King County Metro route 160 travels inbound from Auburn Transit Center to Renton Transit Center, via Kent and Benson Hill. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In January 2025, Route 160 had 5,050 average weekday boardings.
Average Ridership Per Trip
The plots below show the average weekday ridership by stop in each direction, color-coded by time of day. For a more detailed breakdown of how the plots are set up, please refer to the How to Read the Plots section of the article discussing Route 70.
Route 160 provides a last mile connection between various neighborhoods and Sounder Stations, while also serving all-day trips in Auburn, Kent, and Renton. Some observations:
- Route 160’s southern terminus, Auburn Transit Center (inbound)/ 2nd St SW & A St SW (outbound), is a strong trip generator. The transit center is conveniently located near several mid-rise apartment buildings and next to Auburn Sounder Station. The average Route 160 trip either picks up or drops off 5-10 passengers. Inbound trips pick up the most passengers per trip in the evening, while outbound trips drop off the most passengers per trip in the afternoon. Auburn Station/Transit Center is a Park & Ride facility with 633 spaces. It also serves Metro routes 181, 184, 915, 917; Sound Transit routes 566, 578; Sounder S Line; and Pierce Transit Route 497.
- Between 8th St NE and 28th St NE, Auburn Way N is populated by big-box retail, strip malls, and auto repair shops. Stops along this segment have consistent use throughout the day with a few riders boarding and alighting every trip at each stop. I St NE runs parallel to Auburn Way one block to the east and has lots of garden apartment buildings, multi-family housing units, and some single-family houses. Some Route 160 riders are likely traveling to/from this residential area.
- North of 28th St NE, the land use adjacent to Auburn Way shifts to almost exclusively car dealerships and auto repair shops. Unsurprisingly, boarding and alighting counts are lower along this segment.
- The stop at Auburn Way & 45th St is adjacent to a few mid-rise apartment housing developments. Outbound trips in the morning see a noticeable increase in passengers boarding. Inbound afternoon and evening trips see a corresponding increase in passengers alighting. Some residents of these apartments may use Route 160 as a connection to Sounder.
- Auburn Way continues north into Kent as Central Ave S. The land use adjacent to Central Ave is primarily industrial. The stops at 259th St and 262nd are near a few apartment buildings and residential neighborhoods. These stops have higher ridership than the adjacent stops, primarily with passengers boarding inbound trips and alighting outbound trips.
- Route 160 stops at Central Ave & Meeker St. This stop provides convenient access to shops and restaurants in the southeastern part of downtown Kent. Passengers at this stop primarily board outbound trips and alight inbound trips.
- Kent Sounder Station is the busiest stop on the route. Route 160 trips in both directions pick up and drop off 5-10 passengers. This stop is close to Kent Station shopping center, several apartment buildings, and Mill Creek Middle School. In addition to serving Sounder S Line, Kent Station is a Park & Ride with 996 spaces and serves Metro routes 150, 153, 161, 162, 165, 168, 183, and Sound Transit Route 566.
- East of Kent Station, Route 160 stops between Kent – Meridian High School and several shopping centers at 256th St & 101st Ave. While this stop is busy in both directions all day, there is a noticeable spike in passengers departing morning inbound trips. This suggests some students use Route 160 to get to school.
- The adjacent stop at 104th Ave & 253rd Pl is also well used. Inbound trips primarily pick up passengers while outbound trips primarily drop off passengers. This stop is surrounded by a shopping center and restaurants.
- Further north on 104th Ave, Route 160’s stop at SE 240th St is adjacent to several big-box retail stores and strip malls. Trips in both directions drop off and pick up a few passengers here, primarily in the mid-day, afternoon, and evening. This stop also provides an easy transfer to Route 165 (soon to be Route 164).
- Between 240th St and 208th St, the land along 104th Ave/108th Ave almost exclusively consists of single family housing. Unsurprisingly, stop use along this segment is minimal. These stops are busiest in the evening as inbound trips drop off a passenger or two at each stop.
- At 108th Ave & 208th St, the Route 160 stop is located in the middle of several strip malls and near a grocery store. Boarding and alighting counts are decent all day, inbound trips primarily drop off riders and outbound trips mostly pick up passengers. Similar to the previous few stops, inbound trips drop off more passengers per trip in the evening than at any other time of day.
