King County Metro has been and continues to be shutting down an unprecedentedly long list of routes while the virus sets its own long-term calendar, with new cases worldwide topping 300K daily.
And yet, like a bad zombie TV series, my silly bus stop in Georgetown that I rarely see anyone else use, persists. Yes, I’m talking about the loop-de-loop in the middle of route 107 that adds several minutes to other riders’ trips, almost certainly costing more ridership than it adds. Some of the business establishments that stop benefits are shuttered.
This expensive pimple of a bus stop is one of several throughout the Metro and ST system map that turn a relatively straight route into a milk run providing time-consuming off-arterial curbside service, some at facilities that are closed for the time being.
- The C Line and route 128 divert over to 44th Ave SW from California Ave SW to serve the port-a-potty and de facto transfer center at the Alaska Junction. These anti-transit block-circling exercises designed to get buses out of the way of cars really don’t belong in a city. Usually, they don’t even have a public facility.
- The F Line loops into Tukwila International Boulevard Station to save riders being dropped off a minute for getting to the bus bays and what is left of light rail service, while riders being picked up there would save time just waiting at an on-street stop on Southcenter Blvd, as was allowed during recent construction, demonstrating it can be done safely. The route serves Tukwila Sounder Station, even when no Sounder or Amtrak trains are coming, including on weekends and holidays. The route takes circuitous paths through the Renton Transit Center, which does not have bus bays directly on Logan Ave S.
- Route 8 diverts to 23rd Ave S between S Jackson St and S Yesler Way.
- Route 50‘s diversion to SODO Station has become a huge diversion to S Holgate St. Riders wanting to get to the VA inner loop from Link can use Columbia City Station, and let the route become the cross-town express it was originally meant to be. I suspect VA patients from West Seattle would appreciate that streamlining.
- Route 60 has a twisty diversion at the Arrowheads Garden bus stop, also known as Olsen-Meyer Park & Ride. The park & ride no longer functions as such, since route 113 has been suspended, and begs to be turned into additional mid-rise senior housing with first floor community or business space. The bus stop ideally would be on the street rather than in the middle of the facility, but the grade of the hill makes that a significant challenge. The bus stop could easily be moved so that the eastbound buses don’t have to do a gratuitous loop-de-loop, and could go reasonably straight through the lot, saving residents about half a football field of walking to the stop in the middle of the car sewer.
- Route 128 has a long loop on 16th Ave SW to serve South Seattle College. The college is offering some in-person classes, but remains mostly online. The college is also served by route 125.
- Route 132 scoliates through Boulevard Park to serve the Highline Medical Center Specialty Campus, on the way to Burien Transit Center. I’m not really wishing for the route to stop serving the HMC SC, but rather to make Tukwila International Boulevard Station its southern terminus. If I want to go to Burien from South Park, I take route 60 and transfer to route 120, as route 132 shows up randomly southbound.
- New route 165 will still loop into the Highline College Campus, like soon-to-be-eliminated route 166 does.
- Routes 221, 226, 245, and 271 do a loop around Bellevue College on the way to Eastgate Park & Ride. All classes and services are remote or online for the coming quarter.
- Routes 250 and 255 are cursed with having to serve the South Kirkland Park & Ride. The project, which features multi-story housing behind a big surface parking lot, is a monument to how to build transit-ruining development.
- Routes 345 and 346 add several minutes to most of their riders’ trips by overshooting Northgate Transit Center to serve North Seattle College, before crossing I-5 at N 92nd St and backtracking. The college has some services and classes on campus this fall, but very limited. One possible compromise is to have one of these two routes cross I-5 at Northgate Way. The Northgate Station pedestrian bridge to the far corner of the parking lot that surrounds and dominates the campus, and kills its walkshed, is just a year away. Housing for thousands could be built to replace all that surface parking, and put campus expansions on the lower floors.
- Route 347 diverts over to 5th Ave NE from 15th Ave NE between NE 145th St and NE 175th St. Route 348 cross over route 347 in that space.
This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but some of the best examples. Nor is it to suggest that the marginal service hours to serve these out-of-the-way stops are more than a rounding error in Metro’s budget. That is to say, if you are using the existence of small amounts of inefficiency like this in Metro as a reason not to pass an aid package at the city, county, state, or federal level, it is probably because you just don’t want to fund public transit.
And let us not forget that all of these are examples of how virtually all development in the Seattle area fails the most basic rule of transit-oriented development: be on the way. Our zoning usually encourages, and often mandates these failures.
