Jeff, talk to your training office, you are incorrect about when Metro coaches are in service, especially when operating in Seattle. Flagging down a coach will only work if the coach is going to be traveling somewhere where there are stops, often on deadheads buses are routed away from congested areas and there may not be a stop until it reaches its destination.

I disagree – and I don’t recall suggesting that buses should pull over where there are no bus zones, or traveliing to an area that has none. I was speaking only to buses travelling to or from bases – ALL of which have at least one zone before enterig base – unless I guess you get off just outside of base. I know of no bus that ends its run at a location that has ZERO stops between it’s end terminal and its base. From “The Book” (Metro’s driver ‘handbook’) and confirmed by the Training office:

Passing up customers

“When operating regular service or enroute to or from a base, customers in bus zones must not be passed except in the following circumstances:

A. When you are operating late, can see your follower and are operating with the same stop options (local/express) as your follower, you may pass up every other stopping poit where persons are waiting to board (providing there are no requests to get off the coach).

B. When a coach is overloaded and cannot be accomodated (driver must call coordinator to report overload)

C. More regarding passenger transport during overloads

D. When the coach is disabled

E. When transferring coaches between bases

F. When operating “limited stops” and express trips in areas where stops are not required

G. When directed by a supervisor

Actually “to terminal” buses are not in service – see what I wrote. Note that this is different than buses signed “to base” (not a terminal). Most buses signed “to terminal” or “to base” are at a point in their run where they have no “time points” – or scheduled stops – on their run, so any stops made add to the estimated time they’re given to get back to base. “To terminal” signed buses are usually either at the beginning of their run and have a limited amount of time to pull out of base and get to their starting point; or are buses whose followers have caught up to them who – as I do – prefer to provide waiting passengers with signage discouraging them from attempting to board so that they can discharge passengers and pass stops in order to catch up to their schedules (as there’s a nearly empty bus behind them of the same route to pick up waiting passengers).

Aside from a few schoolkids around the early afternoon rush – the few times I’ve driven the 14 my bus has been dead empty back and forth between Mt. Baker station and Rainier/St Helens.

IMO, having the 14 go down to Mt. Baker Station at all is a complete wash, particularly as there are stops for the 14 less than 2 blocks from Mt. Baker transit center anyway, and always have been. I believe it would have made more sense to extend the #4 down McLellan, providing a ready connection between the Link and the Central Area and First Hill/Broadway. I’m not getting the change to the 14 at all.

The Summit end remains regularly used.

A lot of southbound 43/44/49 trips do serve lower Broadway at the end of their run in the evenings, which is convenient if you’re just going to Capitol Hill or live on First Hill. It partly makes up for the infrequency of the 9 and the 60.

One reason the 14 has fewer riders than it could is it’s scheduled immediately after the 43. That’s a 2 minute wait if the 14 is on time, or a 10-15 minute wait if it’s late as it usually is. So people think, “Do I take the 43 and walk a little more, but I’ll still be home earlier than if the 14 is late?” If the 14 were scheduled 15 minutes after the 43, it would get those riders.

The 27 is a really small bus. It has like four rows of seats.

Having alternative signage is a good idea. I will say that coaches heading back to base are supposed to stop at zones inside the CBD/RFA that they would normally stop at on 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th unless they’re headed “To Terminal”. While coaches are still considered “in service” when signed to go back to base, convetion is to stop only when someone “flags you down”, i.e. indicates that they’re waiting for ANY bus headed a certain direction rather than a specific route.

As a trolley driver, I regularly end my run somewhere where I wind up signing my bus “To Atlantic Base” or “To Atlantic Base via S. Jackson”. If I’m going through downtown, I generally have passengers on board who need off, so stop at all south bound yellow stops anyway, and if nobody is on board I stop and announce “International District via 3rd Avenue” or some such to see if there’s any takers.

Outside the CBD – such as on Elliot where you are or up on Capital hill where the 10 and 12 often head home after rush hour signed “To Atlantic Base via Broadway”, I stop only for folks who flag me down – because must folks at stops are waiting for the in-service 10 or 12 wanting to go dowtown. Passengers “in the know” will stick their arm out and either ask if I’m headed to Little Saigon or somewhere up the way.