- In Benson Hill, Route 160 stops near the intersection of 108th Ave and SE Carr Rd. Both inbound and outbound trips drop off a few passengers on every trip, with a slight increase in inbound morning boarding counts and outbound afternoon alighting counts. This stop is near a shopping center with a grocery store and a few other shops and restaurants. Passengers can transfer at this stop to Route 906.
- Between Carr Rd and 21st St, Route 160 turns west to serve the Valley Medical Center and Talbot Road. The stop closest to the medical center (Talbot Rd S & S Carr Rd) serves a few passengers per trip in both directions. The even ridership all day suggests most passengers who use this stop are patients, not employees of Valley Medical Center.
- At South Renton Park & Ride, inbound trips drop off a few passengers and outbound trips pick up a few passengers. Inbound trips are busiest in the morning and outbound trips are busiest in the afternoon and evening. This P&R has 385 spaces and also serves routes 101, 102, 148, 153.
- Along Rainier Ave, Route 160 serves various big-box shops and grocery stores. Despite the auto-oriented development around these stops, inbound trips drop off a few passengers per stop and outbound trips pick up a few passengers per stop. These stops support transfers to Route 102, F Line, and Sound Transit Route 560.
- Route 160’s northern terminus is at the Renton Transit Center. Inbound trips drop off 4-6 passengers per trip. Trips in the morning, mid-day, and afternoon are busier than evening and late night trips. Meanwhile, outbound trips pick up 4-8 passengers per trip. Outbound trips are busiest in the afternoon and evening. Renton Transit Center is conveniently located in downtown Renton near several apartment buildings, shops, and restaurants. Riders can transfer here between Route 160 and routes 101, 105, 106, 107, 148, 240, 153, 907, F Line, and Sound Transit routes 560, 566.
Daily Totals per Stop
The per-trip plots above show strong evening ridership for inbound trips. However, on the daily ridership plot below, evening boarding and alighting counts at most stops are overshadowed by higher mid-day and afternoon ridership. The evening per trip passenger counts are likely inflated as a result of Route 160’s lower frequency after 6pm, when it switches from running every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes.
Looking Ahead
King County Metro is about to start construction on RapidRide improvements for Route 160’s corridor. Once complete in 2027, RapidRide I Line will replace Route 160. The upgraded routing will largely remain the same and a few stops will be consolidated. Unlike other recent RapidRide conversions, the I Line upgrades are primarily spot improvements, including transit signal priority, redesigned intersections, and about 2 miles of business access and transit (BAT) lanes. Ryan Packer recently discussed the planned I Line improvements in more detail in The Urbanist.
Sound Transit is currently in the Design and Construction phases of the upcoming Stride S1 Line. When it starts operation in 2028, the S1 Line will be a highway-running BRT line between Burien and Bellevue. Along with this route, a new South Renton Transit Center will be built on the northeast corner of the intersection of S Grady Way and Rainier Ave S. Metro has not shared any restructuring plans for the routes that currently serve Renton TC, though the I Line routing will almost certainly be updated to serve the new transit center.
Having the largest number of boardings at Kent Station might not necessarily mean that is the most important destination. It sure would be nice if we could get our hands on data for which other routes riders are transferring to or from.
I appreciate Michael’s ongoing work to inject data into the reporting on this blog.
Yes, this is always a challenge. We don’t have ORCA card data so we have to speculate. Ideally you want your transfer point to be a destination and in this case it is. When it isn’t (like Tukwila Station) it is pretty clear that high ridership there is simply people transferring. But this one isn’t as obvious. Here is my guess:
The station is important from a geographic standpoint. The bus almost does a complete U-Turn after serving the stop. So if you are headed anywhere to the north or the east (within walking distance) this is your stop. There is also a fair amount of development around there. At the same time it is significant from a transfer standpoint as there are a lot of buses and the Sounder connection. Hard to say without looking at more data.
