A collision on 3rd Avenue downtown has blocked that major bus route, and we’re hearing about it from West Seattle-bound riders. Metro’s official advisory is: “Buses are rerouted off NB 3 Av between Spring/Union Sts. Use stops on 3 Av south of Spring St/north of Union St.”
Third Avenue is technically open southbound, but it’s a parking lot. Avoid it all together if you have a choice.
Very backed up. On the 55 on third approaching pine, at a standstill.
We’ve been stuck at Union going southbound on a 56 for about 15+ minutes, and nothing is moving. The announcement said it was a bus/pedestrian accident.
Buses are cutting each other off, speeding down the road. We are still at pine.
The 55 just made it through – it took 45 minutes to go from Virginia to Columbia.
It was truly amazing the amount of gridlock that bus produced being in the center of Third at University with all University EB traffic being routed SB on Third, and occasional gridlock at 3rd and Seneca and many of the cross-streets. NB third buses routed right on Spring, left on 4th, left at Union. The 4:56 56 mentioned above showed up around 5:40.
It was crazy, considering other buses were speeding through. 45 minutes to go 5 blocks.
I’d like to know why Metro never sent out text alerts about this. I was waiting at 3rd & Spring for the 55, seeing the chaos just north, but had no idea what happened or if there were reroutes. I ended up walking back to the transit tunnel for light rail to SODO and grabbed the 50 bus. It wasn’t until at least 30 min after Ieft the bus stop that I found out what happened on Twitter (which I never use, but thought I’d check). And even then they were delayed in saying anything.
I’m really sorry someone was injured, but some info/alerts would have been nice.
Sue – I got an alert at 4:38. Don’t know which list, I’m on a bunch, but it was a general alert about 3rd Ave.
Thanks. I’m surprised I didn’t get one then. I’m on several of their alert lists, and most of them being routes affected by this. I’ll double-check my lists.
I am on Metro alerts and did not receive one for this. I did read this news before leaving work but unfortunately assumed (yes, I know) it would be cleared up or the buses would reroute by the time I went through the area.
I say some buses were speeding because our driver was allowing other buses to pass and so there were pockets of space where about 4 buses sped through and cut us off. During one attempt to pull over to the curb, another bus rushed us, honked and prevented us from leaving the middle lane. It also didn’t help that there were regular cars on third, where they aren’t allowed during commuter hours.
Not sure what newnative means by speeding. I walked from Virginia to Columbia, 5:45 to 6:05pm. No buses passed me. Zero, because they simply were not moving at all. I ended up on a 55 that I’d walked past 15 minutes earlier.
The C line is still running a 17 minute delay for the current bus. But it appears back on track after that if anyone is wondering.
It wasn’t just 3rd Ave. My bus runs on 2nd and I was told it was late due to a blockage. I’m sorry to hear someone was injured but that doesn’t explain all of the other days my bus is late or a no show.
I was S/Bound on D Line. Got off and walked south past accident scene. Northbound Metro struck pedestrian and there was a smashed windshield on the right front of the Bus. I walked to the Train Station. All traffic was backed up, even to the Train Station.
I have looked at many local news outlets and have not seen any mention of this anywhere…that is sort of a big deal when there is a bus/pedestrian accident. weird.
I know- the radio silence on this is crazy! This was a major accident that caused hours of gridlock. We should know what happened and what they plan to do to fix his in the future.
unbelievable that no mention was in this morning’s Times…is Metro trying to pretend that all their people are perfect?
I can’t help but wonder if the low profile of this accident has anything to do with Metro being involved. maybe i’m just reading to much into it.
I was there when it happened. There was a loud sound of the collision and I looked over and saw a woman sliding on the pavement about 10 feet, facedown, from the force of the impact. My coworker knows first aid and ran over to help. He said it seemed like the woman was inebriated. From the circumstances at the sidewalk, she was definitely in the road when she shouldn’t have been. Police officers were there immediately so we were only on scene for a couple minutes.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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