Friday Roundtable: ORCA Wrapped 2025

37 Replies to “Friday Roundtable: ORCA Wrapped 2025”

1. Sadly, my Orca Card is used primarily for slow bus trips between West Seattle and the office downtown. It will be nice when Link finally comes to West Seattle. The C Line is a bit of a slog, though it could be worse.

   I use Link fairly often within the city core. I also use the G Line frequently, mostly to get back up the hill on my lunch break.

2. When counting ORCA taps, was it only at Link station entrances or are Metro bus boarding taps also counted? Can you clarify?

   1. The number of taps is more than ST’s total ridership, so it is for all ORCA services.

      I’d be interested in seeing how many were done with Google Wallet.

3. The high number of Lynnwood taps, relative to ridership, is not surprising.

   Community Transit has embraced ORCA much more fully than Metro has.

4. ORCA Wrapped reports is great concept although the current process is a little bit inconvenient not to say if your card is from your school or employer, it will not be eligible for the report.

5. I didn’t even realize this was a thing! I just signed up, but I assume it may be too late for a 2025 wrapped.

6. I can’t wait to see fare gates and direct credit card payments like in Vancouver. So much more convenient than getting these ridiculous passes for anyone visiting.

7. Does anyone really tap at the light rail. The way it’s set up is ridiculous. Such a money loss that tax payers pay for.

   1. Yes

   2. I tap because I’m honest (and I have a pass).

      But yeah, it’s ridiculous.

      1. I have a subsidized pass, but often forget to tap for the train. I’m used to tapping as I board the bus. Or, I’m rushed to board the train, which could leave in the time it takes me to get my card out and tap it.

   3. Of course. Why wouldn’t I?

8. Three 1 Line shuttle buses at Westlake now say Angle Lake, not SODO. The St alerts still say SODO. I don’t know if they’ll go express to the airport after SODO. I’m taking a bus so I won’t see it.

   1. The online schedules show the normal schedule. Only the Alert indicates the closures.

   2. Northbound shuttle at Symphony says Lynnwood.

      1. That matches my experience from previous closures, including an emergency one.

   3. The buses should say the terminus station name (like the train). Apparently the signs are only updated during a service change: https://bsky.app/profile/art-kitkat.bsky.social/post/3mbn56lc3tk2e

9. I’m happy that Sound Transit has finally decided that the Link shuttle stops should be on OneBusAway. Unfortunately, they did it in the worst possible way: rather than using the existing stop pin, they made an entirely new one that completely overlaps the existing stop, so you can’t see regular bus information unless you tap furiously and hope to get lucky. Even worse, they didn’t even bother turning on tracking information, so all you have is the best-guess timetable to go off of. Given how often Sound Transit is committed to closing Link for maintenance (overall, probably a good thing), it would be nice if someone in the agency cared about user experience.

10. 12th & Jackson has a crowd of f stolen-goods salesmen and somebody smoking a strange pipe. A shop sign says save Little Saigon from crime. Something for Mayor Wilson to address.A police car with its lights on is a block away but not apparently doing anything.

    1. That stop and ones nearby have been subject to closures, hoping the riffraff don’t return. Doesn’t work, and is a rider-hostile approach.

    2. I pass by 12th/Jackson somewhat frequently. Some days are worse than others but that sounds roughly normal. The intersection should be a major transit hub and it’s surrounded by great restaurants and shops but unfortunately it’s held back by persistent negative activity.

    3. A cafe at 12th and Jackson gives out free food every Sunday. I wonder if they could be convinced to move that to their other branch north of Othello Station.

       1. I’m not sure the Sunday lunch is a major factor here. There are dozens of free food providers in the Seattle area, many of whom provide multiple meals a day multiple days a week, and none of them attract anywhere near the same level of persistent negative activity. A few that come to mind are: Operation Nightwatch, All Pilgrims, OSL, St Luke’s.

    4. I walked through the area this afternoon–it seemed like a pretty typical day at 12th & Jackson. It’s not as bad as it was when it was closed, but trending in the wrong direction again. Maybe Charlie Royer should be hired as a neighborhood renaissance advisor to Mayor Wilson. Royer turned around Columbia City when it was nothing but boarded up storefronts.

       1. Charlie Royer died several years ago.

    5. It sounds like the problematic gatherings that used to occur regularly at 3rd & Pike in 2020-2024 are now occurring at 12th & Jackson.

    6. The 12th & Jackson bus stops are back — I was on the 7. Hopefully Metro won’t close them again no matter how big the crowd gets, because it’s a significant issue for passengers going to businesses or transferring if the bus stops at the center of the village aren’t there.

       1. To call 12th & Jackson a “village” is quite a stretch. It’s really a tragedy to see the wasted human lives hanging out in that neighborhood looking for a fix or a few dollars. The encampments have spread into Daejeon Park and they’re growing week-by-week. The area is relatively calm in the mornings, before the junkies wake up, but it gets pretty mean later in the day as people start looking to deal with their demons. Like I said, it’s not as bad as it was when Metro closed the stops, but it is trending in that direction.

          Unfortunately, the violence isn’t just at the bus stops. It also spreads to the buses that serve the stops at 12th and Jackson. The problems at 12th & Jackson will be an early test for the Wilson administration. I hope there’s a better plan than just spraying soapy water at the problem 3 times a day.

       2. There is safety in numbers at bus stops. That applies to both loose business transactors and legit riders. If riders consistently outnumber loiterers, that would probably be a more effective deterrent to the loitering.

          A couple cops on foot patrol could nudge the math in favor of riders.

11. While on the topic of OneBusAway, what is up with Metro’s real-time feed lately? It seems to be missing most routes most of the time, and the stuff that isn’t missing is filled with phantom trips. Have they decided that bus reliability has been solved and we don’t need arrival information anymore?

    1. Yeah I also notice that the GTFS real-time hasn’t been very reliable for months.

       Sometimes Pantograph App would show the real-time info that is completely incorrect. Sometimes they don’t have schedule data. Almost the entire ins the past couple month, the real-time info lagged for a few minutes. When I started using the app last year, I think it usually lagged by 30-60 seconds, which was fairly accurate.

       This is just a King County Metro issue I think. Sound Transit’s feed seems to work just fine.

12. Pike Street between 1st and 2nd is raised now so it doesn’t look as much like a regular street.

    And there’s a protest a block away about… Venezuela, and the Philippines.

    1. I hate to say it, but taking up Venezuela’s offer to buy their oil at market rate seems the least-dumb option.

       1. It’s probably about Nicolas Maduro, isn’t it? I just heard a politician had ordered the release of him even though he isn’t even a day captured.

       2. The blog doesn’t touch foreign policy with a 10-foot pole (except as relates to transportation and land use elsewhere).

          But the veto of an infrastructure bill might impact transit budgets.

13. And that’s not including the thousands that walked by the strange yellow things on the way to the train, either in too big a rush to tap, not knowing that one should have an ORCA card and tap it, or the many scofflaws who take advantage of the foolish planners and legislators who believe in the “honor system,” despite the saying that “there’s no honor among…” Hopefully, Sound Transit will put in fare gates where practical and then they’ll see a sizable jump in boardings. If their prolific lobbying arm advocates for the legislature to ensure enforcement of vehicle tab payments (vs. the honor system), ST will reduce the size of their huge budget shortfall significantly. I saw a vehicle with a tab from 2021 the other day. I’d rather they pay their fair share vs. the honest folks getting stuck with another increase to pay for them.

    1. FWIW, Link ridership numbers are from automated passenger counters above the inside of the train doors, not from ORCA taps.

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