There is not a strong peak-orientation so this suggests that there aren’t a lot of Sounder-to-160 riders. There are a lot of buses in the area. The 150, 161 and 183 seem like obvious transfers and they have high ridership at that stop. More telling perhaps is that the 150 has way more riders there than at 4th & Smith or James & 1st. If the folks on the 160 are using the station stop mostly to get to the Regional Justice Center (or other buildings nearby) then it doesn’t explain why so few of the 150 riders use the stops that are closer. My guess is the high ridership there is mostly transfers.
On Metro strategic plan dashboard under service quality, Metro offers monthly data on the number of ORCA transfers from one agency to another. I wonder if it can be narrowed further down from 1 route to any other combinations by record request
I will repeat my wish here that the I Line not be the only RapidRide left out of connecting to the light rail network.
Sure, it is planned to already be long, but it is not that much farther to get to Rainier Beach Station, via MLK.
For riders along the I Line between Auburn and Kent Stations, a continuation of the route northwesterly to Kent / Des Moines Station might be more popular than anything along Kent East Hill, Valley Med, or the possibly-soon-to-be-closed downtown Renton Transit Center..
Split the line. Connect everyone to the light rail spine. And thereby connect the region to all the businesses around the I Line stops.
With such a high turnover at Kent Station, I have to wonder how many riders are riding through. If almost everyone is getting off, the it seems more than reasonable to look at running to KDM.
I think a KDM – Kent – East Hill -Renton – Rainier Beach route would be amazing — as would a Federal Way – Auburn – East Hill – Green River College – Covington route.
I could see that but I think it would mean restructuring several buses. The 106 could end at Rainier Beach and also take over the tricky tail (to Waters) of the 7 when that bus gets converted to RapidRide R. Now the RapidRide I goes to Rainier Beach and lays over with the 106 after making a detour to connect to the station. The tail is a bit awkward but that’s fine. (The I, R, 106 and 107 would all run on Henderson between Rainier and the station.) I think that works and fixes some other issues. It also sets us up for the future as the 106 could then be sent to First Hill (via Boren) without being too long. I like it.
If the RapidRide I is too long then the obvious split is at Kent Station where so many people get off the bus anyway as it makes what is essentially a hairpin turn. I also like the idea of combining the lower part (now relatively short) with a bus heading northwest. There are several options:
150: This looks ideal but I think it would be too long.
161: Not strong enough to justify RapidRide.
165: The plan is to split this into two routes with the new 164 being the frequent one (https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65c5126e78e56fdf5f559839/672164d375cd527d9399b6ca_route-164_en.pdf).
I think taking over part of the future 164 is the only option that makes sense. This has drawbacks. You isolate the rest of the 164 (that goes to Green River College). This has more riders than the section between Kent Station and Highline College. The strongest argument for this last swap is that the small section of the 164 (Kent Station to Green River College) is longer than small section of the future RapidRide I (Auburn Station to Kent Station). But you be forcing a transfer between the two colleges. The 181 is not going to see an increase in frequency so taking a bus to Federal Way and then an express to Federal Way Link is not a great option. Assuming we made these changes the best hope for riders trying to get between the two colleges (or from Link to Green River College) would be if ST runs an express from Kent Des Moines (Link) station to Kent Station. That way riders could take this smaller 164 to Kent then transfer to either an express or RapidRide to get to the other college (and Link).
So yeah, a lot of changes. Just to review:
106 — Truncated at Rainier Beach. Takes over tail of the 7.
RapidRide I — Runs from Rainier Beach (via 106 route) to Kent Station.
Other RapidRide — Runs from Auburn to Kent Station then continues to Kent Des Moines Station via current 165 route.
164 — Runs from Green River College to Kent Station.
This works for me even if it is a bit messy in the south.
It used to be split, with the 181 going Auburn-Kent-SeaTac-Burien, and the 169 going Kent-East Hill-Renton. In the late 2010s they were consolidated into the 160 to prefigure RapidRide I. It’s a tradeoff either way. Auburn-airport is a significant ridership pattern, but north-south is grid correct. Auburn and Kent have planned east-west RapidRides to Link. I agree with extending the I to Rainier Beach, but it would be mainly south Renton and north Kent that it would help for Link access, not central East Hill or further south.
In any case, the I was planned years ago and it’s mandate is Auburn-Kent-Renton (because RapidRide A is too far away), and it’s about to start construction, so Metro isn’t likely to be willing to split it.
