Another day of terrible transportation news. The roads are icy, the airport is just sorting out things, and transit is not very reliable:
- Metro Service Status – Many routes suspended. Most others have re-routes. Expect tremendous delays throughout the system.
- Sound Transit Weather Alerts – Some routes canceled and nearly all re-routed. Sounder on a holiday schedule. Expect delays.
- Pierce Transit Snow Re-routes – All routes re-routed. Expect delays.
- Community Transit Rider Alerts – Many re-routes. Expect delays.
- Seattle Streetcar – Out of service due to frozen switches.
- Seattle City Streets – Filled with sledders.
- Seattle DOT and WashDOT are Twittering the latest.
The snow was cool until it made me miss Christmas with my family…
Lessons Learned, anyone?
1. SDOT, WSDOT should coordinate which routes are primary for snow emergengy response, AND public transportation usage; then focus on keeping the lifeline routes open, and supplied with frequent non-artic buses to keep corridors in moving.
2. SDOT should use salt on the lifeline corridors. The sound is salt water, and a little more salt won’t make any difference. Note, the state uses salt and the freeways are clear. SDOT uses none, and the streets look like downtown Bosnia, only frozen.
3. Buses need chains on surface streets, but as soon as they hit the freeways, drivers exceed the 35 mph max for chain use, break them, and then are stuck until a service truck can arrive(which is hours away).
4. Frozen switches. Wouldn’t frequent ‘exercising’ of the switch keep them from clogging with snow and ice? Most of the mainlines are automatic, aren’t they?
If it’s a time like this (a special situation if I’ve ever seen it), SDOT should absolutely be salting the primary and secondary corridors. Nothing keeps the roads clear of snow and ice like salt, and frankly A) the amount of commerce being lost due to impassable roads for both busses and personal cars and B) the public safety issue of icy streets 3 days after a snowstorm means that someone at SDOT should get kicked square in the nuts for not salting the roads.
I agree with all of this, especially the kicking in the nuts part. I’d add that certain SDOT managers need to be fired over this, including the head of SDOT. Their policies have left the streets in terrible condition which has crippled Metro and their actions are simply unacceptable.
Note to everyone living on a hill: be very careful this morning. I tried out three sets of stairs on the Queen Anne hill. The first one (at the view park) was so slick with ice my feet slipped right from under me. I had a good hold of the rail and pulled myself up, but it could have been ugly. The next two sets were equally icy. It turns out the Counterbalance was the best way down, with divots all over the place from ski boots (it was covered in skiers last night).
I found downtown to be the most treacherous area– especially around Belltown.
Matt – for the terribly snow challenged – would you say that getting off QA is worse than Friday or better – still trying to decide. I was lucky on Fri afternoon – the #1 bus was taking people home all the way to McGraw – a bus was ferrying people down the top of QA from Galer to McGraw ! I don’t know if they would be doing that again today?
I have no idea if they’re ferrying people down from the top, but it’s worth a call. As for walking off the hill, I’d say it’s much worse than Friday. The stairs were slippery Friday morning but at least I was able to walk down them. If you’re in good shape and have good shoes, then it’s not bad walking down the counterbalance. I passed a man with leather-soled boots having a hard time not sliding, and although I think he made it down I wouldn’t recommend it in anything but good rubber-soled shoes.
yeah caution is essential – fri some guy laughed at me for baby steps on qa ave and then promptly fell half a block down from Highland ! will head over to Met Market and scope out upper QA – Thank you Matt ! Much Appreciated !
Was in downtown Seattle last night seeing a show – 4th and 5th Avenues were appalling – they are not the best at the best of times with lumpy ice and snow mix, they were even worse than normal and made driving and walking very hazardous. I would have taken the bus of course but with a sceptical wife and daughter, there was little confidence between them that we would get home afterwards.
Personally, I think Metro and ST have performed below par for this storm – I smell the scent of trying to cover for a budget crisis in Metro at least by cancelling or reducing service. We need to have a debate I think on the core elements of mass transportation. Predictability in some ways is even more important than reliability. If ST schedules 8 trains for non-holiday days, then it should run 8 trains and not decide arbitrarily to reduce service to a holiday schedule. Prospective travellers need to feel that if they should up for a scheduled train that it will be there or thereabouts and not see cancellations popping up everywhere. The more we can eliminate the need for prospective users to not have to consult their schedules or on-line sites for updates, the more successful we will be at convincing people to move to mass transit.
As far as Amtrak is concerned, the BNSF owes them several for the recent delays – this is all the last thing that Amtrak needs at this point. Because there are comparatively few trains on the network, switches remain frozen through unuse whereas more frequent service would remove much of this problem.
