Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Crossing the bus only lane after the crest should be allowed!
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February 8, 2011 at 8:44 pm #597885
SmittyParticipantI have three ways to get to work.
1) 99N
2) 1st avenue south
3) 4th avenue south
A primary goal should be to have traffic adjust to the “path of least resistence”. I do not know which route is best until AFTER I can see the backups and/or congestion. We should be allowed to cross (not drive the length of, mind you) the bus lane if we want to in order to ease congestion.
Is it just me (it usually is!)?
February 8, 2011 at 9:21 pm #716768
metrognomeParticipantSmitty — I’m assuming you are referring to the eastbound bus-only lane on the WS bridge? I hate to say it, but I agree it is poorly designed in that you can’t make a good choice about which route to take until after you’ve crested the top of the bridge and if you want to change your mind about taking or not taking 99N, it’s too late to legally make the change.
I’m pretty sure you will be ticketed if you get caught crossing the transit-only lane, but I couldn’t find it in the municipal code. The P-I has a feature called ‘Getting There’ where you can ask these kinds of questions and they research the answer — maybe you should e-mail them: pitran@seattlepi.com
February 8, 2011 at 9:24 pm #716769
lucky chickMemberI wish they’d ticket people who drive in the bus-only lane. Shoot, anyone can use it, just TAKE THE BUS.
February 8, 2011 at 9:37 pm #716770
velo_nutParticipantYou could buy a helicopter, a blimp, a magic carpet, ride a bike or stop crying and use the lower bridge.
February 8, 2011 at 9:54 pm #716771
dhgParticipantGood point, Smitty. Did you get a ticket? I’ve never seen anyone ticketed for crossing those lines although I’ve seen many a driver do it.
February 8, 2011 at 11:55 pm #716772
SmittyParticipantI must not write well because I have written “getting there” twice on this issue and have yet to be published (or even answered). Will try again, thanks.
And just to be clear, I think busses should have every advantage, just wish we could “cross” (not travel in) that lane once we can actually see which route is best. Maybe “crossing” and “driving in” is kind of blurry – legally though. “officer, I was just crossing!”.
You would think the city would want that as well.
No ticket – but I know a few who have……
February 9, 2011 at 3:01 am #716773
sam-cParticipantSmitty- I know where you are coming from. Once a week I leave the WS penninsula for a meeting 40 miles north. I either take I-5 north, or 99 N to 80th and then cut over to get to I-5.
depending on the traffic on I-5 (which you can see from the crest of the bridge), I can get to my meeting on time, or 30 minutes late….
my default is to take 99,
(except for the time the handy dandy new sign told me that there was an accident closing the Battery street tunnel… and I think I had to cross-over the bus lane to take I-5. )
February 9, 2011 at 3:32 am #716774
ZenguyParticipantSmitty, not sure why you can’t cross over the bus lane, lord knows everyone else does. Agreed the people that travel in the bus lane should be ticketed.
February 9, 2011 at 6:16 am #716775
MagpieParticipantI thought you could cross the bus lane until the line became solid. Before that, you can cross over as needed (if anyone will let you in).
This morning I wanted to do something really bad to the guy who passed the entire right lane while drafting off the 54 in the bus lane for the entire length of the bridge. I was hoping that no one would let him in. It was a silver PT cruiser. Nothing worse than someone who rationalizes that their time is somehow more important than everyone else’s.
February 9, 2011 at 6:18 am #716776
flowerpetalMemberMy thinking is that you can cross over after the crest. The broken line that divides the lanes is way after the crest.
February 9, 2011 at 6:22 am #716777
MagpieParticipantReally? I thought the broken line was before the crest going eastbound and the line becomes solid right around the crest. I must be blind. Good thing I take the bus.
February 9, 2011 at 3:16 pm #716778
flowerpetalMemberNot necessarily Maggie. I may be the one who’s mistaken. I’m sure someone will look, see and correct me if it is before the crest.
February 9, 2011 at 3:20 pm #716779
redblackParticipantdo what i do when planning your route: check WSB every morning, especially the bridge cameras. the SDOT travelers’ information map is getting better and easier to use by the day, too.
February 9, 2011 at 4:31 pm #716780
JustSarahParticipantSorry, but if car drivers were allowed to cross through the bus-only lane to choose their route, there’d be so much criss-crossing that the purpose of the bus-only late would be defeated.
One can catch a glimpse of what this would be like on pretty much any morning in which traffic is backed up on the bridge. Screw the rules; cars drive up the bus-only lane only to slam on their brakes at the last possible second to cut onto the 99 on-ramp, they cross back and forth from the I-5/1st Ave.-bound lanes to 99-bound (“Ooh, this way must be faster… no, this way! Wait, I was right the first time!”), and generally just eliminate the benefit we bus-riders usually enjoy.
So no, I don’t think allowing “cross-over” traffic is a good idea.
