By Frank on May 5, 2009
While I’m making random, half-assed demands for transit-only lanes, let us turn our attention to the intersection of 12th & Union (& Madison), where our friend the #2 bus must drive a meandering bow-tie shaped route to get across 12th:
Could the intersection be altered so that buses — and only buses — have a special traffic light that allows them to shoot straight across on Union?
You can see the intersection here:
View Larger Map
Again, I’m sure there are tons of issues here, and it’s probably not worth the benefit.
Posted in PPP
By Frank on February 26, 2009
Some bus routes affected this morning. See here for details.
Posted in PPP
By Frank on February 18, 2009
Metro’s looking at a huge revenue shortfall, thanks to a dropoff in sales tax revenue.
Golly, it seems like just yesterday that the spike in gas prices was going to doom Metro. But I guess that was small potatoes ($13M over two years) compared to the $100M deficit we’re looking at now. Just to put it in perspective.
Posted in PPP
By Matt the Engineer on November 18, 2008
In a recent STB post, John asked why we don’t just raise fares in Seattle, since that’s where the money is. I’d argue that Seattle is already subsidizing the rest of King County’s bus service to a large extent.
A few notes from 2007 ridership data:
West area revenue: $55.6M
East area revenue: $10M
South area revenue: $19.8M
West area fare/expense: 25.7%
East area fare/expense: 14.4%
South area fare/expense: 19.6%
Ordering routes by fare recovery looks almost like the original bus route list back when streetcars were removed, with four Seattle routes actually making over 50% farebox recovery. The average farebox recovery for the West side off peak is 24% – that’s almost as high as the system-wide peak recovery (25%).
Posted in PPP
By Frank on October 18, 2008
Martin at STB notes that Metro’s going to put off the fare increases they were talking about a few months ago.
It seems pretty clear to me the delay is being driven by the rather sudden drop in fuel prices we’ve seen over the last couple of months. The average cost for a gallon of gas on the West Coast peaked at $4.28 in July, according to the DOE, and is now sitting at about $3.37. Oil futures have dropped in half from their high this summer, on fear of a slowing economy.
It seems pretty clear that oil prices will rise again. Demand is still bumping up against available supply, and the market panic has probably panicked a bit more than is rational. Now would probably be a good time for Metro to lock in “cheap” gas at current prices, or face an even worse shortage down the road.
Posted in PPP
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 Matt the Engineer on August 31, 2008
20:40:40 is a rule built into funding legislation for King County Metro that allocates funds for new service hours by area. 40% goes to the east side, 40% goes south, and 20% goes to Seattle and north (more complete explanation in this PDF). This sounded strange to me the first time I heard it, and now it seems unbelievable. Seattle has 35% of the population of King County. We must have 5x the ridership of either other area (anyone have #’s for this?). So we pay more in taxes, much more in fares, and get 20% of the benefit?
The justification for 20/40/40 was that Seattle has more buses than the rest of the county, and it was a way for them to catch up. But I’ve yet to hear of a full eastside bus (especially off-peak, which is what improves with more service hours), yet the #2 leaves people behind because it can’t cram any more people on the bus.
20:40:40 was actually an ingenious plan, from the non-Seattle perspective. There is no way, with 35% of the vote, Seattle could have stopped it. I suppose it was nice of the county to give us anything at all.
But maybe all this is beside the point. Although we could certainly use more service hours in Seattle, what we really need is more infrastructure. With our same number of drivers, we could double frequency and quadruple capacity by adding traffic-separated streetcars.
Posted in PPP, Regeneration
By Frank on June 17, 2008
Metro’s latest order of 22 hybrid busses rolled into service last week. The 2008 version of the DE60LF has some modifications from the original 2004 version, notably a Cummins engine that replaces the Caterpillar C9.
Reader JK rode on one the other day and sent in this report:
- the idles and starts seemed a lot smoother and quieter–from both the engine and HVAC system, which might indicate more usage of the hybrid modes with more batteries
- the seat arrangements are slightly different: there is now a “modesty panel” in front of the first row of forward-facing seats; the double seats on each side of the articulation are now singles; in the handicapped seating area is the normal wide inward-facing bench right next a single “jump seat”
- the seats have a new material which seems more slip resistant (great for those quick or sudden stops!); the back-of-seat handles also have a re-design
- the articulation is now a “full-circle” on the floor, unlike the previous DE60LF’s which had a “half-circle”; there are now ceiling grab handles in the articulation
- the HVAC unit seems to be mounted further forward over the front half of the coach, probably to make room for more batteries
- there is greater use of LEDs for loading lights (outside facing the ground and in the doorways)
- THE WINDOWS DO NOT OPEN!
Oranviri has pics here.
Posted in PPP
By bgtothen on March 2, 2008
Over the last few days I have been working on creating this map for my independent study. What I tried to do is combine a simplified system map with the Mybus SMS service.
I realized through my studies that transit information consist of spatial and temporal information. Thus you have a route map to show where the bus goes and you have a table to show when the bus will be there. Subway systems essentially eliminate the need to know temporal information because they come so often. This allows them to simply focus on the spatial aspect of the transit system which is much easier to understand. That is why everyone loves subway maps. Using Mybus SMS I’m able to do the same thing.
This map only covers downtown, capitol hill and the u district but if I get a good reaction I will make a city wide map. Please let me know what you think.
Posted in iPhone, piercecounty, PPP, Public Private Partnership, railroads
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