Traffic today was horrible. My 545 bus took 40 minutes, about 15 minutes more than usual starting at 9:30. I got this picture at 10:15 from WSDOT, and you can see traffic still is a disaster. I was listening to Mayor Nickels on the Dave Ross show, and the traffic man said it was 70 minutes from Federal Way to Seattle on I-5, and 50 minutes from Lynnwood to Seattle. 70 minutes at 9:45 am.
What was that thing about light rail being too slow?
What did you expect? it was raining. That is too much for some people to deal with.
Link has no traffic? Oh wait, it does, in Rainier Valley and Sodo!
Mr. Black… no, Link doesn’t have traffic. It runs IN ITS OWN RIGHT OF WAY, and while it has crossings, that’s a radically different situation. I am leaving your comment just to point out how incredible it is that someone can either still be that uninformed (we’ve discussed this before) or that dishonest.
Do freight trains “have traffic”? No. Gates come down, just like in Sodo, and the train passes.
In the Rainier Valley, the lights will be timed for Link in the peak direction.
Link never, ever shares a lane with a car. Never. Not even at turns, where many light rail systems do. Not Link.
The 545 I caught at 8 this morning (by the library in Redmond) took less than 30 minutes to get to Stuart and Denny. It was standing room only when I got on though. As far as I know there’s only a few stops before that point. The alarm is going to be set 15 minutes early tomorrow morning in hopes that I can get a seat.
Isn’t eyman’s initiative based on rush hour ending at 9am?
Wow, amazing what a difference in time does.
I took the 6am Route 158 from Kent to Downtown Seattle with no delays. The 554 only had minor slowing at Mercer Island but that is common when it rains but other than that, it was road speed the entire way to work.
Looking at that map, wow… just wow.
Brian, I hear you, I go to work at 6:30-6:45 as well.
forrest, you’re benefiting from the 3-person HOV lane on the eastside, more than anything. When that is extended across 520 (and converted to center lane), it’ll be even better.
There are also lulls in traffic throughout the morning – you probably hit one. It’s the variation that causes problems.
We have rising gas prices and yet traffic gets worse. Took us 30 minutes to get to Montlake from Bothell in a 3-person carpool around 9 am.
Ben, in the seven months I’ve been commuting from Redmond, I haven’t noticed that the 520 bridge slows down the bus all that much. It probably is the case that my schedule hits a lull in the action pretty consistently. We’ll find out tomorrow morning provided I don’t hit the snooze bar until 7 am. :)
In the height of rush hour, taking the bus from capitol hill to downtown Bellevue via 520 is about 10-15 minutes longer via bus vs driving it which is a negligible difference. Now if I drove before 7am to 520 and over to Bellevue I can get there in 15-20 min vs 30-40 min on the bus. Most of the increase in time for the bus is of course waiting at the stop and in between transfers unless you just happen to time it just right.
This is why the 520 replacement is so important. New HOV Lanes in both directions for buses plus wider shoulders that will allow any accidents to clear faster. Also, people tend to drive faster when they have more space (wider lanes/shoulders) thus further helping reduce congestion and bus drive times.
Gotta say, I do love the express bus link between my house in the U-District and downtown. Even though the bus came late AND traffic was much worse than usual, I was only 5 minutes late walking in the door. (Normally, I am 2-0 minutes early.)
With dedicated ROW rail, this could only get better: guaranteed commute times every day with no traffic. Essentially, I would never be even one minute late again.
If you were listening to the Dave Ross show, then you also heard Nickels say that when the expand the street car up eastlake to the UD, they are going to take all buses off eastlake.
First off, how does Nickels know this? It’s not even his call. Metro is a county agency. Second, does this really make sense, taking every route off of eastlake? What’s point? Oh, wait, I know. To guarantee the street car’s “success.” Reroute the buses away from eastlake ave, and you have instant high ridership on the street car.
Something tells me they’ll be cutting back on the 48 and 42 in the summer of 09, as well.
sam, do you really think the 70 should keep running on Eastlake if the streetcar is also running up it? And, for that matter, do you think the county and the cities shouldn’t talk to each other about related plans?
[...] Our ever expanding rush hour… [...]