Month: November 2012

Metro is looking to save money on rural routes in the Snoqalmie Valley:

Residents who want to improve public transportation in the Snoqualmie Valley or have ideas about how Metro might better serve their communities are invited to attend two upcoming meetings. The meetings, which will include an opportunity to talk one-on-one with Metro staff, will help shape future transportation services in the valley. People are also invited to provide feedback about their travel needs via an online survey. The deadline for survey comments is Nov. 4.

[Meeting times and locations at end of post.]

The Snoqualmie Valley is the first of several rural areas where Metro is shaping future bus service as part of the County’s newly adopted Transit Alternative Services Plan.  The plan establishes a framework for how fixed-route bus service – along with potential alternatives to this costly service – might look like in less populated areas of the county as Metro looks for ways to get the most out of every available transit dollar. In addition to operating regularly scheduled bus service, Metro provides alternative services such as community vans, dial-a-ride transit, and ridesharing options. Other potential alternatives might include products such as community-access transportation, flexible transit services or shared taxis.

Fixed routes in the scope of this restructure include:

• 209, an all-day local bus serving Issaquah, Fall City, Snoqualmie and North Bend.
• 215, an I-90 commuter express serving Issaquah, Snoqualmie Ridge, Snoqualmie and North Bend.
• 224, a local bus serving Redmond, Duvall, Carnation and Fall City.
• 232, a bidirectional, peak express bus connecting Bellevue, Overlake, Redmond and Duvall.
• 311, an I-405 commuter express primarily serving Woodinville, but with some trips continuing to Duvall.

Judging by the schedules for these routes, the provided level of service is already being done with the smallest possible number of coaches, so any savings, of necessity, must come either from cuts or conversion to a cheaper form of service. None of these services attracts, or could ever attract, a particularly large number  of riders in the Snoqualmie Valley, so the goal in this area is necessarily coverage and connectivity, not high ridership; and Metro’s press release suggests they’re looking to save money, rather than make budget-neutral changes.

With that in mind, there are a few ideas which stand out based on looking at the map, after the jump.

Continue reading “Metro Looking for Savings in Snoqualmie Valley”

Yesterday, Metro announced a change to the outbound downtown Seattle routing of Routes 306, 308, 312 and ST 522, and the inbound and outbound routing of the 301. These routes serve Woodinville and other areas of northern King County. From the announcement:

Beginning Nov. 5, Metro will shift five bus routes off of Olive Way and onto Pike Street, and move a Fourth Avenue bus stop one block north. The revised routes are 301, 306, 308, 312 and Sound Transit Express 522 – routes that carry several hundred riders on 21 trips during the busiest hour of the evening commute. Maps of the revised routes are posted online for route 301, routes 306, 308 and 312, and ST Express 522. […]

The change comes after a month of observations and rider feedback that identified lengthy travel times on Olive Way during the evening commute. On Sept. 29, these five bus routes were revised to travel via Fourth Avenue and Olive Way as part of major changes in the bus network in downtown Seattle. However traffic in the area – buses, general traffic and pedestrians – proved too congested. […]

To make the route revision work, Metro also will close the bus stop on Fourth Avenue between Union and Pike streets on Nov. 5. All buses that have been stopping at the stop between Union and Pike streets will serve the stop one block north on Fourth Avenue between Pike and Pine streets. This move will help buses and other traffic better make a right turn on Pike Street and head straight to the Interstate 5 express lanes. Other bus routes that continue north on Fourth Avenue also should see improved travel times.

The moved bus stop affects riders on:

• Metro routes 111, 114, 210, 212, 214, 215 and 217
• Community Transit routes 402, 405, 410, 412, 413, 415, 416, 417, 421, 422, 424, 425 and 435
• Sound Transit Express routes 510, 511, 512, 513, 554, 590, 592, 594 and 595

These four routes have been tweaked a lot lately, and riders may find useful to know more about why, so as to understand that Metro isn’t just fiddling around with these routes for fun.

