posted 12/27/08 03:05 PM | updated 12/27/08 03:10 PM
Views: 821 | Comments : 20 | Community

Bus Service on Cancelled Hill

By SeattleBrad
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This sums up my frustration over the last several days...

 


Bus Service on Cancelled Hill
Tags: bus, seattle, metro, snow, cancelled, delay + add tags
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HA
Just saw this on the Seattle LJ. I'm sure some people won't find it funny but I sure did.
Comment by Wesa
December 27, 2008
( 0 votes ) Recommend this
Excellent!
I think this is a brilliant summary. The region's densest neighborhood was largely brought to a standstill due to Metro's inability to function. Obviously some allowance has to be made for the unusual snow amounts, but as others have noted, it does seem that Metro' snow performance has been worse than during past snow events.

I'm guessing there will be some finger-pointing between Metro and the City of Seattle over the condition of the streets vs. Metro's ineptitude. Ultimately, I think both agencies must shoulder a lot of blame for the near two week shutdown. The City's deicing plan ("Wait for the thaw") is inexcusable. And Metro didn't seem to have a Plan B once the ice started accumulating. Once it became clear that a large number of the buses in its fleet wouldn't be able to function, even with chains, the agency simply threw in the towel. As if that weren't bad enough, Metro never felt obligated to provide accurate information about route status. The web site was often inaccurate, and if one happened to be waiting at a bus stop already, Metro made no attempt to post temporary signs about route cancelations. Your first notification that a route was cancelled was that the bus never showed.

One brief story: my apartment overlooks 15th and Pine. On Christmas Eve, I saw a No. 11 get stuck at the intersection around 8:30 am. The driver waited about 20 minutes before one of the large emergency response vehicles arrived. About 3 minutes later, the bus was back underway--one of the workers in the response vehicle had simply shoveled away some slush from under the right rear tire, and the bus was able to continue.

I don't want to vilify drivers here--clearly a lot of them put in extra hours and had to deal with surly passengers under difficult circumstances. But what I think that story points out is that both the govt. and citizens of this region lack a "can-do" attitude when it comes to snow and ice. Maybe they lack that attitude for other things, too. I've been in NYC when it's snowed 6-inches overnight, and the City operates almost as normal. Having an extensive subway helps, but the delivery trucks, garbarge haulers, taxis, etc. functioned as normal. I think it ultimately comes down to the fact that the citizens in NYC or Boston or Chicago, etc. expect and are expected to function as normal during all but the worst snowfalls. Contrast that to Seattle, where people see snowfalls as a chance to take some time off and governmental agencies fold-up like a cheap card table at the first difficulty encountered.

Seattle needs to develop a culture of excellence and accountability when it comes to public services. We have such low expectations, and demand even less. It's easy to blame Nickels or Metro, but citizens in a democracy always get the government they deserve.
Comment by Solduc
December 27, 2008
( +10 votes ) Recommend this
RE: Excellent!
"Metro never felt obligated to provide accurate information about route status."

Well, part of this was Metro's outdated method of tracking buses using transmitters (or transponders?) on the buses that interact with devices inside bus stop signs. When a bus has to reroute (sometimes for temporary blocks like a car accident), the bus will not sure this reroute on the website or at the Base itself. They plan on using GPS soon, but with their current budget crisis, that will likely be postponed.
Comment by Wesa
December 27, 2008
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RE: Excellent!
Speaking of can-do attitude, I was on a couple of buses with chains that almost got stuck. I noticed that the chains were always on the back wheels, but people tend to sit up front, so the back wheels just spin.

A simple solution would be to ask people to sit in the back when they're using chains on bad roads. That would add 1000-2000 lbs of traction on the chains.
Comment by SeattleBrad
December 27, 2008
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RE: GPS
Wow, they're not using GPS? I had no idea.
Comment by SeattleBrad
December 27, 2008
( 0 votes ) Recommend this
RE: Excellent!
Maybe a few of them are installed as tests (similar to Orca passes being installed on some buses for testing), but I read a release from Metro regarding how they currently track buses that was very informative.
Comment by Wesa
December 27, 2008
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RE: Excellent!
I think it's brilliant as well. Sums it all up in a glance.
Comment by AliceE
December 27, 2008
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Easy for me to say
I've been off-Hill for a week so I only experienced the first rounds of snow and ice. Is the point about the buses or the condition of the streets? From what I saw last week, Metro made the right choice to cut service given how many buses were getting stuck and worse.

