Mayor Wilson, CM Rinck, and Fix the L8 co-leads Nick Sattele, Jason Li alongside over 150 transit advocates.

After a disastrous race last year, Route 8 called for a rematch. Since then, Mayor Wilson issued an executive order to build bus lanes on Denny Way, SDOT designed an eastbound bus lane, and the bus lane was installed. This year, Route 8 actually stood a chance.

The race kicked off at Denny Way & Dexter Ave at 5:41pm as bus 8266 crossed Dexter Ave.

The bus immediately left almost everyone in the dust. After the first block, only a few runners kept up with the bus.

Race participants attempt to catch up while the Route 8 bus picks up passengers at Westlake Ave.

The bus picked up dozens of riders at the stops near Westlake Ave and Fairview Ave before barrelling towards the finish line, behind just three runners. Bus 8266 finished at 5:45pm, clocking in a total race time of 4 minutes for the half-mile race. Last year, the bus took 21 minutes.

Three runners beat the bus by about 30 seconds. (Grace Lao)

Congratulations to the three runners who beat the bus, the Fix the L8 campaign, and to everyone who advocates for improving transit service.

32 Replies to “Race the Gr8”

  1. I raced the 8 and the 8 won. I even got a head start because I thought they said “go” (they actually said “line up”). I’m a fast walker and I jaywalked a minor street. I leap frogged the bus for a while but it was clearly much faster. The bus slowed down because a few cars were turning right on Boren. They were waiting for pedestrians — including the runners. If not for that I think the bus would have beaten everyone.

    1. They were waiting for pedestrians — including the runners.

      Even a few blocks of bus lanes can overcome foul play!

      1. But I thought all the new bus lanes were before (west) of the start line. Am I wrong about that or was the reconfiguration of the I-5 ramp access the bigger factor?

        1. No, the race was specifically along the new lanes between Dexter and Stewart.

          The Yale slip lane closure preceded the new lanes by a week or two.

    2. Waiting out in the hot sun
      I raced the 8 and the 8 won

      I needed fare ’cause I had none
      I raced the 8 and the 8 won

      I missed my bus and I feel so bad
      I guess my race is run
      I raced the 8 and the 8 won

      Robbin’ drivers with a paint-gun
      I raced the 8 and the 8 won

      I missed my bus and its no fun
      I raced the 8 and the 8 won

      I missed my bus and I feel so bad
      I guess my race is run
      She was the worst route that we ever had
      I raced the 8 and the 8 won
      I raced the 8 and the 8 won

      2. We should have more poems. Somebody used to post a transit poem a couple times a year. I’ll dig up my haiku-writing skills. Not for this reply though; I need more time to think. I had one in my mind yesterday but now I’ve forgotten it.

      3. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Now in your head are you thinking of the Clash version, the (much earlier) Bobby Fuller version or something more obscure, like the Dead Kennedys? For me its the Clash.

        1. I’ve always thought of the Bobby Fuller version. I didn’t realize so many artists had covered this song. In fact Bobby Fuller was a cover of the original 1960 Crickets version. Even the Grateful Dead covered it live during their ’93-’94 tour. Another classic version was Roy Orbison in 1972.

          We need to get Dave Ross to come out of retirement and perform this version!

    3. Oh, and while it was disappointing that I ended up getting a head start it was actually a more realistic “race”. It is quite common — especially in the days before OneBusAway — to look for a bus and just say “never mind — I’m going to walk”. Again, I’m a fast walker. I think I would have been ahead of most or all of the people walking. But the only way I beat some of the runners is by getting a head start. But a lot of the runners lost. The bus is fast now. This is good.

  2. Congratulations to the runners, and congratulations to the city too! That is a huge improvement, and showcases what’s possible!

  3. Now, we need the bus to run more often. Otherwise, people will still choose to drive because it is faster to sit in traffic than to walk to and then wait for the bus.

    This is especially true in the evenings, as the 8’s frequency drops to every 20 minutes around 8 PM and every 30 minutes at 10 PM. If running the higher frequency all the way down MLK to Mt. Baker is too expensive, perhaps the 8 could be re-jiggered so that half the trips end at Madison Valley, allowing the part of the route with the heaviest ridership to run more often.