Brent, do you or anybody else know where we could get hold of a route map for the 107 when the route began at Convention Place Station and ended somewhere up in the Renton Highlands?
It not only included a stretch of Rainier Avenue between Rainier Beach and Renton that should’ve long since been trolleywired and served with electric “artics”, but taught me to drive a Breda, faults-and-all but a pleasure on that run.
Everything from pre-rail DSTT to side streets east of Rainier Beach, through Renton and up into the Renton Highlands, would be an unbeatable standard Instruction route for KCM’s every single new driver. Excellent “refresher” as well.
From experience as both lifetime passenger and former full-time driver, I can’t overstress the importance of the “FEEL” of both a route and the vehicle that runs it. The lack of which makes unthinking automation so dangerous. Every human driver’s DNA has been through a lot more Releases than Windows’ pathetic 29 years can ever imagine let alone match.
Mark Dublin
Did you try a Public Disclosure Request to KDOT/Metro?
It went Second/Fourth through downtown, used the busway to Spokane, got off at Albro, turned left to Swift and south to Myrtle, over to Rainier, and south on Rainier all the way to downtown Renton. It was sort of a “Blue Streak” for south Rainier.
It used Fourth Avenue before the busway was opened.
Yep, Tom Terrific is right. It originally alternated with the then 106, which used the same route through Rainier/Henderson before heading up Skyway and back down the other side to Renton. Eventually, Metro increased frequency to half-hourly on the 106 and truncated the 107, at the same time sending it up through Lakeridge rather than along Rainier the whole way. It wasn’t until Link opened and the 42 was canceled that the 107 started serving Rainier View, and at first that was as a stub from Rainier Beach. Today’s routing, where Lakeridge riders go through Rainier View, came with the restructure that sent the 106 up MLK rather than through Georgetown.
Thank you for writing this post, as nonsensical route diversions have always been one of my pet peeves regarding transit. The make transit needlessly slow, are agonizing to people getting off right after the diversion, and make the whole network harder to comprehend.
Sometimes, I think a lot of the problem comes from transit planners who try too hard to orient routes around specific destinations, rather than simply thinking in terms of running buses up and down a particular street. Often, the destinations in question are types that have more to do with places where transit planners imagine people are going than where people actually going.
With that said, I’d like to add a few more zombie route diversions to the list:
Route 245 (Houghton P&R): At 116th Ave., just before I-405, the westbound route 245 diverts into Houghton P&R, even though there are no other bus routes to connect to. In practice, this ends up a diversion *away* from the apartments and condos on the north side of NE 70th St.
Route 345 (Northwest Hospital): The 345 does an obnoxious loop in and out of Northwest Hospital that every passenger headed between Northgate and Shoreline has to sit through. With the upcoming opening of Northgate Link Station, the number of passengers affected by this is bound to increase, yet the detour remains. The diversion saves people heading to the hospital about 0.2 miles of walking on flat terrain with good sidewalks, which is good enough for the vast majority of riders.
Note: If Metro wanted to, they could implement a compromise routing 345, which takes Aurora Ave. and 115th St. to Meridian Ave., rather than going by Haller Lake, which would get the bus slightly closer to the hospital, while making the trip for thru-riders even faster, by avoiding some of the turns to get around Haller Lake.
Route 50 (VA Hospital): Again, the on-street stop on Columbian Way is a short, flat walk away and not work delaying all other riders for a trip through the hospital parking lot. Those who want to get closer and ride the 36 and go in through the back door.
Route 239 (Totem Lake Transit Center): This is an unnecessary around-the-block loop, only to serve a bus stop a mere 100 feet away from the corner of 120th Ave. and 128th St., where the bus could have simply stopped on the street.
The list goes on and on.
Even though a bunch of zombie diversions remain, I would like to take the opportunity to give kudos to Metro for eliminating at least a few obnoxious ones over the past 10 years. Here are some off the top of my head that I can think of:
1) Route 60 (VA Hospital): Route 60 used to do an around-the-block detour into the VA Hospital parking lot, just like route 50. It doesn’t anymore.
2) Route 253 (Overlake P&R): If you think the B-line’s detour to Overlake Village is bad, you should check out route 253, which came before it, as it took an additional loop into Overlake P&R to serve the front door of one apartment building. Route 249 continues to serve this detour (or did until COVID suspended it), but since nobody rides it, it doesn’t matter as much.
