There has been much discussion over the Route 14 Tail east of 31st. Many people want the tail deleted, but some people depend on it. Metro has also wanted to delete Route 27 for a long time, but Leschi residents always vote against it. Route 27 is rather redundant to Route 14, but its Leschi tail serves Leschi residents who do not want to walk up the hill to Route 14.
In this post I propose a DART route to replace Route 27 and the Route 14 tail. This route will start at Columbia City station. It will take Alaska, Rainier, and Genesee to Genesee/38th, then travel on 38th and Hunter Blvd to McClellan. It will then take Lake Park Dr and Lakeside Ave to E Alder St. Then it will take Alder, Lake Dell, Yesler, and 23rd to the 3/4 Loop near Garfield High School. There could possibly be a quick deviation to Jackson in order to provide connectivity to Route 14. This DART route should run 7 days a week. Here is a map of it: http://bit.ly/2nmoJTW
To replace the lost service along Yesler Ave with Route 27, Route 14 can be increased to 15-minute frequency. It can then be through-routed with Route 70, and Route 1 can layover at the current Route 70 layover on Main St, or be through-routed with some other route.
This should be put into service when the Yesler wire for routes 3 and 4 is completed. When this first comes into service, Route 27 should be reduced to peak-only rather than be deleted completely so that commuters can make a smoother transition to the restructure.
It’s an interesting proposal. But, I do believe your proposed change makes things worse, not better. Existing users of the 27 would take Yesler to downtown (which is most of the 27’s ridership, not the Leschi tail), would have to walk further to Jackson, and have a slower bus once they get there. And, the amount of time to get between Leschi and downtown would more than double, as you would be forced to either transfer to the 3 or 4 at Cherry or backtrack to Columbia City Station, replacing what’s currently a straight shot down Yesler on a single bus, all while adding very minimal coverage in Mt. Baker/Columbia City, some of which is already covered on the 50, anyway.
If enough hours exist to extend the 27 to Columbia City, without taking away any existing service, fine. Otherwise, best to either just delete the 14 tail or do nothing. Worst case, nobody served by the 14’s tail is more than 3/4 mile walk away from Mt. Baker Station. Even walking all the way to Lake Washington from Mt. Baker Station is only 15-20 minutes at the most – much faster than backtracking to Columbia City Station and waiting for what would be a not-very-frequent bus.
The 14’s tail is one or two stops.
How much ridership would this route attract? I don’t think this route would induce much new ridership and most of the riders that currently exist along the 27 and 14 tails would likely be lost with the changes. The forced transfers at Columbia City Station (or Rainier/Genesee) and 23rd & Jackson create an enormous time penalty for most riders.
Your map also estimates a driving time of 20 minutes for the route which would likely mean a bus or van would need close to 30 minutes if there’s any ridership along the way. That means at least 3 vehicles would be needed to provide 30 minute headways on this route which is likely equivalent to the existing 27’s service hours allocation.
Given the choice of continuing the status quo versus this plan, I would prefer to keep the status quo. I don’t see enough gains in productivity or efficiency to justify these changes.
Don’t want to get too tecchy here, but “DART” means “Dial A Ride Transit”, not “the bus is a Van”. This is fixed route transit, not “DART”.
Actually, DART stands for Demand Area Response Transit. The route that I suggested above is just the main route, but DART service means that the bus can deviate for a bit when needed.
OK, a new version of the mnemonic. It’s a better description of how it works; thank you. So what is the boundary of the service area?
This would be the first flexible-route service in Seattle that I know of. DART is usually deployed in the lowest-density suburbs. It be a way to deal with the Lake Washington shore, parts of West Seattle, the outer part of northwest and northeast Seattle. So I wonder why it was never done. But Metro is now moving away from DART to “alternative service” in several places, which is an umbrella term for non-Metro operated vans, rideshare vouchers, and other unspecified things. That then gets into my wish for last-mile taxis within limited areas, or as I think asdf2 wished last-mile rideshare.
In the specific case of Mt. Baker, I don’t think we need last-mile anything. The streets near Lake Washington Blvd. are great for walking, the #7 exists for those for whom the walk to Link is too far, and the number of people “suffering” from the lack of service there is not that great, and they all have cars, anyway. I’ve taken Link to Mt. Baker Station and walked to Lake Washington from there many times, and if a coverage route existed, I don’t think I use it because I’m there to walk, and walking would be faster, anyway, than waiting for it.
For the once-a-year event when the person living at https://goo.gl/maps/EcnygnBA4PP2 needs to go to the airport with luggage, that person can pay for his own Uber ride to the nearest Link Station, without taxpayer assistance, for about 2% the cost of a typical plane ticket.
When I’m more interested in last-mile coverage-oriented bus service is cases where the distances are larger (e.g. route 50 to Seward Park, about 2 miles from Columbia City Station), the walkability of the neighborhood is lacking (e.g. pretty much all of Kent/Renton), reliable Uber/Lyft service does not exist (e.g. North Bend), or the population that would benefit from the bus route is much larger (e.g. route 47 in Capitol Hill).
Metro had the idea to use DART service for Laurelhurst when it cut the 25. That seemed like a good idea. I’m not sure why it was shelved.
As Anthony notes, the 37 is needed now as mitigation for the atrocious service on the 3/4 until the Yesler trolley wire project occurs.
Metro’s 2025 plan ugrades the 14 to Frequent and deletes the tail. It extends the 27 to Mt Baker Station via McClellen Street. The 2040 plan adds to this by rerouting the 50 north on 38th/Hunter to Mt Baker Station (deleting the Seward Park/Othello segment, which is assigned to a Rainier Beach – Mt Baker route).
This all gives two alternatives for Mt Rainier Drive. Metro’s connects it to Mt Baker Station, Columbia City, WSJ, and the Admiral District. Anthony’s connects it to Columbia City, the lakeshore, Yesler east of 23rd, and Garfield HS. Where do Mt Bakerites want to go? I wish we knew that. I think they’d prefer to go to Mt Baker Station and Columbia City (emerging centers of the valley). West Seattle is a nice extra but it’s long, maybe I’ll just take Link when the West Seattle line opens. As for going north, while it’s nice that the lakeshore route goes by “People Like Us” and has a nice view, it’s in the middle of nowhere and terminates in the middle of nowhere, so who would go that way?