You can debate the Seattle need more plows + salt vs. doesn't snow here enough + sand thing -- but I don't get the bus anger.
Comment by jseattle
December 27, 2008
( --1 votes ) Recommend this
RE: Easy for me to say
My bus anger is focused on Metro's inability to simply add more buses on main routes that were working and Metro's inability to post accurate info on their web site about which lines were running and which weren't. Nothing to do with GPS - no excuse not to have correct info about which bus routes actually had buses on them and which routes were suspended.
Comment by AliceE
December 27, 2008
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RE: Easy for me to say
I understand that the situations for buses were very bad. But even the buses that were supposedly running weren't making it. On Tuesday I waited 1 hour and 40 minutes in the Westlake Tunnel, and in that time, two #71 buses came through, each packed like sardine cans (I think between 2-5 people managed to squeeze on). No #72 or #73 showed, and by the time I took a #41 just to get out of that station, there were somewhere between 40-60 people waiting, trying to get the the U District. When I called Metro, they said those routes were running as scheduled.

Metro kept saying that 1/2 their fleet was running, but based on my experience (not only with the 70 routes, but with others, too), it was more like 1/4 to 1/3. Having them not be up front about that = bus anger.
Comment by Paige
December 29, 2008
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#10
Can't you just walk downtown?
Comment by M
December 27, 2008
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RE: #10
Some people can and some can't. Some people can walk downtown but not back up to Cap Hill. Not everyone has the same physical ability. Yesterday a patient was unable to walk from his home by Volunteer Park down 15th to Group Health, let alone down or up a grade in the icy slush.
Comment by AliceE
December 27, 2008
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RE: #10
I live in Puyallup and rode the Sounder train and arrived in Seattle around 6:30am (this was Friday the 19th, I had missed Hell-Thursday by being in Tacoma)I caught a bus to 3rd and Pike so I could catch the 11. I waited 20-30 mins and decided that it was not coming and walked up Pike (I work at 20th and Madison). As I walked I saw many citizens like myself falling in the streets (I fell 8 times during my walk) and I tried to give the people walking in the opposite directions warnings to be careful so they would not fall like I had. Never once did I see a METRO van/truck/vehicle come to the stops and post, say anything or yell anything that there would be no services (11 or 12) I felt pride walking with my fellow citizen all of us trying to help, give encouragement, give right-of-aways, offer assistance to those that had fallen (sometimes they fell as well). Many a young guy ran to my aid to see if I was alright and if I needed assistance (I'm 49). I wished the city would just say "We really messed up". As far as the deicer truck and snowploy drivers, my hats off to them and always gave them an thumbs up. I didn't see anyone give the bus drivers any grief, but I'm sure it happened. I felt anger, frustration as well as lots of pain in my bones from the many falls. My anger.....Seattle gov't. when you look at where the plows were being used and where they weren't. Why stop at Broadway and Madison and not continue up and down (E. Madison) hill from 15th to....what 28th?? I felt METRO and the city just left segments of us to our own devise (many of whom I passed where elderly).
Comment by Michael
December 30, 2008
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Anger
I don't own a car and I'm as pro-transit as they come. And for transit to be a viable alternative to owning a car, it has to be reliable. My blame goes more to SDOT for not plowing or salting, so the buses couldn't get through. My anger stems from:
1. This fiasco started on Dec 18. Only today is much of the service restored. I can understand a day or two of shutdowns but this is way too long.
2. It hampered holiday shopping.
3. UPS couldn't get through so people didn't have presents to open on Christmas.
4. I know several people who spent Christmas alone because they couldn't get out.
5. Disabled people and the elderly depend on the buses for medication, food, and for their in-home caregivers to get to them.
6. Medical personnel can't just take the day off. They have to get to work.
7. Walking is an alternative for many of us, but the icy sidewalks mean many slip and fall accidents. Real pain for real people.
8. I fumed every time I walked over the freeway and saw it totally clear, while Pike and Pine were an ice-packed mess. They need to give major bus routes equal priority if they want to get people out of their cars.
9. I kept reading headlines about Metro cutting back on "half" of their routes, while staring at a web page that showed about 90% reduction in service to Capitol Hill. Day after day after day.
10. They have adverse weather routes, but they couldn't use those. Instead they would list alternative routes like "left on this street, right on that street, etc" which is very difficult to visualize when you don't have easy access to a map.

