Is your bus route changing?
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Over at Re-think Green, Julia has done a lot of work on the changes coming to our bus service as the University Light Rail station opens later this month.
This post is for my peeps who ride Metro (or may want to ride Metro) in the North part of Northeast Seattle. I’m talking ‘bout Lake City, Olympic Hills, Jackson Park, Pinehurst, Northgate, and Maple Leaf. My hood.
Her specific post is here: Metro Changes: A summary for Northgate & Lake City. (The short take, I think, is that many routes that now go downtown will go instead to the light rail station.)
Meanwhile, the Seattle Bike Blog has reported on the extensive work coming to Roosevelt Way this year from Northeast 65th Street to the University Bridge.
Major work to repave Roosevelt Way and rebuild it with transit, biking and walking improvements starts March 14, SDOT says.
That report is here: Work starts soon on major Roosevelt Way repaving & redesign, will last most of 2016.
I tried a “dry run” today to see what it will entail to get from downtown to the corner of 85th and 15th NE by using the link light rail to transfer to the 73. Looks as if ST has worked its usual magic of making a 25 minute or so trip now take 45-50 minutes with a 1/3 mile walk included (this would be for riders taking the 73 from downtown). Now instead of boarding the 73 in the tunnel and getting directly to the destination in a reasonable period of time, there will be a transfer involved (and I don’t know if the 73 will come more often). The bus bay 4 for this transfer is not really all that close to the rail and will be really difficult for disabled or elderly people. I’ve contacted Metro and Debora Juarez’s office’s office about this – neither have responded to email. This change is definitely for the worse – and goes directly against the 2014 special election where car tab money was earmarked specifically for Metro buses and road repairs if there was any left from bus improvements (I just read the bill to be sure). I don’t know if we can get anywhere, but this is a real nightmare scenario with four buses (66, 68, 72, and 73) in our area being eliminated entirely and others reconfigured to connect at the UW station. I encourage anyone who’s inconvenienced to complain – this is not why we voted in neighborhood representatives.
Something worth noting for the 73/373 changes: While the 73 no longer runs southbound during morning peak and northbound during the afternoon peak, the 373 (mostly) takes its place. The 373 will now stop everywhere the 73 does along 15th between Northgate Way and 75th.
Walk over to 5th and you’ll see they removed all the 67 signs; walk to Roosevelt and you’ll see them there.
It still does not turn on to 15th.
I am grateful for Trader Joe’s opening the Shoreline store, for I only use Roosevelt to get to the U District store and not much else. I still don’t know the exact route of the 67, especially where it turns off of Roosevelt and gets over to 15th. I guess I will wait and see. Speaking of Roosevelt, northbound at Northgate Way traffic is really clogged up due to the bike lane/road diet. I’ve seen three bikes on that stretch this week, but hundreds of cars stuck in traffic.
Sweet, perfect timing! The new route changes are going to correspond with SDOT’s Roosevelt repaving project that starts on Monday. According to SDOT, Roosevelt will be down to one lane most of the day (two lanes during rush hour) and bus stops are going to be relocated or closed. There are five work zones, and here’s the description of the first one:
Construction will begin on Monday, March 14 in Zone A
Construction will begin on Roosevelt Way NE between NE 65th St and Ravenna Blvd NE (Zone A) on Monday, March 14 and will take about 8 weeks to complete.
During construction, residents, businesses, and travelers can expect the following impacts:
•Normal weekday work hours, 7AM – 5 PM, Monday through Friday (occasional night/weekend work may be necessary and advanced notice will be provided)
•On-street parking removal on Roosevelt Way NE during construction (west side parking will be permanently removed to accommodate the new protected bike lane)
•Lane restrictions; one lane maintained at all times and two lanes maintained during the morning (7 – 9 AM) and afternoon (3 – 6 PM) commutes
•Temporary delays and longer travel time through the work zones
•Pedestrian detours with temporary access that meets Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requirements
•Bicycle detours
•Construction noise, dust, and vibration
•Temporary bus stop relocations or closures (for more information, visit metro.kingcounty.gov)
•Steel plates on the roadway
•Short term loss of access to driveways and side streets for up to 2-3 hours during grinding and paving activities (we will notify affected properties in advance)
•Rough pavement after grinding
I stand corrected! I missed that when reading the description. My fault.
