Capitol Hill loves its buses. Science says so. There are some big changes coming for the only significant public transit system currently serving the neighborhood. Notes on those, some useful info for drivers encountering buses (stay calm!), and an invitation to dream big about the next generation of electric trolleys to ply the Hill, below.
- No more free rides + pay on entry — Come this fall, there will be some big changes to the Metro bus experience in Seattle. For one, the ride free area is slated to be eliminated as a cost-cutting measure. But the bigger change will be the end of the flipping of the sign — Starting in late September, all Metro routes in all directions will be pay-as-you-enter. Every time. No exceptions. No groans from the driver when you forget. Because you won’t forget. Because there won’t be anything to remember. Like Metro is wont to do, there is an open house on the changes slated for next week. Information on that is below. You can also submit comments on the changes if you have suggestions as the agency gears up for the massive change in service. The comment period for the plan closes April 6. Information on how to add your brilliant ideas to the mix is below.
The Ride Free Area for buses in downtown Seattle is scheduled to be eliminated on Sept. 29, 2012. At the same time, riders will begin paying when entering the bus for all trips.
These changes will help King County Metro Transit save money and preserve bus service. Sound Transit and Community Transit are also preparing to act on similar changes for their bus operations in King County.
The three agencies and the city of Seattle are hosting an open house to update the community and get feedback:
Thursday, March 29
4-6:30 p.m.
Union Station Great Hall
401 S. Jackson St., SeattleMetro is currently working with Sound Transit, Community Transit, and Seattle on an implementation plan for the Ride Free Area changes. This includes options to address transportation needs of low or no-income people who use the Ride Free Area to travel to essential support services in the downtown area.
The Sound Transit Board is scheduled to vote in June on charging fares for ST Express bus trips within the downtown area, consistent with current policy for Link light rail.
If you cannot attend the open house, you can get more information and comment on the plan by visiting the How to Ride webpage. Comments can also be emailed; or submitted by phone: 206-296-7643; 206-263-9988 (Spanish); or 206-263-9674 (Vietnamese). The comment period on the implementation plan ends April 6.
yeah, right! I’m happy to yield when the driver signals before reentering traffic. The guy who starts on the north end of Bellevue around 5:30 pm RARELY signals. He’s almost pulled into me a couple times as he leaves the start of the run. He’s not the only one.
ending the ride free area seems more like an assault on the homeless who board buses downtown than an actual cost cutting measure.
I commute by bus but I used to drive, so I’ve been on both sides of the problem. As a driver, I try to give buses a wide berth – they don’t always signal but you usually can get a sense for whether or not they’re about to try to re-enter traffic. As a passenger, I have see two near collisions in just the past two days. The first was the car driver being a bonehead, as the bus had clearly been trying to merge in and cars kept racing past. There was finally a gap, the bus started to move over, and a car came racing up the hill out of nowhere, tried to get past and ended up slamming on his brakes instead.
The second incident was the bus driver being a bonehead, with a slight factor of the car probably going too fast and not paying attention. I don’t know if the bus driver signaled, but he pulled directly out into traffic without waiting and the car driver actually ended up swerving into the lane for oncoming traffic (of which there was thankfully none) and slamming on his brakes until the bus continued on.
All of which is to say – drive carefully people, whether you’re in a bus or a car, don’t rely on anyone actually using their signals, and remember that cars do have to yield for buses whether you like it or not.
That’s not the only thing the 14 forgets to do. Like leave on time. I can’t tell you how many times I have been late and missed my connector bus because the 14 wanted to take a 20-30 minute break and leave it’s post at the end of Bellevue 10-15 minutes late. I don’t know what they are doing? Scares me that they are in the Lookout knocking a few back before they drive? They sure can’t seem to be able to tell time! I finally gave up and started walking up around the corner to catch the 43 on Olive. At least when they run late, I don’t see the bus sitting at the end of the street for 10 minutes before they were supposed to leave, then waiting an additional 15 minutes or so after they were supposed to be at my stop to pull away and begin route. The 14 isn’t the only bus that has problems. It all can’t be traffic, not when I witness the things I see. These bus drivers for whatever reason seem to be the only people in the city that can be late every day with no consequences. Thing that sucks is, most the people who ride them face serious consequences when late…and Seattle can’t figure out why it can’t get people to ride the bus? Try holding your drivers accountable for when they leave their initial stop late. I understand that there is traffic and a bus will be late occasionally. But it’s not traffic causing the problems for the most part. It’s lazy, possibly disgruntled drivers.
In my experience as a driver, the metro drivers almost always put on their signal before re-entering traffic. It is very unusual when they do not do this. Drivers who say otherwise are just flat-out lying and using this as a justification not to obey the law.
It’s the law, right there in the RCW. I wonder what the history of the law is.
