By Matt the Engineer on February 5, 2010
I love the stickers someone placed on Metro buses. Stabbing Prohibited and No Urinating. This should remove a few common bus faux pas.
Posted in Metro, policy
By Matt the Engineer on November 5, 2009
Vote over at the Slog.
I actually like the 3 and 4. I’m a 2, 13 (and recently 15 and 18) rider myself, and the 4 is a nice change – calm, quiet, with few stops and little traffic. But that’s up QA hill – maybe the problem is on the south end of the route.
Posted in policy
By Matt the Engineer on March 16, 2009
Walking home from the grocery store the other day, it started to rain. Right then I saw an empty bus ride past me. I didn’t think of flagging it down and riding it home. Why? Because that would have cost me $2, and a 6-block trip isn’t worth $2 to me, even in the rain.
Does this situation seem strange to anyone else? A bus paid for mostly with sales taxes (not fares) driving by empty when it could have saved a citizen several minutes and some comfort?
The problem, as I see it, is the fare model. We have a flat fare for simplicity, and we’ve chosen $2 as a rate that will attract the average rider and keep them out of their car. But that makes short-distance bus trips a bad buy while giving long-distance trips a great value.
I propose that once we have ORCA we should consider distance-based fares. Four blocks costs, say, $0.10. Four miles would be around $1. 12 miles would be $3. This not only encourages bus use for those that live close to their workplace, but also encourages using the bus for something other than commuting.
Posted in policy
By Matt the Engineer on December 23, 2008
Just consider this me backseat driving our bus system…
By perhaps the 2nd or 3rd day of snow and only after a painful learning curve, buses in Seattle seem to have settled into a comfortable routine. Sure it’s a routine where half of the buses aren’t running, and most routes are unpredictable in terms of pickup and travel times, but at least the routes have settled down. However, these routes don’t look much like their published adverse weather routes (for example the 13 adverse weather route – had planned on still making it up the hill). And during the first days of snow people were stranded without even knowing which bus stop to wait at or which bus to take.
I humbly submit to the Internet my weather plan for the next snow season.
1. Find the most level, drivable route to serve a neighborhood. One way of doing this is to look at the routes as they exist right now. Now name these routes something easy, like #1S replacing the #1 (S for snow).
2. At the first hint of snow, announce to every media outlet you can that Seattle will be switching to snow routes. This shouldn’t be hard, since news reporters love this sort of thing. And don’t overlook the “first hint of snow” piece of this – buses are no good to anyone if they’re broken down on hills.
3. At every stop list directions to the nearest snow route stop, the snow route number, and a phone number to call if you need assistance (for those that can’t walk down a snow-covered hill).
4. Every non-articulated bus that serves a route that is canceled should now join these snow routes. This is critical, since we need to keep frequency high on these now overloaded routes.
5. 4×4 shuttle buses can ferry people up and down hills where required.
6. I’d have the city send someone around to shovel snow off of at least a few walking routes from each hill.
Yes, this will result in people that live on hills having to do a little more walking in the snow. But I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking an extra 10 minute walk to a reliable and predictable bus beats the current system hands-down.
Posted in history, policy, Trail
By joshkelley on September 16, 2008
For bikers who also bus . . .
Metro is also launching a demonstration project to ease restrictions in the tunnel on where bikes can be loaded and unloaded from bus bike racks. The change is expected to make it more convenient for people who ride both bikes and buses. Cyclists are urged to take care when moving off the platform to load their bikes on the front of the bus, and are reminded to use the stairs or elevators not escalators between street level and the platforms in stations. If the demonstration project proves successful, Metro will consider making the changes permanent.
http://your.kingcounty.gov/exec/news/2008/0915metro.aspx
Joshua Kelley
Posted in alternative commute, Apple, oil, policy, RTID, TOD
By Frank on September 11, 2008
Speaking of airports, did Crosscut really survey the various airport transportation options without realizing that the 194 bus goes straight there?
Yes, yes they did.
The problem with Crosscut is that, despite its (rumored) low readership numbers, it actually gets read by most of the bigshots who make policy in this town. Which is a problem, and I’m not really sure what to do about it…
Posted in policy
By joshkelley on September 8, 2008
Will Metro be upgrading their website soon? I found a few pages on the site looking like this:
Anyone know anything?
Posted in alternative commute, policy
By Frank on September 3, 2008
Catching up on my reading after a long, much needed vacation, and I see we’re going to get treated to not one, but two bus fare hikes in the next couple of years.
I sort of wish there was more predictability to these fare increases, so they didn’t seem to hit people off guard like this. But I guess you can’t plan a budget that way, without knowing what your expenses are going to be.
While bus fares in Seattle are relatively cheap, compared to other cities, I think Metro should try and do something positive with the fare increase to give people the sense that their money is going somewhere besides fuel (which they can’t see). Cleaner buses, for example. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just something.
I’ll have a transit-centric edition of the old “what I did on my Summer vacation” essay coming in the next few days.
Posted in alternative commute, policy, PPP, ST
By Frank on August 6, 2008
I was working up a response to Matt Rosenberg’s piece in Crosscut on buses, but Erica Barnett got there first and says what needed to be said.
Posted in policy, ST
By Frank on July 4, 2008
Ron Sims says fork over another $.25 to help offset increased fuel costs. Yet another reason why relying exclusively on buses as a long-term transportation solution is a fool’s game.
God forbid we build more light rail, which carries 5x the passengers as a bus and runs on renewable hydro electric power. That would be crazy, right Ron?
Posted in policy
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