3) Campus Parkway (route 25): Until the 2016 U-link restructure, route 25 took the slowest route from Lauralhurst to Montlake imaginable. Not only did it take the 45th St. viaduct to 15th Ave., but it also deviated off 15th Ave. in an around-the-block loop-de-loop at campus parkway to spare riders from having to walk one (very short) block to transfer to the 71/72/73.
4) Mt. Baker Transit Center (route 106): For unfathomable reasons, route 106 used to leave Rainier Ave. to serve the Mt. Baker Transit Center bus bays. Not only did it delay everyone on the bus, but the deviation into the transit center was also bad even for those transferring, by forcing southbound riders to cross Rainier Ave. in order to reach Link. Eventually, Metro removed the detour and the 106 now stays on the street like the 7 does.
5) Lake Meridian P&R (route 168): My memory on this is a bit hazy, but I recall route 168 used to deviate off the street into Lake Meridian P&R. I believe today’s South King service restructure finally fixes that.
Oh, wow, I forgot about the 25… That was actually my favorite way to get downtown from work (UW Health Sciences). Not because it was fast but because of the awesome views from Melrose. In addition to the diversion at Campus Parkway, IIRC it went west on Pacific only to cross at Montlake to go back east on Boyer. Honestly, if it were a fast bus, people would probably be sick from dizziness.
The 25 was my very favorite route to drive as a Metro driver, because the tight turns and narrow streets kept me awake and engaged. But it never had much ridership (the heaviest ridership was counter-peak, between UW and Children’s) and it was a very poor way to get places.
Thanks Brent. See service guideline eight regarding directness or deviation. The efficacy of a deviation depends on the ridership attracted on it and the time cost and passenger load delayed. So, it depends. The analysis may be applied to any stop.
Your lead item is solid. The route 107 Georgetown deviation was part of the overtly political “save the 42” SE Seattle change in fall 2016.
Some weight should be given to limited mobility riders at some markets such as the VAMC.
The BC deviation attracts many boardings when the campus is open. The plentiful and cheap parking may be a larger issue. Colleges are great transit markets. Re NSC, the Northgate Way option is very congested (guideline eight). Re routes 347 and 348, there are limited hours and both routes serve both North City and the library; Ridgecrest is a real place.
Routes 50, 128, 60, and 132 might be considered as part of the West Seattle crisis and H line?
There may be other examples on routes 183, 331, 342, and 347. Historically, deviations were cut to the Northgate park and ride, the Northgate mall, the Northshore park and ride. Consider DART itself. Should Everett Link deviate to Boeing?
Typo: deviation is in guideline five.
Unproductive deviations are frustrating. One other factor is the nauseating experience of multiple turns. While not happening on each of these routes, many times riders are forced to experience 360 degrees more of turning. That’s particularly nauseating if a rider is standing or in a side-facing seat. Along with forced additional travel time, these nauseating reactions help to discourage bus riding.
It’s not a reaction that some riders have or perhaps realize. Still, I’ve talked to adults from all walks of life who find motion sickness from excessive bus turning physically impactful.
Doesn’t anybody care that Moovit maps are unreadable, or does that make them work better for smart- phones? Ok, got it, the present Route 107 still goes into downtown Renton via 87th Avenue S and Taylor. Rainier Avenue’s former lakeside scenic distance still waiting to be wired, but no rush about it. Those electric double artics, BNBB, rule is ironclad: “Better Not Be Breda.”
One thing I am wondering. Is it KCM standard practice, or still awaiting a judge’s order, that every contemplated route change be mapped out with an actual driver using a bus of the type contemplated for service? For anything involving humans and machinery, virtuality is not quality’s friend.
Second Amendment or route-change, shooter or passenger, whatever surveys suggest and policy says, the gun goes off and the passenger gets off in the real world.
Mark Dublin
The Route 8 jog serms to be a legacy jog to serve the 23rd/ Jackson commercial district. The targeted land use has been replaced by a taller residential building that has yet to have commercial occupants at street level. I’m not sure how much commercial activity will return. Before Link, the southern end was also not as critical of a connection so the route was more of a local-serving route rather than a route to feed light rail connections.
Without this jog, the only non-residential destinations directly served by Route 8 east of 15th Ave in Capitol Hill are retail businesses near MBTC, a few near major crossing streets like Union and Madison.
