You keep accusing me of a one-to-one mapping of 50 trips to 34 trips, and that’s just not what I’m saying at all. The 50 died for lots of reasons, not just because of the 34 but because Southeast Seattleites prioritized other things.

Your specific point at the start of this was that there should be higher peak frequency on the 39. I’ll agree that the 34 isn’t enough hours to get the 39 to 15 minute headways over the entire peak period, but they are peak trips that serve those neighborhoods and go to the same place.

Let’s do the math. The 34 has a total of 6 runs: three one-way runs in AM during a 2-hr period and three in PM during a 2-hr period.

By contrast, the #50 with 15 minute headways during same periods would have been 32 runs: 4 one-way runs hour, two ways, for two hours = 16 in AM peak, and same in PM peak.

If the #50 had been on only 1/2 headways (and I agree they dangled the 15 min headways like a carrot without a promise), that would have been 16 runs.

So tell me again what your point is? How did 6 runs displace 16 runs of roughly equal length? And the decision to bust the only E-W route serving Columbia City station to 45 minute headways was caused by what?

I have to hand them that in that the card is beefy and rigid. The TransLink cards in the Bay Area and my Octopus card both are much more flimsy.

And whether or not they’ve instructed the driver to take an ORCA card as a “flash pass,” most drivers have no problem with that. As with Metro in general, 95% of the bus operators are bloody awesome. The 10/12 doesn’t have a bad driver on the route, but it’s an inconveniently long walk hauling 50 pounds of books. 522, 64, 372, 65, 22…none of these drivers have any issues with ORCA or in general. My 64 drivers are the cream of the transit employee crop every time. I know, and i assume from the link that you provide, that you get that driving the 3/4 has to be living hell mostly because of much of the populace on the route. I get that. What i don’t get is what leads a driver to shake me down for seven quarters after i’ve paid 72 bucks for a damn pass.

I cannot risk dealing with an issue with a driver on a bus that takes me to school; if someone’s gonna threaten to call the cops, i’m going to cough up $1.75, thank you very much. This is especially annoying after the same driver has let 10 people slide without paying four stops beforehand. It is handy to know it can’t be deliberately set not to work, but it doesn’t excuse the behavior.

I am quite, quite aware that there are some issues involving the sort of imposition that ORCA is on drivers. It’s another damn thing to worry about, with more buttons, along with the bike racks, lift your handset for an important message yet again, transfer fraud, and violent bus crazies and people who can quite afford fare trying to slide on it. My mom was a Tacoma Transit driver back in the day, and i’m not numb to the plight of the bus driver. The problem is that taking these issues out on passengers trying to use it…that’s not really all that mature or progressive.

Keep the cards free, otherwise there’s a fundamental disincentive (however small us independently wealthy folks see it is) to use ORCA over alternatives.

There is no way that a driver can set the ORCA system to “Out of Service”. That is something that happens spontaneously (and unpredictably) – the ORCA reader simply disconnects itself from the master system for no known reason while the bus is in service. One minute it’s working – the next there is a series of beeps and the reader shows “out of service”.

The only remedy that the driver has to put the reader back in service is to reboot the entire system – which involves pulling the bus over, going OUTSIDE the bus, opening the battery compartment and throwing the battery disconnect switch for 30 seconds. There is no reset button for the on-board radio/ORCA inside the bus, or any reset that can be activated while the bus is in motion with the driver in their seat.

Metro has instructed drivers to accept ORCA cards as “flash passes” (just show them to the driver and your ride is guaranteed) during these times, and even though your e-purse will not be debited (it’s a free ride for you at that point), those paying cash still have to pay.

I hope this helps fill the gap in your information that has led you to conclude that drivers are for some bizarre reason deliberatlely disabling ORCA for the sheer enteratainment value.

The biggest problems i see, is lack of competent 24/7 telephone support, and the lack of TVMs at all major transit facilites/points to purchase/upgrade the media at. It will be a bumpy road but a road well traveled.

And I’ve noticed a significant improvement in bus ORCA readers the past few months. They’re almost always set right and accept the card. But I can see that the 3/4 might be an exception. When I lived near Harborview I often took the 27 because it avoids the James Street slowness and annoying situations.

It’s specifically the drivers that go up First Hill. I realize these routes are hell, but we still have 3/4 drivers that can’t competently operate the wheelchair lift, folks. There’s some serious malignancy there.

It was every 30 minutes, and they were “considering” 15 minutes in the peak. Moreover, your original complaint was not having 15 minute headways in the peak. Seward Park has that, they just don’t go to the same station because of the reaction to the 34.

I didn’t say Metro killed the 50 for the 34, I said that’s why you don’t have more peak trips. Metro killed the 50 because of complaints from the VA and because it would have been a whole lot more service hours.