Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › Rant: Land Shuttle/Bus service…….
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August 2, 2008 at 5:32 am #587666
JanSParticipantbig rant for no bus service to the Admiral District from the Water Taxi after 7pm on Friday night! Just had to interrupt some Friday evening plans to rescue the daughter and her bf. They took the water taxi over from the Mariner’s game..and got stuck down there. ” Mom, can you come get us?” (Good thing I got my car fixed this week, huh)
What’s the point of running the water taxi if you’re stranded once you get there…geez…
August 2, 2008 at 6:45 am #633010
ErikParticipantJan – I’ve had to make the 2+ mile walk to the point because there was no room on the shuttle. At least it was flat.
And no service at all….LAME
August 2, 2008 at 9:58 am #633011
JanSParticipantno kidding. Say you want to take a date over to the waterfront for dinner on Friday evening. You take the land shuttle from Calif. Ave. and SW Admiral, to the ferry about 5ish…get over to the seattle side, walk around for a bit, Stop and have a nice leisurely seafood dinner somewhere, hop the 9:30pm water taxi back to West Seattle..and how impressed will she be when you tell her…”Now walk that meal off” ’cause there ain’t no bus service !!!!!!
August 2, 2008 at 1:17 pm #633012
JoBParticipanti nearly took my out of town guests to dinner on the water taxi.. glad i didn’t.
dale pointed out to me that the shuttle and water taxi schedules don’t coordinate either…
bad planning!
August 2, 2008 at 4:09 pm #633013
JiggersMemberI already asked one of the drivers about this problem of the water taxi shuttle service ending early. He said that they can’t get enough drivers to work later hours or so to say. The shuttle service is sub-contracted out by Metro, so you’ll have to complain to Metro about it. Metro overall has a shortage of bus drivers but they have the budget to hire more drivers if they wanted to. I’d love to go to Alki more often using the shuttle, but when you’re left stranded with no service in sight, it sucks, I just don’t understand with thousands of people living on Alki why they can’t have at least two viable routes with full timetables? Its one of the reasons why there are so many cars down there is because there isn’t service that can get you from one place to another without waiting a half an hour to 45 minutes for your bus.
August 2, 2008 at 5:18 pm #633014
GinaParticipantYou could take the 37. Of course it has no service on Sunday, and stops running by 7:30 on weeknights and 4:30 on Saturdays. Or walk up the hill to catch the 55. That stops running at 8.
The 56 is pretty much the only evening bus route in the Admiral/Alki area. Runs hourly in the evening.
Those are all Metro “Service Improvements”. I can’t wait to see what the next “Improvement” will be.
August 2, 2008 at 5:24 pm #633015
MrJTMemberHow about getting it to stop a couple of times on California between the Junction and Admiral ?
August 2, 2008 at 5:31 pm #633016
KeithMemberI agree, the lack of evening service from the Land Shuttle totally sucks. I’d take the Water Taxi twice as often if that problem was fixed.
It’s nice to hear that there’s demand for more Land Shuttle service — be sure to let Metro and Dow Constantine know about it!
August 3, 2008 at 1:58 am #633017
rampinrodneyMemberI have found the water taxi to be an excellent alternative, at times. During the day, the shuttle works well. Remember everyone, there is no charge for the shuttle. I suggest that those concerned about no shuttle service in the evening contact Metro, Dow Constantine, walk, or don’t use the Water Taxi.
As most of you would probably agree, having shuttle service that perfectly meshes with the water taxi will come with a cost.
August 3, 2008 at 3:17 am #633018
missaudreyhorneParticipantI’d be more than happy to pay for the shuttle! I buy a bus pass every month and have for the last 10 years at least. So I PAY. I just don’t understand the point of a water taxi from downtown to Seacrest when there is no way other than having a car already parked there to get home at 10 pm on a Friday evening.
August 3, 2008 at 3:46 am #633019
SueParticipantWhile I agree that it’s ridiculous and it sucks to get stranded, you have to admit that it’s very clearly laid out on their website about the fact that they do not run a shuttle after mariners games, and if you click on the schedule it shows when the last bus is. http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/oto/water_taxi.html#wtshuttle
August 3, 2008 at 6:23 am #633020
JanSParticipantyes…I understand that now, that it’s spelled out. This was a spur of the moment trip. It’s just silly to have absolutely NO bus service of any kind after 7pm. Not everyone owns a car. What do people who live near there do if they want to take a bus home after working late? It makes no sense to me to leave a whole area without service fairly early in the evening. One or two more runs would suffice.