Metro is considering splitting the B Line. I don’t think Metro wants to remove any RapidRide stations, and it does not have to in order to split any existing lines.
I don’t think it is necessary to split the KDM-Covington RapidRide line in order to split the I. Just run hyper-frequency between the Kent stations.
what about splitting rapidride F among rapidride h and the rapidride I to both reach Tibs?
Just run hyper-frequency between the Kent stations.
You mean run two different frequent routes from Kent Sounder Station to Kent Des Moines Station via the current 165 route? Hard to justify that given the relatively low ridership and relatively long time it takes to get between there. It takes 22 minutes as I write this (at 2:15 in the afternoon). Ridership is good but not outstanding through there.
Also keep in mind that ST may run express buses which would further cut into ridership. I just don’t see it. I think you have to swap with a different route (in the manner I suggested).
“ Hard to justify that given the relatively low ridership and relatively long time it takes to get between there. ”
With KDM not yet open it’s premature to discard running two RapidRide routes — but only in Downtown Seattle does Metro overlay two RapidRide routes.
I think a good case to connect Federal Way to everything going on in Auburn would be a good east-west route. From there the route could connect northward to Kent before going east. That way there wouldn’t be duplication.
I don’t think the travel time is punitive though. SR 516 moves fairly fast for much of its length connecting the two places. It’s probably the fastest South King roadway connecting I-5 and SR 167 that isn’t a full freeway like SR 18 or I-405. At 4 PM, Google traffic is saying that the trip is just 15 minutes.
With KDM not yet open it’s premature to discard running two RapidRide routes
But what would you cut? I’m just looking at the future network in the area (https://www.southlinkconnections.com/) and there isn’t a lot of waste. I don’t see any overlap or near overlap nor do I see any place where there is obviously an excessive level of service. For example the 181 is going to run every fifteen minutes midday*. You could run it every half hour instead but that doesn’t seem like a good trade. It is worth noting that the 181 will connect to Link as well. That’s pretty much it for frequent routes. Everything else runs every half hour (or worse).
Yes, Link changes everything but in this case it doesn’t change that much. It is worth considering why you would take a bus to Kent Des Moines Station (KDM) in the first place:
1) There is a college there. This doesn’t change.
2) You are headed to the airport. The A Line is a bit slower but just as frequent.
3) You are headed to other stations south of Seattle. Some of those are already served by the A Line and I really don’t see them as being big destinations.
4) Rainier Valley. There are probably some riders but not a lot.
5) Downtown Seattle. From what I can tell the 150 would be just a little bit faster from Kent Station. An express bus from Kent would be even faster.
I think I would add an express from Kent Sounder Station (KSS) to Downtown Seattle before I added a second bus from KSS to KDM. This could be extended (to become the south end of the proposed RapidRide I Line) but I don’t know where you would get the money. That really makes more sense as an ST bus.
*I didn’t realize this with my previous comment. This makes the case for swapping things as I proposed even stronger. Riders from Green River College can always take the 181 and then transfer to Link at Federal Way to get to Highline.
Metro plans to keep route 162, the peak-direction-only express between Lake Meridian P&R and downtown.
In addition to Kent Sounder Station, it will still serve Kent-DesMoines P&R, and be the last bus route still serving KDM P&R. Using KDM P&R involves crossing I-5 one direction or another.
Is that P&R being shut down? That would wipe out much of the purpose of the 162 expressing downtown.
I should have included Sounder in my last comment. When Sounder runs it is a much faster way to get from Kent Sounder Station to downtown. This really limits the appeal of any service to Link. When Sounder is running it is the fastest way to downtown. When it isn’t running the 150 is the fastest way downtown. I realize there are other destinations on Link but most of them are north of downtown.
“Just run hyper-frequency between the Kent stations.”
I mentioned in an earlier post that you could also run a gondola along S 240th St. That way riders can switch to Link if Sounder isn’t running or get to the airport.
The principle of every RapidRide to Link is a good one.
I will say that it is a slow slog on Route 106 between Renton and Rainier Beach. That’s because the route picks up lots of riders. So giving that segment a RapidRide approach could help make it faster — but maybe not fast enough.
