We might get another inch tomorrow morning, adding to a far from normal weekend for transit:

So, Metro Transit will continue to have buses on snow routes on Thanksgiving and reminds bus riders that it will operate with a Sunday schedule for the holiday. As snow and ice melt and roadways return to normal, Metro will begin to ease back into regular operations.

The long holiday weekend includes already-scheduled changes for Metro service:

• Thursday, Nov. 25, Metro Transit buses operate on Sunday schedule;

• Friday, Nov. 26 there is a reduced weekday schedule which features more service than weekends but less than a regular weekday. This is done during holiday periods when Metro traditionally sees 20-40 percent lower ridership;

• There are many holiday events in Seattle this weekend that will cause temporary reroutes and delays for bus service including the Ballard Turkey Trot on Thursday, the downtown Macy’s Holiday Parade on Friday morning, the Friday evening Westlake Tree Lighting ceremony, and the Seattle Marathon on Sunday and related events on Saturday.

7 Replies to “More Snow, Snow Routes Tomorrow”

  1. I know Martin’s not responsible for the title screenof the YouTube video (“Cars and icy hills don’t mix!”)… but enough is enough.

    The world is full of steep, cold, snowy place.

    One plow, and one truck full of salt or some other chemical agent to artificially lower the freezing point of the road, and none of that would’ve happened!

    “Think of the environment! Won’t somebody please think of the environment!?”

    You know what’s worse for the environment than a little salt a few times a year? Tossing needlessly crashed vehicles into a junkyard, then building and shipping replacements. Not to mention shutting down an entire city’s public transit.

    Yeesh, Seattle!

    1. This isn’t 2008. The city was spraying salt brine on the streets Sunday night, and Monday night they were spreading rock salt. I was out in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and saw it with my own eyes. And it’s not just the city that got overwhelmed – I-5 was a clusterf*ck, and that’s WSDOT’s responsibility.

      People like to compare us to Chicago, for some strange reason. Do you know what the City of Chicago has budgeted for snow and ice removal each year? $17.3 million. You know what Seattle has budgeted for SDOT’s “Emergency Response?” $650,000. It’s worth noting that ALL of Chicago’s budget for snow and ice removal is paid for with gas tax revenue, whereas in Seattle gas taxes pay for only a tiny portion of SDOT’s budget.

      The other thing Chicago has is enough of Illinois’ population to overcome the conservative leanings of the rest of the state. But here in Washington, Seattle doesn’t have nearly the numbers to overcome these Tim Eyman-sponsored “Screw Government” initiatives. So we end up having to make draconian cuts to balance the city budget, and then people whine when it takes them one whole day to clear the streets after a snowstorm.

      1. Apply sales tax to gasoline as is done in California. Seattle then gets to keep a portion of the sales tax generated in the city. Snow/ice removal paid for!

        Of course the watch salesman to Frat-boys will stop that.

      2. I’m sure that in chicago and the midwest they also have much more equipment than we do for handing this situation. Mabye seattle should invest in those heating elements that you can embed in concrete to keep the snow/ice melted. Amtrak is employing the system on their new station platforms so they dont have to have snow removal on them in the winter.

      3. (sigh) [Z], you’ve (inadvertently?) pointed out one big reason rail handles snow much better than roads. To de-ice a switch you need to heat what – a square foot of surface area at the most? Imagine the energy and capital cost required to do that on for Seattle’s arterials, let alone our surrounding sprawled arterials, highways, and freeways.

        Quick calculation:
        1524 lane miles of arterials in Seattle, let’s assume 12′ wide each.
        Total arterial area: 96,560,000 sf
        Snow melt systems are generally designed at about 150 BTU/hr per sf.
        Total power required: 1.44 x 10^10 Btu/hr
        The average fossil fuel power plant produces around 300 MW, or about 1 x 10^9 BTU/hr.

        So we’ll need about 14 new coal or oil fueled power plants just to melt Seattle’s arterial roads… (though you could get away with only a few large nuclear plants, they’re slow to start up)

        You sure you can’t just stay home a day or two?

  2. Chicago is also flat. And has many miles of elevated rail and subway.

    “One plow, one truck full of salt…..and none (sorry, my keyboard can’t do bold- dark letters definitely clinch the argument) of that would have happened!” Are you sure you might not have needed two plows and trucks? Two bits says Tim Eyman could have done it with a pickup and a five pound bag.

    Would somebody with practical knowledge and experience of snow removal in urban and suburban areas of comparable size to the Seattle area please write address this question? I doubt that many metropolitan areas in these latitudes with terrain and population similar to ours let their population become completely and helplessly dependent on private cars for transportation.

    Mark Dublin

Comments are closed.