While we lament the loss of Seattle’s frequent bus network (which has largely been in place since the opening of University Link in 2016), Pierce Transit is in a much more dire situation. Due to a smaller sales tax base, and the fact that Pierce Transit currently only levies a 0.6% sales tax (with measures to increase the levy in 2011 and 2012 both failing), transit was already sparse before the pandemic. 30-minute headways would be considered “frequent service” in Pierce County, with only routes 1 and 2 (in addition to better-funded Sound Transit service) ever exceeding that, and frequencies rarely better than hourly on weekends. A recent restructure of service had improved matters, and effectively brought 30-minute headways to as many places as possible given the limited resources, without having to reduce weekend service. Additionally, it extended the span of service on most routes to 10 PM. So while frequency of these routes weren’t all that good, it would still probably run late enough to get you home.

Then the pandemic happened, and this threw a wrench in the slowly-improving prospects for a usable transit network in Pierce County. In a series of changes in April and May, Pierce Transit reduced service to match ridership demand. As a result, service would generally run on weekdays would run as often as it would on Saturdays, but would run as late into the evening as it normally does on weekdays (with some exceptions). With Pierce Transit planning for the future, Pierce Transit is faced with pressure to restore service while facing financial troubles in the future. With Pierce Transit’s September 2020 service change schedules out, we see their solution: cut frequency on Sundays to bring back mostly normal service on weekdays and Saturdays.

• Alex Pedersen floats the idea of canceling RapidRide J (Roosevelt), but it’s still on track.
• Update on Rainier Ave improvements.
• Metro rolls out new Covid safety measures.
• This TNT editorial ($) is wrong, but does provide important information about how Pierce Transit will change.
• After Council vote, scooters are formally coming to Seattle. Alex Pedersen is only vote against.
• Spin joins Lime e-scooters in White Center.
• Some Intercity Transit service coming back Sept. 20.
• SF Muni Metro closing for the rest of the year (!) due to maintenance issues.
• Uber boosting electric vehicle incentives.
• The trouble with angled parking.
• Similarities between the USPS and transit agencies.

This is an open thread.

Sen. Markey defeated Cong. Joe Kennedy III, the first ever primary loss for the Kennedy dynasty, last Tuesday.

This is an open thread.

• Sound Transit’s 6-year Draft Transit Development Plan is out. Not much interesting in it, although yearly ridership charts show ridership was plateauing across all modes in 2019. There’s a public hearing on it Thursday.
• Clallam Transit also has a 6-year plan.
• Incredibly, the Point Defiance Bypass is still not operational ($).
• King County promises 50% cut in emissions by 2030.
• Rep. Jayapal “pretty confident” Feds will fund part of West Seattle Bridge replacement.
• More Bellevue Tunnel pics.
• There’s a survey on Route 44 Improvements.
• The passenger ferry study Dan wrote up in June continues. 45 potential routes are down to 8: check out the 80 minute webinar, or a much shorter writeup.
• Sound Transit’s Federal Way art program vandalized. It might be racially motivated.
• Real-time app “transee” now has estimated bus load factors.
• A list of outdoor dining streets.
• Too many cars, not enough parking at Mt. Rainier National Park. If only there were a technology to move more people with less road space…

This is an open thread.

Metro has been signaling for a long time that major service cuts were coming. Between the impending expiration of Seattle STBD funding (with only very partial replacement) and the major loss of sales tax revenue caused by COVID-19, the funding picture is drastically different than it was a year ago. Now we know just how major those cuts will be. On Saturday, September 19, Metro’s network will regress to its worst state in years.

Very little is spared. We lose most of the additional frequency on the Seattle network that STBD funded. Much night and weekend service that became frequent in recent years won’t be frequent anymore. Express service suspended during the pandemic because of lower commute ridership isn’t coming back for the time being. Outside Seattle, service restructures built on increased frequency (including those in Kirkland and Kent) are going to lose some of that frequency. There are so many cuts, affecting so much of the network, that we have little choice but to present them in chart form. But the big picture is that local service is largely back to 2013 levels, and peak-hour commuters will have to use that reduced local service instead of the expresses they were used to before the pandemic.

This is not a formula for continuing Seattle’s transit mode share growth, reducing carbon emissions, or improving mobility for people without cars. The reduced network makes both commute and off-work trips slower and wait times longer. More people are going to drive and park, especially those traveling nights and weekends. As traffic volume recovers, expect worse traffic than Seattle has seen before. The city is going to have a tough time meeting the mode share goals it set for the West Seattle bridge closure. Even once the pandemic is over, it is going to be a sustained and difficult political effort to restore Seattle bus service to where it was at the end of 2019, let alone to make any of the further improvements Metro imagined in Metro Connects..

If there is any good news, it is that Metro wisely has sought to spare those routes that have carried the most essential workers during the pandemic. Workhorse routes that have seen only modest drops in ridership, mostly in the south end, are almost totally unaffected.

In addition to the cuts, there is a significant restructure of service in and around Kent. Normally we would give this much more coverage, as it will improve service for Kent-Auburn riders (even after the cuts) and make some east-west trips faster and simpler. But since the cuts are so sweeping and will make this post so long, we’ll refer riders in Kent to our earlier post for details. That post remains accurate except for COVID-related cuts detailed below.

Two charts listing out all the cuts are below the jump: one for all-day service and one for peak-hour service.