I like Ross’ idea of using Route 106 for the Prentice tail of Route 7 and ending RR-I at Rainier Beach — even though I worry about the speed and the overall route length. That frees up Metro to finally redesign Route 7 to end at Rainier Beach too.
I’ve said it before, but the final piece that is needed is a transit hub and layover space at Rainier Beach. I generally discourage loopy transit centers but it could be quite useful here as the end point for two RapidRide lines.
It would be expensive, but a full redesign of the Rainier Beach station pedestrian access and Chief Sealth Trail access across a dangerous MLK would seem to be even more optimal as part of a Rainier Beach Link bus hub project. It’s quite the design challenge to resolve though. I’d begin by encouraging a multi-agency study called something like Rainier Beach Station 2.0.
*****
And as I noted from these data, it appears that very few riders stay on the Route 160 bus through the Kent Station stop. I don’t think that will change with RapidRide conversion. So terminating the route in Kent and tying the Kent-Auburn segment to a new RapidRide line that connects to any South King Link station could be done a number of ways. As Ross notes, once a rider gets to Link and RapidRide A, they have lots of options. To me, KDM is the most direct way to provide that.
With a KDM – Kent – Auburn RapidRide it could continue to serve more of Auburn too, serving either the Oulet Collection area or the Muckleshoot area.
My suggestion for connecting the I Line to Rainier Beach is to use 101’s much faster path.
The Outlet Collection will already be on the 181 RapidRide, not too far from Federal Way Station.
My suggestion for connecting the I Line to Rainier Beach is to use 101’s much faster path.
That would push the cost up even higher. I’m not saying we can’t have overlap. We do and should in certain areas. But it is really hard to justify it in areas that are not that quick to serve or get that many riders. A revenue neutral change (i. e. swapping one section from one route to another) is far more realistic. Otherwise you have to get the extra service from somewhere and I don’t see any good candidates in the area.
It’s interesting to differentiate between the stops that are more of a destination compared to those that are surrounded by residences. For example, the stops with very few riders tend to be in places with mainly single family homes nearby.
For the destinations, the commercial areas in Renton, Kent and Auburn are generally clear. I expected the Valley Medical Center ridership to be higher.
One interesting aspect of this route is that it’s possible to walk to four different Fred Meyer’s from a stop.
Maybe it should be RapidRide M! lol … more seriously though RapidRide I sure looks like a Roman numeral 1 to me.
more seriously though RapidRide I sure looks like a Roman numeral 1 to me.
I agree. It is not even a Roman numeral — it just looks like a number one. When I look at the letter ‘V’ I never think “that’s a 5” but confusing a lower case ‘L’ or upper case ‘I’ with a one is quite common. When I write math on paper (or a white board) it is just a line. Using a lower case “L” instead of a 1 was a trick that typists used before computers. But now it depends on the font. For example:
I + I = 2
l + l = 2
That looks good to me but those are actually upper case “i” in the first example and lower case ‘L’ in the second. I don’t think we have to worry about lower case ‘L’ (since no one refers to the RapidRide letters in lower case) but using an upper case ‘i’ is problematic and should be avoided. The fact that it also a noun doesn’t help. In just about every reference to the route I find myself adding “RapidRide”. In contrast I routinely just use the letter “E” when referring to RapidRide E (for example “I rode the E”).
Is there a RapidRide 1 with which to confuse the RapidRide I?
Maybe that’s the reason they don’t want it to reach Rainier Beach…. So nobody gets on the I Line instead of the 1 Line.
I see mass confusion ahead . Imagine looking for the frequency of the I bus route! If you type in a 1, you will get a different schedule. The Link 1 line is also a number in a ball — except it’s green rather than red.
There is no requirement for the sequence to be ordinal. Skipping numbers or letters is routine for many things (like not having floors 4 or 13 in a building). Consider too that Rainier RapidRide proposals have always listed it as RapidRide R.
Is there a RapidRide 1 with which to confuse the RapidRide I?
There will be with the Stride 1 line. Both will serve Renton. Both are “BRT”. I would assume that neither will be a straight line. But it still seems like a problem that can be easily avoided by just using a different letter.