I will give them some kudos on the Ice and Snow web page, which listed the cancellations and reroutes. People complained that Metro wasn't communicating enough, but I thought this page did it pretty well.
Comment by SeattleBrad
December 27, 2008
( +5 votes ) Recommend this
RE: Anger
"People complained that Metro wasn't communicating enough, but I thought this page did it pretty well."

I dunno. I've been out of town for a week, but I was in town on the 18th and 19th. On both of those days I was lucky enough to be able to work from home, but I had to cancel appointments because of inaccurate bus reporting. On Thursday #10 was non-functioning for over an hour because a bunch of them piled up at the north end of the route, but Metro said it was running. Then, the next day, Metro said the #43 was on its snow route, but I watched it run by my window on 23rd (regular route) all day long. The problem with the 10 I could understand, but watching the 43 blissfully operate as normal when the website said otherwise was really annoying.
Comment by EmilyP
December 27, 2008
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RE: Anger
Wait, use the correct agencies. City of Seattle wouldn't salt/plow the streets. WSDOT used salt and plowed the freeways.

Also Metro cut services where there were steep hills. Queen Anne went w/out any bus service for days on end. Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Beacon Hill also lost the majority of bus services. Overall though, Metro cut 50% of services, it's just that some neighborhoods were hit harder than most due to geographical features.
Comment by Wesa
December 27, 2008
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Seattle's lack of snow ambition
As a lifelong resident my take on Seattle snow-ins is twofold. First, we simply don't get enough snow to justify more snow equipment. The bus full of job corps folks dangling over I-5 is explanation enough for the resulting lack of metro service.

Second, snow days are Seattle's way to build in winter Siestas. Yeah, our expectations are low, but we think that's cool. And when we actually get a whole week, we even revel in the chaos. Not an especially good justification, but maybe an explanation.
Comment by From the Broadway Delta
December 28, 2008
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RE: Seattle's lack of snow ambition
"snow days are Seattle's way to build in winter Siestas. Yeah, our expectations are low, but we think that's cool. And when we actually get a whole week, we even revel in the chaos."

Except for those of us who are in emergency services or are in some other way considered 'essential personnel' and can't just skip out on work for a week. I spent three nights sleeping AT WORK (in Kent) because I knew I wouldn't be able to get back on the Hill and then off again the next morning. Granted, there IS no easy way to bus to my workplace, even when it's clear, but driving in the mess left behind was equally ridiculous.
Comment by raincitysun
December 28, 2008
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Finish Tag
Your graphic is really cool, but I gotta take issue with the #60 being "maybe tomorrow". The #60, a bus I had never taken before, saved my tail over and over Christmas week. Usually it was running ON TIME.
Comment by Finish Tag
December 29, 2008
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Busses and snow
I'm so glad the busses are finally running again! One issue I have with Metro is that they assume everyone can get updates online--I can't afford internet at home, and if I can't get out to the library (for which I take the bus) I'm left in the dark. The phone representatives were unreachable through most of the mess. They need to have a way for you to check if your bus is running by phone.

I also saw a lot of people being obnoxious to the drivers of the few busses that were running in very tough conditions. Those drivers put up with a lot to get us going---please give them the respect they deserve. I thanked each of them for driving through the snow. Have an issue with Metro if you need to, but leave the drivers alone (I do not work for Metro, FYI)
Comment by Rain Worshipper
December 29, 2008
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