News Nov 11, 2010 at 4:00 am

A County Task Force Has a Plan to Save Urban Bus Service

A priority for the suburbs. Steve Morgan / Wikimedia Commons

Comments

1
It seems logical that the more money spent on keeping buses and light rail going, the less traffic will be on the roads.

Building new highways and forcing people to drive cars is not the solution.
2
Guess I'll be taking the bus even less.

I'm sure glad that Task Forces are looking into all the Issues. I look forward to many more of their recommendations.
3
Apparently "if you build it they will come" doesn't work for transit.

Odd that we continue to do it with roads, though.

Point is, you either decrease the attractiveness of driving a car, and start building an infrastructure that POINTS people to transit, or you keep building more roads and wait for gas price inflation, pollution, and congestion to murder the economy.

Car drivers get a free or subsidized pass on the costs of pollution, gas, maintenance, enforcement, etc. If everyone paid according to how much they drove, then we'd live in a world with a clearly pro-transit incentive system. But we don't.
4
I used to ride the bus from Shoreline to the U District and downtown all the time. But then when I needed to work in Bothell, riding the bus would have required two transfers and a 90 minute commute to go 15 miles. Suburban commuters would ride the buses more if it was more convenient. Even with the overcrowding and too few routes in the city, it's easier and faster so more people do it.
5
More buses on narrowed seattle streets = more congestion and slower service. It's been looked at before... If streets can't accommodate faster service than it's not helping anyone. Just adds more misery to an already miserable bus commute. Homeless mentally ill and mad teens on a slow bus anyone?! who needs this. People will still prefer a slow personal car over a slow bus.
6
"Also hard on the city, another policy (called 60/20/20) says that Seattle must take 62 percent of reductions, while other reductions are split between the eastern and southern suburbs."

Typo?
7
#5

Uh, I'd ESPECIALLY prefer to be on a slow bus than driving myself slowly.

I think its obvious why, but I'll point out some reasons just in case.

First, I don't drive the bus, so I don't deal with the crappy drivers out there.

Second, I can read a book or text or any of the other things that can't/shouldn't be done while driving.

Third, I'm not wasting gas (stop-and-go, congested traffic is no bueno for mpgs).

Fourth, I don't have to worry about parking when I may already be running late.

Is that enough? I mean, why WOULD ANYBODY WANT TO DRIVE SLOWLY WHEN THEY COULD RIDE SLOWLY?!

Admittedly, I will occasionally drive when I'm in a super hurry, but thats only if there isn't congestion. And it has bitten me in the ass before when I couldn't find parking.
8
bus service all the way to north bend. and we all pay for it in taxes. metro does'nt make half of their budget in fares. stop the suburban and country bull keep it in urban areas.
9
Having lived in the city and in the suburbs... There are fewer riders in the south end, but the service is horrible compared to in city service. If the goal is to get more people commuting via transit then transit has to be viable. It may make sense to a guy in maple valley who might not even rude the bus to work to cut bus lines that have lower ridership, but then how will those people commute? Doesn't this disproportionately harm the poor? And how will transit use ncrease for out of town commuters when service is being cut? At present, my experience has been that riding a bus in town is a pleasure, and simply because I've had the experience of riding a bus outside of Seattle.
10
Time to defund the suburbs.

Please wait...

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