The 301 was, until last month, in the Downtown Transit Tunnel, along with other Shoreline commuter routes like the 316. It was moved from the tunnel to the surface due to reduced bus capacity in the tunnel, caused by the elimination of Pay as You Leave rules when the Ride Free Area ended. The 306, 308, 312 and 522 previously operated on a unique downtown pattern, operating southbound on 2nd Ave, and northbound on 3rd Ave, and then to and from the freeway express ramp via Pike and Union; most other suburban service operated on 2nd and 4th Avenues and accessed the freeway via the Stewart and Olive couplet.

More after the jump. Continue reading “Metro Tweaks North King-Seattle Routes”

• State auditor looks at Sound Transit; finds financial management sound, wants reform of the Citizen Oversight Panel and ridership models.
• Metro holding public meetings about “alternative service delivery” in the Snoqualmie Valley. STB will discuss this later in the week.
• Community Transit will be fully outfitted with GPS in the next six months.
• Seattle Council delays Eastlake streetcar, adds to spending on Madison BRT, the Transit Master Plan’s priority bus corridors.
• Bellevue Transit Master Plan process spits out a massive report on the TMP forum held on September 18th. There’s a ton of information and with luck we’ll have a longer post.
• Tom Rasmussen fights the lonely, good fight for carsharing; stymied by the standard horror that someone, somewhere might not be able to park for free in city right-of-way, as well as the race card. Bruce Harrell is today’s villain.
• Metro operator Casey Hughes is a hero.
• Land use committee approves a Northgate upzone; full Council votes on Nov. 5th.
• Seattle’s assessment of the bicycling environment is now online.
• Feds and PSRC chip in to make Aloha Streetcar extension shovel-ready.
• Opposition to Apodments builds on Capitol Hill.
• Yonah Freemark gets in the weeds of BRT implementation.
• Seattle looking for volunteers to staff its Design Review Boards.  My thoughts about applying for the DRB are here.
• SR 520 getting cheaper, but new pontoons are cracked.
• The Mountain Rail division is for sale.
• TransLink contemplates expanding service to communities south of the Fraser.

This is an open thread.

Last week, I wrote two in-depth posts about two of the more interesting proposals in Sound Transit’s 2013 Draft Service Implementation Plan, the I-5 north corridor restructure, and the Westwood Village 560 restructure. In this post, I’ll wrap up the last change proposed in the DSIP, and share some thoughts from Metro about potential Sounder-related restructures. But before I do, you should know that today, at Union Station, Sound Transit hosts the last open house on this first draft of the SIP, followed by a formal public hearing. The open house is from 10:00 to 11:30, and the hearing from 12:30 to 1:00.

The biggest proposed change I haven’t yet discussed is the introduction of peak-only Route 567, an Eastside “Super Express”, running from Kent Station to Overlake Transit Center, with only one stop, at Bellevue Transit Center. This idea seems like a straightforward and sensible response to ST’s ridership data on this corridor, which shows strong demand between Kent Station and those two Eastside employment centers, but weaker demand for other stops and during off-peak hours. These trips would be scheduled to connect with Sounder trips, effectively turning Sounder’s schedule into a pulse for Kent Station. This enhances mobility by giving commuters on connecting feeder services convenient and fast connectivity to more destinations.

Speaking of feeder service, I discussed with ST and Metro staff the possibility of squeezing more efficiency out of the South King bus network by better leveraging Sounder for trips to downtown Seattle. Metro currently operates three commuter express routes in Auburn and Kent which, in part, compete for riders with Sounder — 152, 158 and 159. The 158 and 159 serve loops in East Hill and Timberlane, then serve Kent Station and Kent-Des Moines P&R before heading to downtown Seattle via I-5. The obvious thing to do with the 158 and 159 is truncate the service at Kent Station, although the trick will be to figure out what to do about KDM P&R, which is far to the west, away from Kent Station by I-5.

Meanwhile,  the 152 begins at Auburn Station, then heads northwest to Star Lake P&R (which is served by numerous other routes) and then Seattle on I-5. It seems to me the thing to do here is axe the I-5 segment, then split the local route into two new routes: one on 272nd St, running between Star Lake P&R and Kent Station, and one on West Valley Highway, running from Auburn Station to Kent Station.

More after the jump. Continue reading “ST 2013 DSIP Wrap Up: Eastside and South King”