Monday, May 30 is Memorial Day, which is the traditional final day of Northwest Folklife Festival, at the Seattle Center, wherein you will likely find hired petitioners gathering signatures for lots of state ballot initiatives, including possibly one or two initiatives designed to kick the legs out from under transit funding. If someone has a stack of several initiatives they are asking you to sign, feel free to politely ask lots of questions, but please don’t sign and give them a signature they can copy onto the other initiatives. (They are paid by the signature.)
But back to the matter at hand: Transit agencies traditionally reduce service on Memorial Day, even while large crowds throng festivals like Folklife. Some rural transit agencies shut down for the day. So, plan ahead, and always have a designated driver if you are going to partake and don’t have transit to get you home. And then, drivers, hang up and drive.
The big improvement in Memorial Day service, year over year, is in Snohomish County, where Community Transit will be providing service the day before and the day of Memorial Day for the first time in several years. And, of course, you can now take various bus routes to UW Station, take Link to Westlake Station, and walk, bikeshare, ride the bus, or take the monorail (which still does not accept ORCA, otherwise, I would just be saying take the monorail) to the Seattle Center.
Any companies offering free or reduced-fare rides on Memorial Day weekend are encouraged to mention your service in the Comments.
The full list of Sunday and Memorial Day service levels for transit agencies around the region is below the fold.
| Agency / Service | Day Before (Sunday) | Memorial Day (Monday) |
|---|---|---|
| Bikeshare (Seattle) | any time | any time |
| Clallam Transit | No Service | No Service |
| Community Transit | Sunday | Sunday |
| Everett Transit | Sunday | Sunday |
| Greys Harbor Transit | Sunday | No Service |
| Island Transit | No Service | No Service |
| Intercity Transit | Sunday | Sunday |
| Jefferson Transit | No Service | No Service |
| King County Metro | Sunday | Sunday |
| King County Water Taxis | Sunday | Sunday West Seattle, No Service Vashon |
| Kitsap Transit | No Service | No Service |
| Link Light Rail | Sunday | Sunday |
| Mason Transit | No Service | No Service |
| Monorail | 8:30 AM – 11 PM | 7:30 AM – 11 PM |
| Pierce Transit | Sunday | Sunday |
| Seattle Streetcars | Sunday | Sunday |
| Skagit Transit | Sunday | No Service |
| Sound Transit Express | Sunday | Sunday |
| Sounder | Mariners | No Service |
| Tacoma Link | Sunday | Sunday |
| Twin Transit | No Service | No Service |
| Washington State Ferries | Sunday | Weekday – Check route |
| Whatcom Transit | Sunday | No Service |
I’m kind of surprised agencies out there reduce to Sunday (or no service at all). In my part of Virginia (Hampton Roads Transit, Norfolk, VA), we run a Saturday schedule.
I do not understand the logic of if there’s a big event (such as Folk Life) that they would reduce service when logic says that they should increase (or at least service that services Folk Life.)
City services should be more responsive to the events happening in the city and actual demand for those services.
The same thing applies to parking around big events at the Seattle Center. Parking is free on Sunday whether there’s an event or not so early arrivals get free parking all day even though the private lots in the area are charging event pricing. Generally, I understand Sundays are free because there are no enforcement officers working, which doesn’t make a lot of sense anyway, but there is plenty of police presence at big events. They certainly enforce no parking zones around the Seattle Center all weekend and could certainly enforce meters.
I live across from Seattle Center and currently my whole block is hooded & has no parking signs. I’m not sure how far around the center it goes, but it seems like they’re enforcing at least some no parking this year. I’m not sure if it’s for setup or the event, though.
That’s all well and good about parking but what about Metro service? If there’s a big demand why is there not more rather than less service. Doesn’t the extra revenue collected when there are more people offset the cost of extra runs? I’m not saying that they should always increase for event days but it makes sense to increase service on days with events that would attract lots of riders rather than have full buses having to pass up potential riders because the buses are overfull.
By and large metro is a money losing operation subsidized by taxpayer dollars. I’m pro transit and I think that more buses are good. It’s just the operational constraints they have to live with. Service between downtown and Seattle center is frequent and accessible on many routes even on Sundays. . 1, 2, 8, 24, 33, and rapid ride d line. I’m sure I missed some too.
I have always wondered why all holidays are treated the same instead of based on actual need. There are the typical stay-at-home holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, when little or no service may be needed, and then there are the go-out-and-do-stuff holidays where a regular weekday schedule, or at least a Saturday one, may make more sense.
Yup, and then some holidays are night-intensive holidays, viz 4th of July and New Years Eve; also of note (but maybe a second tier) are festival Sundays (Pride, Comic Con, etc.) during which ordinary Sunday capacity is inadequate.
Holiday service levels have little to do with demand, it’s more about the cost of delivering service.
Metro employees get paid double on holidays (they get paid for the hours they work and for the holiday), so that means that service costs Metro roughly twice as much on the holiday.
If employees get straight pay for the service, then the marginal cost of providing service is the same as any other day. The holiday pay going to all employees is a sunk cost even if the agency were shut down.
Thanks mostly to Seattle voter-approved Transit Prop. 1, many routes will run every 15 minutes or better all weekend for the first Memorial Day in Metro’s history. Many have new 15 minute weekday/Saturday night service, and some even have 15 minute Sunday/Holiday service. Worth mentioning.
Correction: many have 15 minute Sunday.Holiday service and some even have 15 minute Sunday/Holiday NIGHT service.
Anybody have a current list of anti-transit initiative numbers floating around?