The alternative – stopping at every stop that has passengers standing at it as they look confused at my “To (base)” sign means I would for the most part be stopping just to answer people’s questions, then moving on when my answer turned out to not be what they needed.

Still and all – this is a good concern to raise to the Powers that Be, and I hope they’re paying attention.

Longer term I think both the Broad Street Sounder station (with South Sounder trains originating/terminating there rather than King Street) and a revived waterfront line with an extension to pier 91 would help a lot too. -

With up to 30 waiting, I have personally counted 14 EMPTY coaches passing the group. Yes, we are ripe for private shuttle, (During I-5 construction, we actually did that) BUT with 3 routes traveling by, Why should we need to hire out to get what should be there anyway? Is is not Amgen.

The 24 and 33 are often right on each other, which in turn creates long gaps in service. Inbound, it starts as another in the south end — One problem in the south end and all service is impacted.

I understand Deadhead, but if you are heading back to the shop, why not have a sign that says base, stops ONLY at Westlake, Pike and King Street on Second. The added pick ups would encourge even more to bus. Right now, the transfer issue is the biggest hurdle — Riders are not sure they will make the train on time.

As to the suggestion to hike up the hill 3 – 5 blocks at the end of your shift… yes, there is service there, but in poor weather in business attire and shoes is not the same as 3 blocks level in town… Many are older workers, and there is some ADA issues as well.

In short… with 3 lines supposidly offering service right across the street, to not make more efficient use of the empty coaches remains an issue.

The thing is, the City of Seattle is paying for those extra route 3 trips, so I don’t think cutting them is going to help Metro.

I’ve used it a few times – once when I was taking a bus back to base that had a major hydraulic fluid leak in its wheelchair lift, and a couple of other times when my bus was backed up and I had my follower, and even 2nd follower right behind me. Rather than simply “blanking” my signs (when I’ve done this in similar circumstances I had customers flagging me down to tell me my sign was broken, or waiting customers as “which route are you?”), I have set it to “out of service” so that I could drop off passengers I had on board while not confusing passengers I was passing up (who were picked up by the same route bus right behind me).

When a bus with blank signs, or your routed signage up passes by passengers, people think you’re passing them because you don’t see them, or because you’re incompetent, or that you’re just some kind of jerk. “Out of Service” lets people know that they shouldn’t expect the bus to stop and pick them up.

To my knowledge, we [drivers] aren’t supposed to use “Out of Service”. If the coordinator wants us to move somewhere and not pick up passengers they typically have us blank our signs – not place it “Out of Service”.

I think some of the stepped up service created as “feeder” routes aren’t really doing any feeding.

To me, your situation sounds perfect for a chartered shuttle or the like. Property developers shouldn’t be encouraged to build huge business parks in areas not served or underserved by transit and assume that Metro will start running service just for them. It would make more sense for the developer or the companies which occupy the business park to subsidize a Metro-operated route (a la the Boeing buses) or run private shuttles (a la the MS Connector) to shuttle workers from work to a transit hub.

(from Southwest Ohio Metro: http://www.sorta.com/faqs.html#6 )
Why do I sometimes see empty Metro buses?
Metro’s system is designed to meet peak demand, just like other transportation systems including highways and roads. For example, the vehicle traffic on I-75 during rush hour is much heavier than it is at 2 a.m.

Yet, the highway has to be built to accommodate the rush-hour requirement. It’s the same for Metro. Metro adjusts the number of buses on the road depending on capacity needed. This means that there are a lot more buses operating during weekday rush hours than in the evenings or on weekends. In fact, on Sundays Metro operates less than 25% of the buses used during rush hour on a weekday.

Sometimes buses are empty because they are coming from the garage to begin their work. Other times buses may be empty after passengers have exited at the primary destination such as downtown and the bus is just beginning the other leg of its trip.
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I kind of like the comparison to roads – sometimes roads are empty, or nearly so.

Does that mean we should elimiate the roads?

What makes you think that deadheading coaches is inefficient?