When East Link opens, the Judkins Park connection at 23rd will become more important. The opening will give Metro incentive to rethink the routes in this area as the entire southern part of the CD will want Judkins Park connectivity. 2023 seems to be the strategic time to revisit the Route 8 path to adjust for this in addition to adjust for the changed land uses in the CD.
I believe that the Metro Connects vision already has incorporated some adjustments to this route.
If eliminating diversions into a P&R created a 2 minute transfer penalty for transferring riders, would everyone be ok with that?
Yes
I said 2 minutes, because that’s about the amount of time it will take to walk from Bellevue Station to the Bellevue TC.
Again, yes. Two minutes for three people transferring beats two minutes for everyone else on the bus. There are rare case where transferring riders outnumber thru-riders, but they’re very rare. Just like how at a traffic light, far more drivers go straight than turn, the vast majority of the time.
Route 107 segment north of Rainier Beach appears to need a general rethinking. Is there a clear justification for the jog?
The Georgetown jog and duplicative routing of Route 60 north of there are but one of several issues. Both Routes 50 and 107 are strung-out long “milk run” routes of seemingly unrelated segments that don’t have many direct neighborhood destinations in SE Seattle . These routes appear to be there mainly for connectivity to Link. At some point, a new SE Seattle restructuring should probably be on the table again.
The overlapping segment of routes 60 and 107 enable a higher-frequency corridor between S Albro Pl and Beacon Hill Station. The split makes sense because passenger load on each route tends to dwindle going south from the station.
The jog is in response to a Georgetown shop owner who said he might have an employee or two who might use the stop. I can’t find that store on the web to know whether it is still in business.
This expensive pimple of a bus stop is one of several throughout the Metro and ST system map that turn a relatively straight route into a milk run providing time-consuming off-arterial curbside service, some at facilities that are closed for the time being.
Hear, hear! And kudos for the writing. But not every “detour” is a zit. Take the 345. It has a couple side trips. The first is the one you mentioned, and the second is the side trip to Four Freedoms Home. The problem is, these account for over 1/4 of all ridership. Thus if you wanted to save money, you would end at the Four Freedoms Home, and head back to Northgate. These places aren’t a detour — they are the only reason there is a bus route in the first place.
Unlike some of these pimples, it would be a long walk for riders if the bus took a more straightforward path. The general rule of thumb is a quarter mile — after that you lost riders. But you also lose ridership when the bus is slow, or infrequent (which is caused by the bus being slow). So it really comes down to how many people have to walk out of their way and how far. In the case of the 245, I think a route using Northgate Way would be too far for too many. But in the case of most of these, a faster, straighter route is a good idea.
I’m fine with a 345 that serves Northwest Hospital with a stop on 115th (replacing the meandering around Haller Lake). I’m just not fine with having the bus crawl 5 mph through the hospital parking lot. This is the kind of crappy feeder service that leaves people clamoring for park and ride lots.
Similarly, at Eastgate, they did a restructure about 10 years ago where the Seattle express buses didn’t loop through the neighborhood anymore, requiring a connection. What they failed to mention in the fine print, however, the local bus network doesn’t let you in or out of Eastgate without sitting through a Bellevue College detour (except for route 240). So, they were in essence not just asking people to transfer, but also sit through a detour twice a day, 5 days/week. No wonder everybody insisted on driving and parking instead.
In the meantime, how much time does the Bellevue College detour actually save Bellevue College students? The walk from either 148th or Eastgate P&R isn’t that far.
Ha, I forgot that the 345 had a third detour (to the hospital). You are right, the worse part is running through the parking lot, although I suspect that is to give the bus a chance to turn around. There really aren’t that many people who use that stop (nowhere near as many as use the Four Freedoms stop, or the stops on College Way).
I think the long range solution to that detour is have the bus do a dogleg and cut over to Aurora on 115th (by the hospital) — https://goo.gl/maps/vnzZMAVb4i7Dz33s5. That would be the quickest way to get from the Aurora corridor to Northgate. It would save a fair amount of service, and getting to the hospital (and other places) from the north would be much faster. The only drawback is that you lose the doubling up of frequency to Ingraham and other stops along 130th.
In the long run, that doesn’t matter. When the 130th station is added, we will have a fast frequent bus along 130th, so we could send the 345 off of it (by the hospital).
What is Four Freedoms and why does it have such high ridership?
