March 25

It’s here! New bus routes start now

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10  comments

Update: Here’s another shot at this from The Seattle Times.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things.”

Actually, no.

The time has come to note that bus service changes as the week ends.

Trying to talk about those changes is a thankless task.

Exhibit A: Comments on our last bus post. (See: “No clue.” Also, there’s a lot of good information in those comments.)

Exhibit B: This befuddling series of videos from Metro about the changes.

Fact is, there are enough changes that folks need to scowl at their own routes. Here is Metro’s site for changes beginning March 26nd.

Bottom line: Some bus routes that until now went downtown will instead go to Sound Transit’s newly opened University of Washington light rail station.

Is that good? Here, in the above comments, is Lisa’s report from Tuesday:

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)….

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 …. 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.

More positively, the Seattle Transit Blog has a piece here: ULink Bus Restructure Begins Saturday: More Service, More Transfers, Faster Trips.

Let’s not lose the sheer magnitude of Metro’s bus restructure, the largest in decades and one that will change tens of thousands of daily trips, mostly for the better.

The basic theme of the restructure, especially in NE Seattle, is higher frequency service paid for with a reliance on ULink and increased transfers. The ease and reliability of these transfers is an open question, and their success or failure will largely determine the public’s view of this restructure over time.

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Sara W

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  1. Lisa, that’s a good point that City of Seattle does have some pull since we’re specifically buying transit hours from Metro. I’m disappointed that neither Dembowski nor Juarez seem to be responding. The only time I’ve emailed the city council (and I’ve never email the county), I did get a response from a staffer. It was a few weeks later, but it was actually thoughtful and responded to my actual concerns.

  2. Caroline – in response to your comment about the 77, they already moved it out of the tunnel (which was a bad switch for me, and one which Metro likewise did not respond to my comments about). I used the 73 as an alternative to the 77, but when they originated from two different stops (from downtown), they became unviable. I looked at the 77 schedule a couple of days ago, and it looks as if the last trip from downtown leaves 10 or 12 minutes earlier than the previous last trip. It would have been far more useful to add one later trip, to replace the 72 and 73 that used to leave around 6:35.

  3. An update: I did contact Dembowski’s office, and got no response. I started with Councilwoman Juarez, because the special election of 2014 was specifically in the City of Seattle, and the $60 car fee was specifically to retain or increase bus routes. As our neighborhood advocate, she should be addressing the car tab for bus issue.

  4. The 67 appears to go to Children’s Hospital after stopping at the train station. Returning it hit’s Stevens Way on Campus, thence to 11th/12th north, thence Roosevelt, Northgate Way, N-Gate Transit Center. Southbound I think it gets to Pacific via 15th so it can get by new train station? The Roosevelt Way work south of 65th (will it include those white bike pylons?) may force a temporary reroute of the new 67 to 15th southbound from 75th for the duration?

  5. Residents further west in ML have the option of the 26 as well, which is express to downtown after the N. Seattle stops (as opposed to the old 26 which stopped along Dexter.)

  6. Laurie, I doubt that that’s the case, but I do think we were relatively spoiled relative to most of North Seattle with bus coverage, and now we’re more in line with what most of North Seattle gets.

    Caroline, I’m not sure where in ML you are, but it sounds like you are close to 15th. The 522 is a good option, but I think it skips that stop at 75th and Lake City sometimes, particularly during peak. Just something to watch out for. The 63 isn’t a replacement for the 66: it’s a peak-only commuter route. The route that Metro seems to be encouraging is a 73 (or 67) to Husky Stadium with a transfer to the Link.

  7. I’m still confused by the changes, particularly during non-peak hours. Right now I walk one block to 15th and catch the 77 downtown on weekday mornings, and as best I can tell that route isn’t changing.

    But how do I get downtown during non-peak hours? I can go over to Northgate and take the 41 but is there an option straight from the neighborhood? Normally, I’d hop a 73 or a 66 and I’d get there eventually. The new 63 (mentioned as a replacement for the 66) seems to go to First Hill, not downtown. And I don’t think the 73 goes south during the day anymore.

    I asked Metro’s trip planner tool how to get from my house to Fourth and Madison at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday, and it said to walk down to Lake City Way and 20th to catch a Sound Transit 522 to Second and Marion. I can do that, physically, but I wonder how our older neighbors or people with mobility issues or those who are traveling with young children will manage.

  8. I am starting to use the Pronto bike share bailout 0f $1.4 million as a yard stick for needless or foolish expenditure by government: ” … is going to cripple the City, and end up costing taxpayers .1785 to .3751 Pronto$ to fix.”

  9. Steve – You hit the nail on the head. I’m of the opinion these route redesigns were done years ago when Northgate light rail was slated to open in 2016. So many of the routes are absurd that I expect the Monday commute to be a horrible mess. Metro’s lack of planning this time around is going to cripple the city, and end up costing taxpayers a quarter to half a million to fix.

  10. The city council doesn’t have any authority over Metro, so rather than pinging Ms. Juarez about the change, you might try Councilmember Dembowski, who I believe represents all of Maple Leaf in the King County council.

    While, in general, I think using buses to get people to light rail stations and use light rail to get people to downtown, I think this might have been premature. The only North Seattle station is at Husky Stadium, which is absurdly out-of-the-way, and the buses that go there tend to wind through UW on the way. This will be way better once the U-District, Roosevelt, and Northgate stations are open, but until then, I agree that it’s hard to not see this as a loss for Maple Leaf.

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