West Seattle snow: Metro woes explained — “judgment call”

| Transportation | West Seattle news | West Seattle weather

As mentioned earlier, we followed up further with King County Council Chair Dow Constantine‘s office to get beyond the statement issued earlier, which acknowledged bus problems and urged better performance/communication next time. There hasn’t been a statement on that directly from Metro yet, so our simple question – so what WAS the problem – has a simple answer, according to the Constantine team, which checked directly with Metro after receiving numerous complaints about late/no-show buses: It was a “judgment call.” Metro management told them that serious snow was NOT predicted in the info they had late last night, when they had to make the call about whether to spend the money to bring in the extra/overtime staff to chain buses and handle extra communications duties. (There was one short, heavy blast of snow/hail around quarter till midnight – as we showed you here – then it cleared out for several hours before the serious snow began in the 4/5 am vicinity.) So they weren’t ready for what happened with the weather.

E.Twin February 26, 2009 (3:39 pm)

How difficult is it for the Metro website guru to put a message on the website saying anything about delays. ANYTHING? How many hundreds of people were standing out in a half inch of snow in West Seattle after faithfully checking the website before going out to catch the bus thinking “there is no way they’d screw this up again”. I’m venting because I was one of them. NOT A BUS to be had on Admiral between 6am and 8am. And no message on the website as of 6:35 am. I’m pissed.

Allie February 26, 2009 (4:38 pm)

I hear you E.Twin! Same in lower Queen Anne. No buses – nothing on the website – and really no snow on the main streets! Soooo frustrating! They need to tell us what’s going on – even if that means saying – We weren’t ready and you are screwed. Metro suggests you drive or walk this morning.

Bunnypug February 26, 2009 (4:45 pm)

I also tried checking Metro’s website before leaving the house to wait in the cold for a bus for almost 2 hours.

F.Keller February 26, 2009 (4:53 pm)

I so agree with you both! I even sent a complaint to Metro regarding the service this morning but I doubt it will help. Funny thing was, when I waited for the #54 for almost an hour and NOTHING, I decided to drive and everything was just fine. Seems odd that a huge bus couldn’t make it. It’s just so annoying, 1 snowflake and the entire community of West Seattle shuts down. It’s incredible.

KT February 26, 2009 (6:01 pm)

This is getting laughable. Dow Constantine called it a “sudden storm event” Are you kidding? It was neither sudden or an “event”. This was hardly a significant storm. I was one of those people standing at a bus stop wondering where in the world my bus was at 8:45am with only wet roads all around me. They made a “judgement” call. As usual, poor judgement. As usual, no one is held responsible. Mr. Constantine says that he urged Metro and encouraged Metro to communicate. How about ordered them, directed them, etc… Can no one lead in Government around here? Who are these taxpayer funded agencies responsible to? I would love to urge and recommend that people do whatever they have to do to find a means of transportation other than Metro but I know that unfortunately for many it is the only ride in town.

cakeitseasy February 26, 2009 (6:49 pm)

King County Metro: “We’ll Get You There…Like, Whenever”.

“Judgement call” eh? Well, here’s my “judgement call” Metro, You suck. Again.
7:30-8:00am…two buses whiz past…not full, one empty (wtf?). Waited another 30 minutes. Next bus a packed local. 1hr 55min late to work. The roads were clear, CLEAR! It was no worse than rain. You want reliable transit in Seattle? Get a CAR. Metro gives me reasons to *heart* my car each and every day. Thanks (for nothing) Metro!

Smitty February 26, 2009 (7:11 pm)

This Global Warming thing is throwing everyone for a loop.

Jim February 26, 2009 (8:23 pm)

The perfect storm if you will. The county had to make a judgment call, whilst the regions weather radar has been out of commission for a couple days. A blind judgment call is what that was. Our beloved WS Blog has shown it is possible to provide information to a wide population, from numerous mobile situations, it seems the county should be able to have one person uploading info to the web site as needed. It would go a long way to resolving this continuing problem.

WSB February 26, 2009 (8:38 pm)

That’s a suggestion I offered in one note … maybe they could even put up a jerryrigged blog-format site if it gave them quicker access to post SOMETHING, even simple anecdotal stuff like “Most routes in West Seattle are delayed” …. (and it’s not just us BTW, having had time to check our friends at My Ballard, I see they had a mirror situation:
http://www.myballard.com/2009/02/26/another-morning-with-snow-on-the-ground/

Kelly K February 26, 2009 (10:53 pm)

It was ridiculous this morning. At least since the roads were perfectly clear, it gave me a chance to be the driver and give a ride to a stranded neighbor (paying it forward for the nice person who helped me out in December).

Sorry, comment time is over.