It is also worth noting that the agencies have managed to avoid any confusion despite plenty of overlap in service. Metro uses letters for their “BRT” while Community Transit uses colors and ST will use numbers. Various agencies use the same numbers but never in the same place. Metro and Community Transit have a 101 but they serve very different areas. Same with Metro and Pierce Transit having a 212. Same with the future Stride lines — they are using numbers but they won’t overlap single digit lines in Seattle, Everett or Tacoma.
Metro and ST both have routes downtown designated “1”.
Metro and ST both have routes downtown designated “1”.
One is a bus that runs on the surface and one is a train (that has a number that most riders ignore). In this case we are talking about two buses — both of which have different livery than most in the area.
Another thing to think about is how this line connects to the greater Eastside. A one seat ride to Renton translates into a two seat ride to downtown Bellevue, and a 3-seat ride, minimum, for anywhere on the Eastside that’s not downtown Bellevue. For example, to reach Issaquah, it’s a 3 ride where the 3rd seat is glacially slow, with a detour, because the 560 doesn’t connect with the 554, only the 271 at Bellevue Transit Center. In my case, I’ve used a baby sitter for my dog before who lives near the 160 between Kent and Renton. Door to door, from my home in Kirkland, it’s with 35 minutes by car or over 2 hours by bus (250->560->160), each way, plus, of course, the half mile walk between the house and the 160 bus stop includes a section along a semi- busy street with no sidewalks. Needless to say, I took the car every single time I made this trip.
Unfortunately, this is a problem without a good solution that doesn’t move too many service hours away from other areas. Incremental proposed improvements, like the I replacing the 160 and the S line replacing the 560 would help, but it would not be nearly enough to make transit time competitive.
This is what happens when areas start getting insanely spread out like south king. Any trip in isolation, you can serve with transit well, but only by giving that trip disproportionate service resources, so it’s impossible to serve everything except poorly. You can try to focus the service on the trips that the most people are taking, but when demand is scattered, there’s only so much you can do; no matter how you arrange the bus routes, lots and lots of trips will be straightforward in a car, and take seemingly forever on the bus.
A three seat ride is no fun!
Stride should help because it will be much more frequent that 560. It’s just too bad that it skips so many interim places south of Downtown Bellevue where riders could transfer to other buses. It’s also regrettable that Stride routes both end at the BTC rather than connect the entirety of the 405 corridor.
The route restructures for Link assume lots of bus-route-bus trips. Having them available all day is much better than a small number of trips on a 1-seat express that only goes in the peak direction, and only 5 days a week.
The I Line will keep the status quo of two seats just to get to Link.
Three seat rides are inevitable. Our geography is just too challenging to create a complete grid. A hub and spoke system is too time consuming for a lot of trips. The longer and more obscure the trip the more likely — and more acceptable — extra transfers are. It is one thing to have to transfer twice if you are going about five miles within the city. It is another if you are going from one low-density suburb to another and they are over 20 miles apart (by the closest road). I’m not saying we shouldn’t try and reduce transfers but I wouldn’t freak out about it.
This is what happens when areas start getting insanely spread out like south king.
Exactly. There aren’t a lot of great solutions. A grid system would be massive and involve lots of slow rides to major destinations. A hub and spoke system is more realistic. The various buses would go express to downtown but they would start by serving places along the way (like the 101). But that gets really expensive really fast — next thing you know those express buses are running infrequently or only during peak. The problem isn’t just the sprawl within these areas but the fact that these areas are really far from Downtown Seattle. This creates another problem as well — folks from Renton don’t want to go downtown and then back to get to Bellevue or Redmond. They want to take a more direct route (using 405). So now you’ve watered the system down even more.
I think the best bet for regional transit is multiple transfers. If you think of it as different cities this would be normal. A hockey fan in Portland doesn’t take a bus directly from his apartment to the game. Unless he lives in downtown he has a three seat ride. Regional transit seems quite similar just because the various places are so spread out. If everyone in Kent lived within walking distance to the main train station things would be very different.
The I Line will keep the status quo of two seats just to get to Link.
