Ride2Downtown Wraps Up Seven Weeks of Deals, Transit, and Community

This spring, the Bellevue Downtown Association and Connect Bellevue launched Ride2Downtown, a seven-week campaign celebrating the opening of the Crosslake Connection, by encouraging everyone to travel sustainably to Downtown Bellevue. From March 29 through May 16, participants who signed up at Ride2Downtown.com received weekly exclusive deals at participating Downtown Bellevue businesses.  

Each week spotlighted a different local business, offering signed-up riders a unique promotion delivered straight to their inbox. Participating businesses include Bellden Cafe, Cafe An’Clair, Vanity Pham Salon, Hello Robin, Bellevue Pilates, City Sweats, and Choose Your Way Bellevue. The campaign brought new foot traffic to Downtown Bellevue while reinforcing the growing network of sustainable transportation options now available to the community.  

This impact was evident through the campaign’s partnership with Choose Your Way Bellevue, where we offered $25 preloaded Try Transit ORCA cards to participants trying transit for the first time. For that week, 49 cards were distributed, putting transit access directly into the hands of new riders and turning campaign engagement into real trips on the system.  

The numbers reflected strong community interest. Over the course of the campaign, 475 people signed up, and weekly promotional emails saw an average open rate of 62%. The Ride2Downtown page received over 1,900 page views, and across Instagram, the campaign generated over 27,500 impressions across 8 posts. 

The feedback from participating businesses captured what Ride2Downtown was all about: 

"Partnering with Ride2Downtown was a natural fit for us. At Bellden, we believe that a thriving community starts with people showing up for each other, and this campaign was a beautiful example of that. We loved being part of something that brought more neighbors through our door and reminded us why we do this work."

Claire Sumadiwirya, Chef & Owner, Bellden Cafe

Ride2Downtown was made possible through the support of Amazon, the campaign’s Presenting Sponsor, and Lime, the Community Sponsor.