OK, that starts the debate…..Oh, and Seattle needs more snow plows! 27 is too few – it can always loan them out to WSDOT during lean years.
Tim
I can’t imagine the budget has anything to do with how Metro decides what service to put out in the morning. All the drivers are getting their normal shift pay, regardless, so that’s not a savings. The only savings would be fuel, and maintenance cost to retrieve stuck buses, and fix the ones that have chain/collision damage – also not a huge amount considering the overal budget.
I think is has more to do with the ‘conservative’ policy of putting service on the street, knowing the artics get stuck, surface streets are a mess, and maintenance resources are staffed for fair weather levels, not snow storms.
OK, I am cynical and not a little frustrated by how badly we have done overall as a community. I am sensing future budget cuts that will make coping with future disasters that much worse.
We do need better preparation and coping with prolonged weather-related issues like we have been experiencing.
Tim
Intel on the South Lake Union Streetcar: It was shut down the Seattle Streetcar because a device known as a “spring Switch” was not equipped with heaters, even though it was STRONGLY suggested by the startup manager during the planning stages, the City of Seattle did not want to spend the money. The spring switch broke because of impacted snow and ice.
I don’t think the poor performance by Metro is budget-related; it’s simply poor planning. Very poor planning.
Metro seems to have the institutional short-term memory of a chicken – about 6 seconds. Every storm we have, they “learn” the same lessons over and over again:
(1) Communication is key and needs to be improved. I’ve heard that at least a half dozen times in the past 3-4 years. What’s noticeably changed?
(2) Articulated buses don’t do well in ice and snow. Same as (1). The “learning” process would be to communicate to customers ahead of time that under a snow plan, artics will be pulled and service reduced but at least 40-footers will show up somewhat regularly, and people, drivers and equipment won’t be left stranded for the maintenance people to have to go retrieve.
(3) Snowstorms are “rare” but they do happen. Have an emergency plan decision tree with more than just a trunk… also, be prepared for the urban/rural flooding that will happen afterwards as it always does. Mostly the same roads and locations flood and are impassable. Announce the reroutes now…
(4) In each neighborhood, establish “guaranteed” or “primary” stops that will be served in all types of weather. While buses end up rerouted all over the place, they generally tend to pass through a number of key points in the system that are still on-route. If a stop is not signed as a “primary” stop, the closest one should be listed. This way, passengers can self-lead themselves to a spot where bus service is possible, or Metro staff can at least post updates semi-regularly.
(5) Accountability. The loudest sound during every storm is the hand-slapping-forehead sound from Metro management. Late into this storm they “learned” that maybe the top-brass, who haven’t taken a bus in 20 years and know little about the geography of various routes in the system, shouldn’t be making the decisions – rather those decisions should be made by front-line supervisors, etc. Drive accountability up the Metro management chain for their management failures, rather than blaming those on the ground for unavoidable/collateral operations failures.
The way to improve Metro service in any adverse scenario lies not at the extremes, but instead towards the middle. Buying 50 more snowplows and other equipment is just not reasonable; neither is throwing up our hands every time the weather turns and saying “well, this doesn’t happen that often, so we’re screwed”. It’s time to push for a little more professionalism…
They are trying to keep the situation flexible, but that doesn’t work for riders.
Flexibility = chaos and confusion.
Bellevue riders: Could someone tell me how the 230 is fairing? I need to head out for groceries. I’m near NE 8th St & 166th Ave NE and will not venture out if I don’t have a bus. Here’s the fun part: I’m in a manual wheelchair
Jessica, I just saw the route 230 on Busview at the corner of NE 8th street and 172nd, so it is going out that way. But, since you are in a wheelchair, the only thing I would be concerned about is that the snow is not built-up so high on the sidewalk (from snow plows, etc.) that the bus lift can’t be deployed. If you can bring someone with you to make sure that the bus stop is lift accessible in terms of snow, you should do that. Also, is the 166th street stop level? If it’s on an incline, the drive may not stop. Make sure whatever bus stop you wait at is level. Best of luck!
I was able to safely catch my bus and yeah my stop is level (the downslope starts at 170th and points east). Thanks to a neighbor who knows I catch the bus all the time and cleared the stop on both sides of the street for me :)
I sympathize with the cabin fever everyone is starting to suffer from. But the fact is that American workers are about the most productive in the world, and we work longer hours than any other industrialized nation. Getting stuck in the snow for a few days is not going to kill us.
Saving up a little for this kind of situation is a small price to pay for the savings inherent in just taking it slow for a few days now. The just-in-time culture has become a monster devouring our civilization, and for no reason at all when it comes to stuff like canned beans that can be delivered months in advance.