Should be signal and then reenter traffic and not the usual signal while pulling into traffic. Bus drivers need to help solve the problem too.
which buses typically activate while loading passengers.
They then cancel the 4-way flashers and activate the left turn flashers before merging back into traffic.
If you are about to pass the bus, and can’t see its right side, there’s no way to tell 4-way flashers from left turn flashers, especially if there’s almost no lag between canceling one and activating the other.
Are you reporting the lateness? If you’re repeatedly unhappy with a particular driver, you should call or email Metro. http://metro.kingcounty.gov/cs/services.html
You may need to contact them a number of times. It’s much more effective than complaining on a blog and insinuating the driver is drinking on the job.
In Santa Clara County (CA) the buses have a flashing yield sign on the back left. This starts flashing when they are about to reenter traffic… combined with the fact that the bus drivers just go regardless of cars being there, you learn to yield to buses. (As a driver, I’m totally happy to yield to bus because it’s a heck of a lot better than having an extra 20 cars in front of me.)
Finally! It always confused me why it was different depending on the route (yes, I guess I am stupid). This will also greatly speed up exiting, and fingers crossed help cut down hitching a free ride (no pun intended). And so you don’t think I am complete right winger, while I didn’t like the “free ride” zone, I think we need something of its kinda downtown, especially for tourists.
So very glad for the end of the ride free zone. Perhaps my buss will smell less like pee, body odor and booze.
When to pay on a Metro bus depends if the route travels through the Ride-Free Area. Outbound from the RFA – pay as you leave. Inbound, pay as you enter. If the bus doesn’t travel through the RFA, it’s pay as you enter, all the time.
I’ve heard that the RFA’s origin had to do with the city pitching in a few bucks to Metro in order to keep buses moving quickly through downtown. This may or may not be true.
I’ve always wanted to see the end of the RFA come with some sort of free downtown circulator bus (like route 99) for tourists. Maybe Belltown to Pioneer Square via 1st Avenue.
Of all the time I’ve spent in Santa Clara, I think the only public transit I’ve taken are Caltrain and the light rail. My question is, since the light rail actually utilizes roadways and has to merge into traffic at times, do the trains have the flashing yield signs?
Thanks
My favorite bus-driver comment ever: “The next stop is the last stop in the ride free zone. If you have lost your transfer, or don’t have the right change, or have no intention of paying a fare, this is YOUR stop!”
I agree. When the curb side signal is not visible, it is impossible to determine if bus is 4-way flashing and not going anywhere vs. signaling to merge into traffic.
In these situations, I assume it is signalling to merge into traffic, until I see otherwise. Which annoys drivers behind me.
(#thirdworldproblems)
Seattle doesn’t run the buses, King County Metro does. And their Web page has a very useful comment form for letting them know when you see driver behavior that concerns you. See here:
http://metro.kingcounty.gov/cs/feedback_choose.html
If the issues are severe enough, I’d recommend contacting your King County councilperson.
Yes, it goes back to the Magic Carpet days, and Seattle has been paying the County a fee for years to (supposedly) offset the service costs of the Ride Free Area. Unfortunately that fee has not been, as they say, indexed for inflation.
Read more history details here:
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&
Don’t get your hopes too high. Metro drivers aren’t going to enforce the fare if they feel their security is threatened; I suspect there will still be plenty of folks riding without paying, Ride Free Area or not. The only real way to change that is to increase the number of security folks on Metro, which costs $$.
Things I hope we see:
1) a 2+1 seating arrangement, rather than 2+2, at least for the front half of the bus. More rooms for strollers/walkers/wheelchairs/packages/dogs is a good thing, and more room for folks standing on our ever-busy trolley routes an equally good thing.
2) Wider doors. With everyone exiting out the back, can we make the back doors (and on the artics, both sets of ‘back doors’) wide enough for two people to use at once?
3) Regenerative braking. Take some of the energy gained from slowing down on hills/at lights and put it back onto the wire for other buses to use.
PS: Route 99 is slated to go away this fall due to low ridership. I agree with the idea of a circulator (love the ones in DC!) but I’m not sure free is the necessary precondition.
To combine two topics, how about a “re-entering traffic” flasher that looks different than the 4 way “stopping to load/unload” flashers?
Seriously. I can’t stand the homeless.
Finally they caught on to what EVERY OTHER CITY’s bus system does! Seattle is so stupid, took them this long to figure it out…
I’d like to see a bar cart in the afternoons and maybe a hotdog station in the artic bellows. This might at least make for happier people. Perhaps in the morning there could be a barista at the hot dog station serving local espresso and french press.
-b
Such a change is not necessary. Sheesh, just pay attention. If lights on both sides of the bus are flashing, it means it is stopped and you can drive on by. If only the light on the left side of the bus is flashing, it means it is pulling out and you need to yield.
This is just “driving 101.”