February 9, 2011 at 4:40 pm #716781
sam-cParticipantat 10am, the ‘traffic on the bridge’ doesn’t give an indication of what traffic is like on I-5. luckily the 99N option usually works out to be the best bet anyway, unless the BS tunnel is blocked.
thanks for the link RB, I’ve bookmarked it.
February 9, 2011 at 5:59 pm #716782
SueParticipantI’m a bus commuter, and the problem as I see is is that the cars do cross the bus lane to get in, but they can’t *get* in because the traffic is backed up and/or the cars already there block them from merging. So while the intent of the driver was to just cross, they have in fact stopped and are blocking the bus lane. Several times in the past week my bus has had to merge left into a regular traffic lane to go around all the stopped cars that were blocking our bus-only lane. In a perfect world, if there was a quick merge across, it wouldn’t be an issue, but that’s not how it’s working out in reality.
February 9, 2011 at 7:30 pm #716783
celeste17ParticipantWhen I was on the bus this morning I looked at where the bus only lane actually started. It starts right at the crest of the bridge. So you should have one or two seconds to look at the traffic to make up your mind as to which way you are going to take.
February 10, 2011 at 4:25 pm #716784
CMPParticipantSo has anyone noticed that the DOT removed the diamonds from that lane and now it’s BUS ONLY? That means no cars. There should be no confusion that it’s possibly a carpool lane now.
And regarding the OP, you can generally tell if 99 is going to be backed up before you reach the crest of the bridge. If that far right lane isn’t backed up to the Delridge onramp, chances are good it’s moving along at a decent speed. It’s like picking the slow lane at the grocery store…just deal with it. Besides, you stated you have other options so why risk cutting off a bus that might be traveling significantly faster?
February 10, 2011 at 5:44 pm #716785
SmittyParticipantI see what you are saying, CMP but there have been many times when 99 looked awful but still would have been the better option – and you simply do not know until the top.
I can’t think of a solution to be honest – other than moving the bus lane to the far right lane and letting the busses that want to go 1st avenue “cut over” to the left just after the lower bridge on-ramp – but that’s a tight merge. I just think the city would want people to pick the route that was the least congested.
February 11, 2011 at 2:26 am #716786
redblackParticipanti hear ya’, smitty. i’ve tried to conceive a better way, too. but merging fauntleroy, spokane, and delridge at the exact same spot – while accommodating a weave so that drivers can get to both highways – and allowing for a bus lane, which is a great intention – has to be one of the most difficult traffic engineering problems known to mankind.
i’m hoping that the new and improved spokane street viaduct and the new grade separation for port traffic will improve the flow closer to first avenue, and thus relieve pressure farther west at the great merge.
then again, just wait until BURT (my patented nickname for bus rapid transit – kind of like BART) trumps all rights-of-way.
and can we please refrain from again accusing mike mcginn of trying to get seattleites out of their cars in some socialist coup d’traffic? this is an engineering problem, not a political one.
February 11, 2011 at 5:32 am #716787
metrognomeParticipantCMP — that lane has always been ‘bus only’. It was funded by Sound Transit to give Metro and ST buses (the 560 originally ran to the ID) priority to get from WS to 99 or First in the morning. Those routes used to lose a lot of time traveling from the Junction to the Delridge merge (this is why the 54/55 to downtown goes down Avalon but comes back all the way across the bridge to 35th; back-ups during evening commute are spread out over a longer time frame.)
Sue – adding the bus-only lane is what really screwed up that merge (plus traffic volumes are up considerably since it was installed.) Bus drivers often go into GP lanes to by-pass the folks that insist on merging as soon as they can.
Smitty – one solution would be to advocate with SDOT to use smart technology to alert drivers to traffic volumes sooner so they can make an informed decision.
On a sort of related note, those folks who want a route to the Beacon Hill Link station should contact ST and suggest the 560 be extended. This would make it much more useful.
February 11, 2011 at 5:41 am #716788
swimcatMemberJust watch channel 13 news before you leave the house; they are the only station that actually reports the traffic for West Seattle Bridge and 99.
February 11, 2011 at 6:51 am #716789
redblackParticipantmg: why would ST run the 560 to link? that route already runs to the airport going the other way.
and it’s a damned fine way to get to the airport, i must say.
didn’t metro study a route 50 that would connect west seattle with beacon hill? via north georgetown, i think? and didn’t they subsequently cancel its implementation?
February 11, 2011 at 3:41 pm #716790
jtmMemberHow else are you supposed to get into the 99 lane without crossing the bus lane? I have to do it every morning…?
February 11, 2011 at 3:56 pm #716791
redblackParticipantjtm: you’re supposed to do it at the west end of the highrise, after the delridge merge/weave, where the (faded) lane markers are broken, not solid.
other posters are talking about people crossing the bus lane illegally.
the OP is about making the bus lane markers broken – not solid – after the bridge crest, to facilitate visibility and last-minute route planning.
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