Four Freedoms is a large retirement facility. For the moment it hosts a significant percentage of all the transit-dependent people in Bitter Lake, but that’s going to change given the heavy growth planned for the neighborhood. In any event pressure on the 345 will be sharply reduced once (I expect) 130th Station opens and the fast crosstown 75 extension becomes the best Link connection.
East Link will stop on 112th in Bellevue. It will be more than 2 minutes to the downtown core, and uphill, and this is if you stay on NE 8th. Bellevue has huge blocks. If you have to go north or south add more time.
Bellevue Square for example is looking at running driverless shuttles along NE 8th to and from the light rail station (Bellevue considers itself a world leader in ACES, or electric driverless shuttle technology it thinks will be critical to get the riders from light rail and the express buses on 405 to the city center) However, Kemper Freeman keeps around $500 million worth of surface parking behind Bellevue Square because his preferred customer (suburban women) like to drive, and park above ground.
These women carry a lot of stuff, including baby strollers and babies, and buy a lot of stuff they don’t want to carry onto a shuttle to a train or bus, let alone walk. You may scoff, but I have heard Kemper speak, and he cites legitimate studies that show women buy around 90% of all goods in the U.S., so he really couldn’t care less what men — especially unmarried men — think about his empire. Kemper Freeman does not want shoppers who took transit to Bellevue Square.
“Kemper Freeman does not want shoppers who took transit to Bellevue Square.” But, earlier you said, “Bellevue Square for example is looking at running driverless shuttles along NE 8th to and from the light rail station …”
So, Freeman doesn’t want shoppers who came on Link, but, at the same time, he wants to build them a shuttle to his mall?
The workers ride transit. The shoppers drive. I’m sure Kemper would be OK with that.
Anyway, I’m sure the shuttle is for more than shuttling people to the mall. A lot more.
Routes 246 and 271 connect the BTC (Link) with Bellevue Squre. The NE 8th stops are busy.
I have not looked at the 271 recently, but my experience has been that the Eastbound stop on NE 8th (by Bellevue Square) is almost always empty, with just 2-3 people at most; so not that many people take it to connect to other Eastside routes. The Westbound stop is quite busy, and most of the time it’s people commuting back to Seattle, but there is a non-trivial crowd who does seem to come to the mall and then go back into the city. Most of those appear to be college students. The 246 seems to never be busy, no matter what.
Half the 550 gets on at 4th & Bellevue Way.
Route 246 is suspended.
The NE 8th stops are busy.
I would guess so, up until about Bellevue Way, or at most, 100th. (It is about a five minute walk from 100th to Bellevue Way). West of there, density (and ridership) drop off a cliff. There is nothing there. Instead of the land of skyscrapers, you have a land of huge lots, swimming pools and cul-de-sacs.
The obvious answer is to send the 271 up Bellevue Way, where there are a lot more potential riders. Then you can have the 249 operate like the 246, and cover those low density areas in Clyde Hill. So why hasn’t Metro done this?
Since it is Rosh Hashanah, I feel it is only appropriate to say that the answer lies in one of the great musicals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRdfX7ut8gw
“So why hasn’t Metro done this?”
The discussion/debate over the 271’s routing through this section of Bellevue vs Clyde Hill has been going on for a very long time (25+ years). When I worked in DT Bellevue in the early 90s and commuted from the CD via the 48 to the 271, this topic came up again and again in discussions with other riders. I think it’s crazy that here we are in 2020 and still having this discussion because Metro is sticking with this legacy routing (instead of utilizing Bellevue Way) to keep a dozen riders in Clyde Hill happy.
The “Tradition” reference was great btw. (Love that musical. The movie version, not so much.)
L’ shanah tovah! (#5781)
It has to be better than 2020 has been so far, right?
The 107 jog is really an interesting one. I think part of the reason it exists is it answers a question: How do you move west from South Seattle? How do you get to Georgetown from Rainier Beach?
Now, there are probably better answers to this question, like hacking off the southmost leg of the 50 and turning it into a new straight-ish route from Seward park, past Othello Station, through Georgetown and on to West Seattle. But that would require a big investment in service hours vs. a relatively small one of sending the 107 on that Albro loop.
How do you move west from South Seattle?
You transfer from route 107 to route 60 just north of S Albro Pl.
How do you get to Georgetown from Rainier Beach?
You get off route 107 just north of S Abro Pl and walk along S Albro Pl a few blocks.
Who actually uses the Georgetown stop?
I do. I can’t recall anyone else using the stop any of the many times of ridden route 107. I say euthanize the jog.