And if anyone is going to stay mobile, let’s start with the people who work in hospitals, homeless shelters, and clearing the streets. Some years the nursing home I visit sends a chained-up van around to pick up employees. This kind of program should be supported and general.
And, sure, I’d like to just scatter some salt to clear my drive. That would sure beat shoveling. That, and every hardware store in the region stocked with salt and pesticides, plus $22, will get you a pound of salmon- from Alaska. There used to be salmon in Puget Sound, but you don’t see much for sale now.
Cheer up. A fair number of readers will have moved somewhere else before the next big storm. Or, if not, at least they’ll be stocked with candles and food- right?
I got cabin fever so bad, that I go to the supermarket just to buy water. I’ve got enough to last out the next 20 storms now.
Thanks Sam
@Jessica: I rode the 230 on Sun. night and from NE 24th to NE 8th Sts., it was using the published adverse weather route (i.e., it stayed on 164th Ave. NE).
The doesn’t specifically say the 230 is using the adverse weather route today, but I would bet it is, especially since the page still mentions another detour that I saw Sun. night (using Bel-Red instead of NE 8th west of 148th Ave.).
The bus I took was about 15 min. early (or, more likely, 45 min. late). Sadly, there’s no easy way to predict its arrival, as tools like One Bus Away can’t adjust for adverse weather routes.
Conditions today are better though . . . I would expect the 230 to be more or less on time, but expect to catch it at 164th Ave.
That’s what I figured (and that’s where I caught it when I headed out today).
To the rider who cleared the stop of snowplow drift so the driver could operate the lift, a big thank-you. To my neighbor who cleared the stops in front of my house: thank-you as well
If it’s any help to y’all, it was Sunny and 68 in Jacksonville today. No snow delays expected, 70’s tomorrow.
We do have our moments though, short as they might be, when switch heaters wouldn’t be a bad idea. Oh I know, “what does a Florida guy know about cold?”
I worked in Portland, and the Andes for several years, so don’t be shocked when I tell you I’ve seen +8 degrees HERE in JAX! But not this year … so far so good.
BOB
I’ve been avoiding making the trip from Kent to Lynnwood for several days, and for good reason.
The roads were so icy this morning that I didn’t even feel comfortable crossing the street to get a commuter bus, so I took a bus to Kent Station (so far relatively no problem)
I get there and immediately head for the commuter bay No more commuters as the 162 is cancelled.
I head for Sounder. Oh yeah, holiday schedule. No train for two hours.
564? Nope cancelled.
FINE! I’LL TAKE THE 150! I waited 50 minutes for one to show. With so few Seattle options, and three 150s missed, the line to get on the bus was insane.
The 150 took twice as long as normal to get to Seattle, and of course we lost our chains on the freeway.
Downtown was very slick walking and after waiting for almost an hour a 511 came along. It took almost a half an hour to get through downtown before hitting the freeway.
Luckily, someone picked me up at LTC or who knows what I would’ve run into on local CT routes.
Total trip time: Almost five hours. Normally that trip takes around two hours. I managed to keep from falling on my face until later in the day when walking back to the car. Not leaving this house for a few days.
I can’t emphasize enough how tough it is to walk out there. I didn’t have any issues all week, but today was VERY VERY TOUGH.
Just to echo this again, Metro really needs better communication. Route 240 was running pretty normally on reroute over the weekend, and apparently yesterday too. This evening there were a bunch of people at South Bellevue P&R trying to transfer from the 550/560 to the 240, but the 240 never showed up. Turns out it’s now listed on Metro’s website as temporarily suspended.
If Metro stops running a route that has earlier been running in adverse weather, they should at least let other bus drivers know that the route doesn’t exist for the time being, so the people waiting can at least take a bus halfway to their destination. I shouldn’t have to check Metro’s website multiple times a day to see if my bus home still exists or not.
Yeah the same thing happened to me. The bus was moved to the suspended list without any real warning.
It’s been my experience that Metro does not learn from their adverse weather poor performance. How they reacted in 1990 is how they are reacting today, and how they are reacting today is how they will react during out next big snow storm. They have this attitude of, when the snow comes, we’re going to do what we’ve always done, and things are going to quickly fall apart, but there’s nothing we can do about it.
Agree on that communication issue. My 230 was sometimes on the Adverse route sometimes not.
As I was wheeling back to my house the other day, I saw someone standing at my home bus stop and told them to head to 164th (where I was dropped off on the adverse route) only to find the next bus passing my house down NE 8th.