The Trouble With Metro Transit, Part 3645
One of the nice things about moving was that I was finally breaking free of Metro’s complete disregard for northwest Seattle (two bus routes, none of which go near my work?) The new house is just a few blocks from a stop for SIX different routes, one of which goes to work, the other five all being one connection away. Finally, I could ditch the car a few days a week for the clean, efficient bus system.
At least, I thought I could. Then I discovered this morning that the 316 driver wouldn’t stop to pick me up.
No, the bus wasn’t even close to full.
No, it was only about a minute late.
Yes, if you’ve ever met me, I’m quite conspicuous and you can see me from a ways away.
Oh, and it was driving in the LEFT lane on College Way. She had no intention of stopping, period.
I ended up catching another bus that went to Northgate, transferred there, waited 20 minutes, and got to work 30 minutes late. It takes me less time than that to DRIVE to work on a low-traffic Friday.
So, why should I park the car and ride the bus when the drivers are going to just blow right past my stop?
The bus service in Seattle sucks. Most people around here are totally delusional about it. If they lived or traveled to a city that actually has real rapid transit (light rail/metro subway etc.)they understand immediately what I’m talking about.
Because of the propensity of Seattle regional political leaders to TALK about or STUDY something ad-nauseam then be too spineless to ACTUALLY do anything, this community has missed more then one train bus plane and boat when it comes to having a transit system that it should of had long ago.
Artist: I disagree with your opinion on Seattle’s bus service. Given that it’s the *only* public transit option available, the bus service in Seattle is fantastic (and it’s recognized nationally in that light, as well). The fact that there aren’t any other public transit options available makes any hiccup in Metro’s service stand out. When light rail starts up (sometime in the next millennium), it’ll be interesting to witness how the din of complaints about Seattle transit changes - will there still be as many complaints about the bus service or will the common refrain be “at least it’s better than light rail”?
The rest of your comment I agree with - our leaders have failed us time and again.
perhaps you were being punished for not participating in Ride Your Bike To Work Day?
I think there’s a big, general image problem that any less-than-perfect transit system suffers from. When a driver has a crappy commute one day, they tend to appropriately blame the individual idiot who cut them off, or the specific patch of roadworks that slowed them down but won’t be there forever, not the entire roads-and-cars transport system. Yet when someone relatively new to public transport commuting has a bad experience, it tends to turn them against the network as a whole, and then they go back to car commuting and never get the chance to find out that most days commuting by bus does not suck.
This isn’t meant as a dig at Dylan personally, or even at Seattleites - when I lived in London I saw this happening all the time there too.
I completely agree with Eldan. I lived in DC for 8 years and I have to say that the bus system in Seattle gets me around just as well as the Metro did there. AND it’s cheaper. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t like to see Seattle get something MORE than the bus system, but I wish people would admit that the service here is pretty robust.
Dylan, I feel your pain! Now granted, I live in the sticks of Woodinville, but my work is a 15 minute drive that’s almost all straight from my stop to my work. Due to the inability for Seattle Metro to use logic I have to take two buses and it takes an hour to get there. An hour to get someplace that it takes me 15 minutes to drive, even when the traffic is backed up a mile? Why the hell would I ever even think about riding the bus?
I get pissed off at all the people that tell me that because I have such a short trip to work that I should use the bus. I barely have enough time to do all the things I need to do in a day, but now I’m expected to just cut out 2 hours of my day (actually it’s more like 2 and 1/2 hours when you count in the time getting to the bus stops) doing a whole lot of nothing just because I happen to live close to work. The only system that’s going to get me out of my car is something that’s logical (meaning not having to ride two buses to go in a straight line)and doesn’t add more than 20 minutes to my trip.
Eldan, I agree with you. When I worked downtown, I rode the bus every day. But it was the abysmal service between Broadview and the U District that drove me to, um, drive. And driving is extremely convenient — you control when you come and go and don’t have to stop for anyone else. Broadview to the U District in near-gridlock traffic is 40 minutes (20 minutes the rest of the time). My commute home on the bus (44 -> 355) would sometimes run 90 minutes.
So, transitioning back to riding the bus, even though now that I have real route choices and reasonable commute times and gas is $3.50/gal, was going to be a challenge. Getting passed up for no good reason just made me want to walk back home and jump in the car.
I used to live outside of London, and the great thing was I needed a car exactly twice in the time I lived there. Twice. Yeah, the Tube was smelly and prone to breakdowns, the buses were slow, and my feet hurt from all the walking, but it’s still really convenient, and in the pre-congestion-charge days, it really was faster than driving across town.
I hope you called METRO to complain. The service will not get better otherwise and with union drivers there has to be an ACTUAL complaint in order for any sort of disciplinary procedure to start.
Yeah, I forgot that part: I did call Metro shortly afterwards to complain. Got a live person, too. We’ll see if I ever hear from them again….
Thanks for calling Metro. Seriously, Cameron’s right, you’ve really got to call in to make a difference. I wish more people would. I’ve found that Metro customer service is actually quite responsive, I hope you have a similar experience.
All you need to do is bring a bullhorn with you every morning. Maybe KC Metro will finally be able to acknowledge that you exist…
I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Metro’s customer service. I’ve called a few times to complain about missing buses, to find a bus route somewhere new, or a few weeks back when I left my wallet on the bus on a Friday afternoon. That last incident truly sold me on their customer service. The gentleman I spoke to placed me on hold, then checked in with me every minute for the next ten minutes to update me on the situation. He contacted the metro driver, who found a place to pull over so that she could search for my wallet while in mid-route. Fantastic people.
Those who were complaining about Metro routes taking them 2 1/2 hours on their daily commute, can you ride your bike during the nicer months instead of driving?
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Did you flag the driver down? I think the instructions on the bus schedule say that you’re supposed to make eye contact with the driver to let them know if you want that bus. Especially at a stop with 6 routes, you’ll want to flag them down.