In one year, Kemper Freeman will be 80, meaning that for quite awhile now, transit-negative and otherwise, he’s only doing what he wants to do, since he doesn’t have to do anything. Different shade of motivation.
But for the forecast driverless shuttles, I think Bellevue provides a priceless opportunity for Jeff Bezos to prove how serious Jeff Bezos is in his commitment to automation. For about five years, let him put a whole fleet or driverless vans on the streets. But limit their passenger loads to robots who still have arms and legs, meaning no cat-chasing vacuum cleaners.
All carrying standard insurance policies, and programmed to litigate for at the same rates as injured or deceased humans. With all Jeff’s insurance providers opening their books to the public on a day by day basis. Employees or independent contractors? Since they’ll be Jeff’s robots, experiment’s results could tell him a lot about which is really better business.
Robot customer service complaints will also be public record. After forty years with State Farm, I trust them to be the ones to make the call . In full knowledge that all their other customers will be watching their casino skills too.
Mark Dublin
Route 60 no longer has its ‘jog’ through the VA…now older Veterans with bad knees have to walk about 4-5 blocks uphill to get to the Clinics.
Improvement? No.
As for Arrowhead Park-n-Ride ‘not being used as such’, you are dead-wrong!
Typical work-day sees very few open parking spaces in that lot…seems quite a few people are using the lot despite 113 routing.
Route 60 often skips the Park-n-Ride altogether (mid-day), opting to take the Olson street hill-climb directly…the cited reason is lack of ridership.
It’s the ONLY bus service for a senior apartment complex!
There is nothing else within a reasonable walking distance.
I’ve ridden route 60 many, many times. I have never seen it skip Arrowhead Gardens since the stop was made a 24/7/365 stop in 2013.
A better explanation for the park&ride having cars during the day is that Arrowhead is using it as a parking lot for residents and staff.
The stop belongs along the roadway closest to the apartments, not half a football field away in the middle of the parking lot where even those using it for transit purposes ought to be able to get to a stop made more convenient for residents.
From route 60, you can transfer to route 50 at Columbian Way, and it will give you front-door service. But really, if the VA were more concerned about transit riders than parking, they would have set up for their valets to drive a shuttle down to the bus stop upon request, and drop the passengers off at whichever building they need to get to.
For the F Line, I agree about Tukwila Station. The loop through it isn’t really needed. As for the loop through Renton Transit Center, at least in that case RTC is _the_ major transfer point in Renton and accounts for a lot of ridership and because of the one-way nature of S 2nd it’s going to require a loop in at least one direction no matter what. A bigger time factor in my book is the meander the route takes serving the industrial parks between I-405 and the Sounder station. I’d rather see the F Line skip that portion, loop in to the Southcenter stop and then back out onto SW Grady Way, and serve the industrial parks and Sounder with a commute-hours and train-schedule shuttle running back and forth between the Southcenter stop, the Sounder station and the F Line stops near the intersection of SW 7th and Rainer.
The F’s Sounder detour is because Metro wanted to save the money of having a second route as a Sounder shuttle. As a result, 90% of the F’s trips detour to the station even though there’s no train to meet. Renton’s F ridership is really bad, much less than the ridership west of Southcenter. At least part of it is due to the time-consuming Sounder detour and the office-park area in southwest Renton. Those areas should really have a peak-only route. The F should stay on 154th, with only one dip to Southcenter because it’s such a high-ridership stop.
Regarding South Seattel College you seem to ignore the custodial, grounds, building trades and security staff who have pretty much been at work every day of the Pandemic barring furlough breaks. As was noted in the comments about Bell Square ‘the workers ride the bus”. I am just now back at work at UW providing residential dining in one of the two open facilities and working Wed-Sun noon to 8:30 and busing in from Shoreline, others bus in from Marysville, Tacoma etc etc.
Don’t forget 107’s baffling southbound only detour through Leo, Avon and 59th Ave. S. Because coaches couldn’t pass each if they met on a turn, I can see why it is one direction only, but if they can get by with one direction for the detour, they could get by with no direction on the detour.
And why are we just talking about Metro when we could talk about the king of circuitous routing: Community Transit! A trip to Mukilteo would be nice on a weekend, but the 113 takes so many detours through housing developments and a sea food processing plant that’s closed on weekends anyway. Wallace Falls would be a nice bus destination, but the 271 makes detours in Monroe and Sultan.