Comments on: Opinion: Metro’s “Holiday” Service Was Opaque

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:55:25 +0000

I don’t have a real job either (stupid economy), but I do know a LOT of office workers and such who actually do work on the 31st, although most of them are able to leave early that day. I’d like to see a modified schedule that limited trips during the day on NYE (but didn’t cut routes entirely) and added trips later in the evening and overnight for party-goers. That 3am bus from Auburn to Kent has saved my life more than a few times; New Year’s being one of them.

By: Tim Whittome

Tim Whittome — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:34:06 +0000

Am with you there now!

TIm

By: Tim Whittome

Tim Whittome — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:32:48 +0000

Well I think that Metro has to be predictable in its scheduling or as predictable as it can be.

I haven’t been riding a lot lately as I live in a part of Issaquah that means it isn’t a lot of sense for me to use two buses from the Issaquah P&R to get to Tukwila Boeing buildings, one of which is the much disliked 174 bus. So I basically missed all the bus problems during snowpocalypse but I do have imagination and it was running in vivid circles picturing all the snarlups.

Tim

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:34 +0000

I believe Bob Ferguson (KC Council) takes the bus every day. I can’t speak to the others.

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:11:13 +0000

Seriously, I can deal with my bus disappearing for a week.

But where were the rider alerts? A simple sticky note would have worked. Anything!

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:10:52 +0000

Oh, and I don’t have a real job, either.

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:10:31 +0000

Actually, I feel New Year’s Eve is more of a holiday than New Year’s Day. Sure people are out late on NYE and so have too much of a hangover on NYD to work, but still. (I’d be a teetotaler if I were 21 yet, so…)

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:08:47 +0000

I was unaware the WSDOT site crashed. I know ST and community transit had problems and the metro site got pretty slow for a bit on 12/19.

Yes metro did a much better job posting info quickly during the Sunday 1/4 storm.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:02:37 +0000

Just as important as having metro execs use transit would be to have the county council and executive rely on transit.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:57:57 +0000

I really have no idea how many drivers and maintenance workers ride transit. I know a fair number do and some don’t because their shifts start or end at times when transit use wouldn’t be practical. As I said above I don’t think it is as critical to providing good transit service as ensuring a majority of the planning and management staff use transit on a daily basis.

From talking to drivers it would seem a common complaint is many in management or planning don’t use transit and have no real idea what is reasonable to expect in a given corridor during a given time of day. I suspect much of this is the usual bitching about management you see in any workplace, however there would seem to be a kernel of truth to it along with the complaint that management doesn’t listen to what the drivers or maintenance workers try to tell them.

By: John Jensen

John Jensen — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:07:51 +0000

Yeah, but does Steve Ballmer?

By: Seattle City Council Puts Metro GM in Hot Seat - Seattle Transit Blog

Seattle City Council Puts Metro GM in Hot Seat - Seattle Transit Blog — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:05:54 +0000

[...] posted a post-mortem of the Snowpocolypse yesterday. Along with my post earlier this morning about Metro’s reduced service last week, our bus system is taking a lot of heat recently. Well deserved, [...]

By: Matt the Engineer

Matt the Engineer — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:05:05 +0000

Hey look, Seattlest says there’s still problems regarding Metro, communications, and bus routing. Imagine that.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:49:22 +0000

As a Microsoft employee, we proudly eat our own dogfood (my desktop at home, company laptop, and personal laptop all run the Windows 7 beta for example)

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:44:51 +0000

Now that I would love to see. And it has to be a *REGULARLY SCHEDULED* bus. Not an out of service bus.

By: John Jensen

John Jensen — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:24:35 +0000

On the other hand, I never saw Metro’s site crash but did see the WSDOT site crash. I would like to note that the light snowfall Sunday night saw quite the rapid response on Metro’s website, with a lot of clear information about reroutes.

By: John Jensen

John Jensen — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:22:47 +0000

Chris, do you have statistics on how many drivers or maintenance workers ride transit?

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:08:08 +0000

FWIW, ST’s CEO, Joni Earl, usually takes the Sounder to and from work.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:34:22 +0000

Metro’s basically out of money. I feel for them when they try to save some money, but it oculd have been communicated a lot bette.r

By: max

max — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:32:10 +0000

If MEtro has to cut service some time, why not a low-work week?