West Seattle Blog…

TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Eclipse Wednesday

November 28, 2012 at 6:33 am | In West Seattle news, West Seattle traffic alerts | 10 Comments

(Live view from the only WS Bridge camera currently in operation; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
Another quiet start to the commute. However – if you can see the moon to the west – note that a “subtle” type of eclipse is under way right now; here’s an explanation.

7:10 AM: The moon’s finally going out of range. Still dry outside, but rain is expected to start before this afternoon.

10 Comments

1. This isn’t traffic related more bus but the Seattle Times has a front page story (print edition) about how rapid ride is fast in West Seattle and West Seattle is mostly happy. Guess the reporter didn’t talk to anyone in West Seattle…

   http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019777003_ballardbus28m.html

   Comment by Julie — 8:26 am November 28, 2012 #

2. In case anybody feels the need to do a little writing this morning (i.e. COMMENTS), check out this Rapid Ride article in today’s Seattle Times, which begins with the statement, “While the new RapidRide bus mostly lives up to its name in West Seattle, passengers on its sister route to Ballard are routinely stuck in traffic.”

   http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019777003_ballardbus28m.html“

   Comment by Chris W. — 8:30 am November 28, 2012 #

3. Please read the whole story beyond the headline (which generally is NOT written by the reporter). The reporter is Mike Lindblom, who is a West Seattleite and who in fact we ran into at the California/Fauntleroy RapidRide stop yesterday morning when we stopped to photograph the Metro rep who was there to talk with riders (the photo was added yesterday morning to the Tuesday traffic/transit tracker – we got a cameraphone shot of Mike talking with Ashley but it didn’t come out so well so we didn’t use it). You can certainly add your impressions but I just wanted to correct the suggestion he didn’t talk to anyone in West Seattle. Mike actually commutes more often by bike/transit than by car and in particular often tweets about RapidRide (http://twitter.com/mikelindblom ) … he comments here, too. I’m sure he will be interested in your substantive thoughts and counter-opinions, though … TR

   Comment by WSB — 8:49 am November 28, 2012 #

4. Selective interviewing at the Times? A Pollyana editor perhaps?

   Comment by East Coast Cynic — 10:40 am November 28, 2012 #

5. Hi neighbors -

   Thanks for the criticism and e-mails, keep them coming.

   The C Line is my home route. I’ve taken it about 40 times since the Sept. 29 change. Personally, it’s working better for me than the local 54, because of high frequency. (Though I do hate side-facing seats, which cause nausea when reading.)

   Certainly it works better than the Ballard line, which was the whole point of today’s story….and WS is in better shape than many corridors in the north and central city. If delay is your bag, try the 8 on Denny Way!

   If you live south of Findlay Street, try the 116 that goes directly from the ferry terminal via Fauntleroy. That should be faster than a C.

   Comment by Mike Lindblom — 10:54 am November 28, 2012 #

6. A very diaapointing article from a West Seatte resident. Too much K C Metro bias.

   Comment by dwar — 11:22 am November 28, 2012 #

7. I read the article when I first posted about it this morning. I haven’t had time to write up what I found so disappointing until now. With the first sentence I can’t say that it lives up to its name, the rapid ride isn’t more rapid then the 54, 54x and 55. The article notes that the rapid ride has bus only lanes on the West Seattle Bridge and 99 but this is not new because of Rapid ride and the old bus routes used these lanes as well. There’s been a bus lane on the West Seattle Bridge since I moved to West Seattle 5 years ago. What is the 17 to 18 minute ride time, is this from Metro? I ride the bus from downtown to the junction and my commute is never that fast. From downtown my commute time has increased 10-20 minutes since they started rapid ride, it used to be about 20-25 minutes and now it is at least 35 and sometimes 50-55 minutes. From everything I read on the West Seattle blog about rapid ride I just can’t believe that it’s faster for anyone.

   Comment by Julie — 12:57 pm November 28, 2012 #

8. Holy cow Julie, 35 to 55 minutes…What time of day are you traveling? That 17-18 minute typical figure is from reading my stopwatch and phone clock in the mornings, 8:25 a.m. runs from WS Junction to 2/Columbia. Takes another 5-10 minutes to reach Westlake Center because of the downtown and ORCA problems that also mess with the Ballard line.
   Look up next time your C bus exits at Avalon Way and turns left to go uphill. It nearly always trips the light green so the bus doesn’t have to stop. This is exactly the kind of thing BALLARD doesn’t have yet, which was the point of the story.

   Comment by Mike Lindblom — 2:36 pm November 28, 2012 #

9. I take the bus from Pike/Pine at around 530 pm depends on the day. Most of the delays are downtown with waiting for a bus to show up, people trying to cram onto an already full bus, and drivers having to kick off people to put wheel chairs on etc. Then the buses not being able to turn right on Columbia for multiple lights. It often takes 20 minutes just to get out of downtown. One could argue that all buses are delayed by downtown traffic but often the rapid ride gets passed by other routes due to boarding.

   Comment by Julie — 4:42 pm November 28, 2012 #

10. My wife and I have recorded departure and arrival times for 21 of the 40+ morning rush-hour Rapid Ride C trips we’ve each taken to date from the Morgan Junction stop (California and Fauntleroy) to 2nd and Seneca. The average duration (arithmetic mean) of those trips is 28.5 minutes; the median is 28 minutes. Our average departure time from that stop is 8:14am.
    .
    @Mike – You say the 17-18 minute typical figure you found is based on an 8:25 a.m. departure from the Alaska Junction to “2/Columbia.” (If I’m not mistaken you mean 2nd and Seneca?) I’m trying to reconcile that with the 28.5-minute average travel time from two stops prior that I’ve documented. It seems odd that it would take ten or eleven minutes for the Rapid Ride to travel the two stops from California and Fauntleroy to the Alaska Junction. I thought it might be due to varying departure times but when I limit my dataset to departures ten minutes either side of 8:25, the average travel time is still 28.5 minutes.
    .
    A longer commute time (versus the 54X) is but one of the many frustrations Rapid Ride has wrought. Others include lack of dependability (no schedule and sporadic gaps between buses), dehumanizingly jam-packed buses bordering on unsafe, and inconveniently larger gaps between stops.
    .
    I have been a loyal Metro transit rider for 12 years. The experience of the last few months has caused me greater doubt and shame about Metro than any other experience with Metro in those twelve years.
    .
    If riders are now less vocally upset than at the outset of Rapid Ride, I hope it’s because service and happiness have improved, and not because riders are now resigned to poorer service and less happiness.

    Comment by Ben — 12:04 am November 29, 2012 #

Sorry, comment time is over.