Strange that their GTFS shows a different path. Guess I’ll have to wait until I see a timetable.
Actually, the 67 *does* travel on Pacific according to the definitive source: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/sc/rideralert/2016/march/revisions/#mb=#route-67||grid
It’s a bummer that 5th Ave NE is loosing it’s bus service. Once the Roosevelt HCT starts up we’ll get it back, hopefully sooner though!
Here’s what the “definitive source” says about Route 67:
North of NE 80th St, Route 67 will be revised to serve Roosevelt Way NE, NE Northgate Way, 5th Ave and NE 103rd St in both directions. It will no longer serve NE 80th St, 5th Ave NE, or NE 100th St. Southbound trips to the University District will serve Bay 1 instead of Bay 5 at the Northgate Transit Center, and northbound trips will stop at Bay 5 instead of Bay 2. In the University District, southbound Route 67 will operate on 15th Ave NE, NE Pacific St, NE Pacific Pl and Montlake Blvd NE, serving Bay 3 near the University of Washington Link station. It will be connected with Route 65 instead of Route 68. During peak periods, midday, and on Saturday, Route 67 buses will come every 10-15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. After the evening peak period ends, buses will come every 30 minutes until around 1 a.m. Buses will come every 30 minutes all day on Sunday. No trips will be canceled when the University of Washington is not in session.
+1 for the Seattle Transit Blog, it’s a great resource.
Also, the 67 does not travel on Pacific. Once it gets to campus it stays on Stevens Way and hits the edge of Children’s before heading north on 35th.
Route 67 does not use 15th. The definitive source explains:
http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/sc/rideralert/2016/march/revisions/#mb=#route-67||grid
The official map so far only exists in a paper timetable that hasn’t been published, but Metro released their data early and OBA has imported it:
http://pugetsound.onebusaway.org/where/standard/trip.action?id=1_30769469&serviceDate=1463554800000
I don’t know where the revised 67 transitions from Roosevelt to 15th NE. Older maps showed Ravenna being used, later maps are unclear but seem to show it going south of 45th and then heading east to 15th, then south to Pacific and the light rail. Northbound apparently leaves the light rail station and then enters campus from Montlake and emerges from campus at 15th and ends up northbound on 11th/12th (by a route I can’t decipher) to 75th, then back to Roosevelt. The increased frequency and it’s use of Roosevelt actually makes this a better choice for us than walking to the Northgate light rail station when it gets finished in 2021. Of course there will be some revisions at that time, so the 67 may not even be around after rail reaches Northgate. The increased frequency and longer service hours are both good for us.
I’m not sure why you had to stoop to name calling Julia. In the post that Mike links to he admits he couldn’t figure out what the changes were on a site he linked to that clearly spelled out the changes. And again this time he posts he has no clue as to what’s going on when the information is once again readily available. If the content of a blog post is just going to be “I can’t figure this out” then it shouldn’t be on a neighborhood blog–it’s perfect material for a personal Facebook post instead.
I disagree with your assumption that people will magically land at STB by Googling “Metro changes”. Also, I’d rather have one easy to understand definitive source rather than a smattering of them scattered across the internet. In fact, these third party sources contain some errors–the STB article indicates it was updated to correct some information and your article refers to a 373X route which doesn’t exist (it’s just 373). While this last error is a minor one and I’m sure you’ll fix it once you see this, there’s a remote possibility that you’ll cause confusion for a rider that will wait for a 373X which will never come. Again, it’s minor, but this is why I’d rather have one definitive source.
Thanks for letting readers know about the upcoming changes, and just ignore the previous hater’s comment. You posted this before the new site and announcements went up today, and everyone will find Metro’s and STB’s info if they search for it. However, we have a great opportunity to reach new riders by writing about our transit system in more than the usual places.
As always, you could just check the Seattle Transit Blog before posting one of your poorly researched guesses on bus routes. The full route-by-route breakdown is posted in this article. It’s essentially a re-hash of the info Metro posted but in a much easier to read form that doesn’t involve so much clicking.