    1. In theory if the bus takes significantly less time to make a run there the same number of hours should provide more frequency. And, if the bus runs more frequently it will run faster because each bus has to pick up fewer people. If you do the calculus, a bus that runs at infinite frequency will cost zero dollars to operate ;-)

      1. Metro saves a few bucks now that the 8 isn’t inefficiently stuck in gridlock. The amount of makes little difference in Metro’s total budget. This will free up a few service hours, and Metro/the Seattle Transit Measure will allocate the hours to whatever’s their highest priority at the time, which may or may not be the 8.

    2. Truncating the 8 would help as well. Ideally, the 8 should run only between LQA and MLK . The separated segmented would then operate between Cap Hill and Mt Baker. Yes, there would be overlap but it’ss needed so that central district residents can access Kaiser and Cap Hill without having to transfer.

      1. An off-the-wall thought. Would routing the 106 into Capitol Hill via Martin Luther King and John make sense? Most folks riding from south of Henderson headed for downtown are going to change to Link anyway with the Pioneer Square terminus, probably at Othello.

        So they don’t get penalized, but folks along King Drive get a fairly quick ride to Capitol Hill.

        I’m not frothing at the mouth to have this happen, just suggesting it as a possibility.

  4. I think it’s ok to sit on them, provided that you move for somebody who needs the seat more when asked.

  5. My experience us link riders are generally less courteous than bus riders when it comes to eldely/disabled seating on kcm i rarely have to ask someone to move but on link people will just there and stare at you as you stagger trying to find a seat somewhere re. If you practically beg they might moviegoers of don’t blame them. In some ways…Standing a moving link train really bites.
    Being mobility impaired I’ve noticed this marked difference between riders on the 2 modes for several years.

    [ED: this comment is off-topic, but clearly meant to be a reply to comment meant for today’s Open Thread which was originally posted here. Leaving this comment and its replies up, though. Further discussion should happen on the Open Thread]

    1. Kinda makes sense, at least for this moment in time. Since the line goes from out of town to in-town, I’ll bet you have a lot of people riding Link who aren’t regular transit users, and who aren’t accustomed to transit etiquette.

    2. On Link, the disabled seating area has higher clearance underneath the seats, which makes it the best place to sit for passengers with large luggage. Ideally, they would have thought about this when designing the rest of the seats – after all, this is a train that goes to the airport – but, they did not.

  7. To the STB. My bad. I meant for this Link seating comment, and my below Spring District TOD comment, to be on the Roundup, not the Gr8 post.

    1. You can repost them in the other article and then we can delete them here. It’s a bit confusing with two articles on the roundup day, but we wanted to get the Gr8 information out as soon as possible.

  8. Awesome to see. I’ve never been a heavy user of the 8 myself but I’ve been a regular user of some other routes whose reliability was seriously improved by slapping down some paint. I don’t think any of those routes were as bad as the 8, nor do I think any of those improvements, as much as I appreciate them, have the potential that improving the 8 does.

  9. Between this success and the improvements to the 40, it is clear we don’t need the entire rapidride treatment to speed up our workhorse buses.

    1. Agreed. The focus really should be on avoiding congestion first. Then increasing frequency. Then after all of that is done (system wide) it makes sense to consider improvements that come from RapidRide.

      1. What RapidRide-specific improvements are really left, though? Every route has rear-door Orca readers, and any route can have bus lanes. Really, the purpose of RapidRide is to get grant money to buy buses, rather than having to pay for the buses out of pocket. With a federal government that isn’t giving money to RapidRide anyway, there’s no point in having it. Just improve the regular numbered routes and call it good.

        1. I think the RapidRide branding is still quite impactful. Without the branding, some of the transit improvements for the I or K would not be on the table, and the J might have lost the fight in Eastlake.

          If it’s politically possible to build the transit improvements without the branding (see: 40 TPMC) that’s probably better though, especially if we aren’t able to get federal funding

  10. How has the 8 been between the Pacific Science Center and the beginning of the bus lanes? Based on my limited time in the area, it seems that the bus must surely be “losing” a few minutes (i.e., 1 – 2 light cycles) during peak hours in that stretch, as drivers merge from the right lane into the left lane where the bus lanes begin, but this is more than made up for by the bus lane section. Is this the case? Gr8 win overall!

    1. It wouldn’t surprise me if people are just avoiding Denny now. They find a different way to get there like heading up to Mercer or south to downtown (Cherry, Spring, etc.). Denny used to be a pretty good way to get to the freeway. Now it isn’t.

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