Comments on: Bad Winter Weather

By: DJStroky

DJStroky — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:26:01 +0000

I certainly enjoyed catching a MAX at 4:20am this last Saturday night/Sunday morning :)

By: Oran

Oran — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:37:53 +0000

Yesterday evening around 6:30 pm, a pick-up truck was stalled on eastbound 520 reducing it to only one lane through! I picked the last express bus of the day to avoid the mess and this is what I get? I thought there were WSDOT Incident Response Team trucks stationed at the ends of the bridge to tow these guys out immediately.

When our car stalled at the Mercer exit there was a truck to push us out of traffic in 10 minutes and that was during the morning rush hour.

By: zilfondel

zilfondel — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:16:40 +0000

Actually that video was taken in Portland, Goose Hollow neighborhood. My friend actually lives across the street from where it was shot…

the streets are at a significant grade there. Only way you’d be able to make it uphill on that ice is with chains on a 4×4.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:09:59 +0000

I’m lucky I live on a flat portion of the 230 and my stop is a safe place to stop – it was fun though since I’m in a wheelchair (my neighbor, who knows I take the bus all the time, cleared the bus stop for me)

By: John Jensen

John Jensen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:38:39 +0000

Anecdotally, were buses more packed today or what? My 8 had to pass up a stop (unfortunately). The bus after that comes 30 minutes later :(

By: max

max — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:21:24 +0000

out of gas or broken down 520 drivers should get $10,000 tickets

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:01:28 +0000

I wonder what is up with the idiots who get out on 520 and have their cars break down. When I commuted to the Eastside there was at least one moron every week who’d screw up the commute. I used to think we should re-name the bridge “stalled car mid-span”.

I have some empathy for those with shitty cars they can’t afford to maintain properly, but WTF is up with the $50,000 SUVs running out of gas on the bridge?

The good news is the tow trucks have cut down on the traffic delays from breakdowns.

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:29:09 +0000

Yeah, my friend who takes the Streetcar was definitely on-time this morning.

Me? Almost an hour late. So much for buses being flexible and reliable!

By: Brian Bundridge

Brian Bundridge — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:34:47 +0000

Sounder had to deal with a few frozen switches in Tacoma but other than that, they have been running all on-time when arriving into Seattle. I heard the same for the Seattle Streetcar, a lot of arching!

Yeah Tri-Met did learn the hard way and have relief operators come in at night and run the entire line. The new Type 4′s have been doing excellent in the snow and ice so far from what I have heard.

By: EvergreenRailfan

EvergreenRailfan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:10:10 +0000

I wonder if BC has the same problem with bad weather drivers, they are well advanced in their evolving rapid transit system. Not sure how SkyTrain handles the snow, but the buses have a problem. I saw some video podcasts of Global BC(wished King 5 had some) news, showing some jack-knifed articulated buses caught in the snow.

TriMet learned the hard way that it is best to run a few MAX Trains all night then pull them in during a snow event. The trains running keeps the track clear of snow and ice off the overhead wires. It also has a bonus with the street trackage in Downtown, those lanes are clear.

By: MarkS

MarkS — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:00:47 +0000

Don’t be like these guys?

“These guys” sliding down the hill in $50k yuppie assault vehicles (probably yakking away on their cell phones) ARE Seattle area drivers personified. People are addicted to their cars here – thanks, in large part to an immature mass transit system – but they still haven’t figured out how to drive ‘em.

That sound of crunching metal and plastic…that’s the sound of your insurance rates going up. Gridlock is about the only thing keeping Seattle drivers from harming themselves and others. How many peds have been killed by self-centered Seattle drivers in the past two years? Isn’t it up to 23 now?

My bus was almost an hour late recently because some idiot ran out of gas on 520. How long will it take for the government to start cracking down on drivers who can’t figure out the ABC’s of driving? A sprinkle of rain here causes mass panic, and reduces highway merging speeds to 35 mph. Amazing what snow and gravity can do to the shallow end of the driving gene pool.

By: EvergreenRailfan

EvergreenRailfan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:56:39 +0000

Wonder how SOUNDER will handle the snow? I mean other than the alerts put out. I know the locomotives have a small plow on the front, but if the off-chance it turns out to be several feet, wonder if BNSF has a Jordan Spreader around? Now, I doubt we will be seeing storm events like this more frequently, but as SOUNDER expands North, might be worth adding some of the improvements the UTA has done to keep TRAX running. The areas north of Seattle tend to get more snow than Seattle.

By: in other blogs : would you like us to tweet | Seattle Metblogs

in other blogs : would you like us to tweet | Seattle Metblogs — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:07:38 +0000

[...] The buses are breaking out the chains tonight. [seattletransitblog] [...]

By: Seattle Transit Blog» News Roundup

Seattle Transit Blog» News Roundup — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:48:15 +0000

[...] many buses, such as the 71 (scroll to the bottom), have a predefined snow reroute. Update: Andrew posted more information about all this. If you have to drive tomorrow, please do be careful. Eric @ 5:16 [...]