There will be plenty of buses that go to Link. But connecting every bus to Link is difficult because it often requires a detour. This is the drawback of having Link run express for such a long distance. There are no stations between Rainier Beach and the station in Tukwila (TIBS). TIBS is not especially convenient — it is not “on the way”. Nor is it a significant destination.
You could send a bus like the 101 to Rainier Beach but that would mean not going downtown (via an express). Again the station is not on the way (if you are headed downtown). As a result, folks have objected to that idea. They would rather have the combination they have now (the 106 for trips to Rainier Valley and the 101 as the semi-express to downtown).
Assuming that the 101 and 150 continue to run downtown the value of connecting to Link is fairly limited. When the dust settles, riders of this bus will have a frequent two seat ride to KDM (via the 164), SoDo and Downtown Seattle (via the 101), Downtown Bellevue and TIBS (via Stride 1), and Rainier Valley (via the 106). That leaves the airport and Beacon Hill as the only places south of downtown that would involve a three-seat ride.
There will be a two-seat ride to the airport (the 161) but it is infrequent and only makes sense for the riders between Kent and Auburn. Your suggestion (which I like) would still force a three-seat ride to the airport for some riders. If we combined the Auburn-Kent part of this route with the KDM-Kent part of the 165 (and future 164) then folks between Kent and Renton would still have to transfer twice to the airport unless they rode all the way to Rainier Beach Station and took the train back (which is silly). Given that, what you need is a crossing bus route to the airport. The problem is that it is hard to pull off given that so many of the ridership generators are in awkward locations and the overall density is relatively low. For example the 156 could go all the way across (like so: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZkBuc9a5Cqyx64wk9). It would be taking over part of the 906. Except now you are skipping Southcenter — a destination with more riders on it (for this bus) than the airport. You could basically connect the 156 and 906 (with all of the assorted detours) but I really doubt it would run that often. I just don’t see it happening.
I think folks headed to the airport will have to make a two seat ride from this bus (unless they are close to the Renton, Kent or Auburn bus stops). Extending it to Rainier Valley would make it easier to get to Beacon Hill. There is that. The only issue is that it sets off a series of route changes (or worse yet, reducing frequency on other routes). I like the idea but it isn’t simple.
I’d much rather have a three-seat ride on transit when my wait to transfer will be less than 10 minutes than have a two-seat ride where my wait to transfer may be 30 minutes to an hour.
That’s why three seat rides on evenings or weekends are often very frustrating! Buses don’t run as often.
It’s also regrettable that Stride routes both end at the BTC rather than connect the entirety of the 405 corridor.
I agree. I get that Downtown Bellevue is likely the biggest destination but a lot of the other stops are good. They will be forcing some unnecessary transfers.
If you’re going from Kent, Southcenter, East Hill, or Renton to downtown, the 150 or 101 are faster than Link, even with ultra-frequent east-west routes or an I extension to Rainier Beach. The problem is that Link is too far west of Renton and Kent, and there’s no second north-south line to them, so there’s no way for a bus+Link combination to be as fast as the 101 or 150. In 33 minutes from Westlake Station at noon, the 101 will be at Renton TC, the 150 will be at Southcenter, and Link will be between Rainier Beach and BAR.
All of Metro’s long-term scenarios keep the 101 as an all-day downtown express. The 150 is a RapidRide candidate with alternatives of switching to 4th Ave S if the SODO busway closes, or terminating at Rainier Beach. Maybe an alternative terminating at BAR will emerge.
“The 150 is a RapidRide candidate with alternatives of switching to 4th Ave S if the SODO busway closes, or terminating at Rainier Beach. Maybe an alternative terminating at BAR will emerge.”
One other alternative is to create a nice bus layover/ transfer point at SODO with better access to the freeway system.
It would be a shame to waste all the excess light rail train capacity from West Seattle to Downtown since so few riders are forecasted to be on it (snark).
If you’re going from Kent, Southcenter, East Hill, or Renton to downtown, the 150 or 101 are faster than Link, even with ultra-frequent east-west routes or an I extension to Rainier Beach.
Yes, and if you are going from a Sounder station when Sounder is running it is much faster than the express buses. Link is not magic. It is not a destination in itself (although some of the stations are). There are often better way to get to various destinations (including Link destinations) than Link.