Seatless in Seattle

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Any regular rider of Metro will be familiar with scenes like this, this and this. We are all use to it and I’m actually pretty suspired how well everyone deals with it. It is especially useful when the bus driver lets people off the back instead of making them squeeze down the aisle.

This problem is especially bad on the latest new flyer 60 foot articulated buses. The aisle in the front of the bus is very narrow. It is very hard and involves a good amount of maneuvering to get past someone in the aisle. Not only that but the articulated section no longer has anywhere to hold on to. You basically have to make a mad dash from the front to the back sections and hope the bus doesn’t turn.

Regardless of which type of Metro bus you are on this is almost always a problem. So why not take out seats? I’m guessing the major reason is that metro and transit agencies in general assume that people want to sit. I know I do but what about all of those people that are standing in the picture above. I’m sure they have come to expect it. I know I do if I’m getting onto a 7X.

Metro should take a proactive role in improving the capacity and ridership experience by better accommodating these riders. In this case making it more comfortable for riders to stand, i.e. making more room for them and giving them more places to hold on to.

Take a look at the pictures below that I took on my trip over the summer. This is what all of the buses in Spain look like. Notice all of the seating in the back? Parents with strollers board in the middle door and have plenty of room to maneuver. See the lean too seats on the left? They are very helpful as well. Circulation and standing room is prioritized in the front while seating capacity is prioritized in the back.

The next two pictures are from Venice. The buses still fill up but people standing are so much more comfortable. As you can see people are three wide and if someone needs to get off it isn’t hard for them to get to the door. All of the seats in the front are one wide and either face forward or backwards. Sideways seats like Metro’s aren’t better because you still only have room to stand one wide, and if you’re sitting down someone’s bag is usually right in your face. Not fun.

The next two are in a suburb of Munich. This was on the way back from a concentration camp and most of the people on the bus were American. See all the hand rails, especially in the articulated portion. Near all of the doors there is no seats which allows a huge number of people to stand there. The articulated portion of the bus also has lean too seats which I personally think are a much better use of that space than the mickey mouse seats that metro uses (if four people are sitting down good luck getting past them without tripping).

The last two are from the Paris Metro system, but I think it shows just how flexible you can get if you want to improve crush capacity while still providing more seating. These seats are located next to every door on the 8 line. When the train starts to get really crowded people sitting down stand up, freeing up a good amount of space as well as improving their comfort. They have something to lean against as well as not having bags in their face.

I’m essentially saying Metro should try out some of these ideas. They work in the rest of the world so there is no reason it can’t work here. How about removing some seats from of 7X buses or chronically overloaded buses. Another big concern of my is the RapidRide buses. If Metro wants these buses to be attractive and “rail like” it seriously needs to consider strategically removing seats so that riders can quickly get in and out. It will not be a good solution for all routes but it is just one thing that Metro can do to improve the rider experience on the cheap.