I work at home, so don’t take a bus on a regular basis, so haven’t read the Metro site to learn all the ins and outs.I’m sure that if my daughter had known there was no way home from the water taxi terminal then she would have taken a bus home ..the 56 is our local bus..would have been much simpler…live and learn :)
August 4, 2008 at 1:49 am #633021
beachdrivegirlParticipantI am actually very surprised at the lack of bus service on weekends in the Alki area. A few weeks ago, my guy, and i wanted to go to a movie that was playing down town. We figured that since it was downtown we would take the bus to avoid the parking garage fees downtown Anyhow, the only bus in the area on Sunday was the 56. It was a mile walk (and this was the closest) to the bus stop and then once we got there the bus was over 20 minutes late (or 30 minutes early depending on how you look at ti…) b/c of what the driver said was b/c of Mariners traffic. anyhow, we were extremely disappointed at Seattle’s “easy to use” public transit. Now this situation seems even sillier. Maybe someday seattle will use a bit more logic in planning there public transportation system.
August 4, 2008 at 3:04 am #633022
rampinrodneyMemberRemember, a bit more logic in the Seattle public transportation system comes with a price tag. If people want a system that does not get stuck on the same congested roadways that autos do, this requires a bit of money.
August 4, 2008 at 5:32 am #633023
JanSParticipantand…Metro originally asked for a 25 cent increase, and now is talking about asking more than that. They get more money, there’s still no weekend/evening bus service..
do I have a better way of planning things? No…they don’t pay me to do that…lol..hire me, and maybe I could come up with something ;-)
It just seems to me that they are really pushing people to use alternative types of transportations, and drive the cars less. Not entirely possible for some, if they don’t put that alternative type of transportation in the ‘hood. hence my rant :)
August 4, 2008 at 2:23 pm #633024
pamMemberMaybe the Mayor can apply the 20 cent bag charge to fund Metro! That was an impulsive decision/vote so perhaps they haven’t spent the money yet…
August 5, 2008 at 2:41 am #633025
rampinrodneyMember…and yes, I understand the criticism of rising prices. It is important to remember that the rising costs of fuel, maintenance, etc. affects everyone and everything, including public entities.
August 5, 2008 at 3:31 am #633026
JoBParticipantI have been checking bus schedules as i look at houses to rent since hubby commutes by bus.. and there are some pretty odd bus schedules out there.
for instance. from beach drive you can catch an express bus that takes you downtown in the morning if you time it right.
however, the evening version of the same express lets you off over a mile from where your picked it up in the morning.
what’s with that?
August 5, 2008 at 3:54 am #633027
missaudreyhorneParticipantI’ll pay extra for better bus service – where can I sign up? Can I give an extra $100 a month and get a bus that goes directly to my neighborhood right after I get off work instead of five minutes before or a half hour after? BECAUSE I WOULD. It’d still be cheaper than parking downtown and paying for gas…not that I’d do those things, as I do not drive (and never have).
Oh, and for my money I also wouldn’t mind a way to get home from downtown after 7 pm that didn’t require two buses or waiting an entire hour.
August 5, 2008 at 4:35 am #633028
WSBKeymasterIt’s not just Alki btw. In our neighborhood, heading uphill on California Ave from Morgan Junction and on through Gatewood and then toward Westwood, I was surprised to find out that the 22 doesn’t run past early evening. We can take the 54 to Lincoln Park but from there it’s several blocks straight up a steep hill, including the fabled Thistle staircase, and even discounting the semi-difficulty of the walk (those of us who are not super-fit can do it with a few breaks along the way) it’s through a dark greenbelt stretch that I wouldn’t particularly want to walk at night. I guess the question is more, who DOES have bus service from early morning till late night … TR
August 5, 2008 at 5:03 pm #633029
JoBParticipantTR.. i think hubby takes one that goes down 35th after 7 PM.. it is an easier and safer walk than up from lincoln park..
August 5, 2008 at 7:58 pm #633030
roundthesoundParticipantIf you live on Alki or Harbor between Bonair and the bridge you know it only has one bus route, the 37. This is the section the mayor wants to close down for ‘car free’ day to promote people walking and the use of public transportation. How appropriate that there is no bus service at all on Sunday, and only 2 buses that run to close to each other to make a useful trip on Saturdays; not to mention the one-way service in the morning/evening during the weekdays. It’s nice to have the water taxi shuttle if you like to be home before 8pm and only go out between the months of May-October…
I agree, we need to make public transit more practical in West Seattle. I think I will drive up and down Alki on September 7th (with my residential access beacuse there is no other way to get to my house except by car) with a banner on my car that reads “I wouldn’t be driving if a bus ran on this street”
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