Transit Disruption
Transit Disruption

This weekend’s weather forecast is for rain, and the weekend transit and traffic forecast is for a giant mess in Seattle. Three big events — the Rock’n’Roll Marathon, Capitol Hill Pride Festival, and Seattle Pride Parade — will compound ongoing construction reroutes in the city. If the weather were better, this would be the perfect weekend to shun motorized transportation and bike and walk everywhere.

The official Metro Commute blog has a good summary of the events, times, impact and links to further information; but note that SDOT has cancelled the scheduled reconstruction of the 85th & Aurora intersection. Metro’s authoritative Transit Alerts page correctly reflects this cancellation. If you plan to use transit virtually anywhere in the city this weekend, the Transit Alerts for your route(s) are required reading. Plan ahead and expect delays.

13 Replies to “Extensive Transit Disruptions in Seattle this Weekend”

  2. RapidRide C, D, and E will all be severely disrupted on weekends such as this in future years.

    “Rail on wheels!”
    — Peter Rogoff, FTA

    1. If RR were done in “rapid streetrcar” style the disruptions would be even worse…

      Or maybe the city wouldn’t permit events to disrupt its surface rail lines. “Rail on wheels” is indeed a bad joke (in so many ways!), but the fact that the city permits events to disrupt its major bus routes is a political choice. So… I think I’ll send a letter to the city council. It should protect the routes of the RR lines as strongly as it would protect the routes of the SLUS, the FHS, or Link in the Rainier Valley.

    2. Al has a point. If the city/county is serious about RapidRide, they should protect its corridors. Otherwise all that money spent on street improvements along the routes will be wasted.

      1. This is one of those situations where, in the real world, mode choice and political will are inextricable.

        The mythical “flexibility” of buses makes them all too easy to justify disrupting.

        Protecting RapidRide “corridors” is not going to happen, because the buses don’t have corridors. They have streets and thoroughfares and highways without segregation or distinction. You cannot close Aurora for a marathon while keeping the buses running any more than you could run a marathon over it in regular traffic.

        Now compare/contrast to the Boston Mararthon:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxA4XlxRY88

        Real BRT, of course, could work like this. Close the general lanes for special-event usage, but keep the safely adjacent BRT running.

        RapidRide is not BRT.

      2. In the past the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon course had a section along the Link guideway at Rainier Beach. Trains were still running, but the 8 was banished on a reroute.

      3. I notice that the bus in Boston the video was shot from seemed to be moving slower than the runners it was taking pictures of – hardly BRT to me.

      4. Marathon runners run at a steady 10-13 mph (that’s faster than your average speed on Metro), and the train seems to be running 40-50% slower than usual because the spectators are inches from its median right-of-way.

        Nevertheless, it is running unobstructed.

  6. This weekend, my plan has been to forsake transit and use my bike instead. So far, no disruptions to speak of.

Comments are closed.