the software giant's annual company meeting, Microsoft said it would start its own bus service to take employees from several locations to its suburban campus.

Initially, seven full-size and seven midsize buses will whisk up to 1,000 employees to and from work. The buses come equipped with power to each seat, Wi-Fi, and bike racks. The company plans to spend several months after the free service starts in two weeks evaluating it to determine whether it will keep and expand the service, said Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, at a press conference.

Employees will be able to sign up online for a seat on the bus and track bus locations online.

Bad traffic is a growing problem in the Seattle area, and Smith warned that if it doesn't change, it could imperil the good fortune of the region. Washington state is one of the few economic bright spots in the country, but problems such as traffic put that enviable position at risk, Smith noted.

Traffic snarls are one reason that Boeing, another iconic Seattle native, cited for moving its headquarters to Chicago.

Microsoft rival Google also operates a bus service for employees at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.

In addition to the bus service, Microsoft said that it is expanding into new offices in the Seattle city center. Combined with 600 workers from aQuantive, which Microsoft recently acquired, 1,400 employees will soon be working downtown.

Two of the new buildings that Microsoft will occupy are built and owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's real estate company, Vulcan. Allen's company has in recent years purchased a vast amount of land in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, the site of one of the new Microsoft locations, and is developing residential and commercial properties there.

The downtown expansion for Microsoft is in addition to a $1 billion campus expansion program the company announced about a year ago.