I hate to kick Metro while they are in what may be a transitional stage for them, but I happened to notice adverts splashed on my favorite sites with the slogan: “More buses, more options. Thanks Seattle Voters.”
Something about that slogan invites derision especially since my husband has been talking about leaving earlier to catch his bus since the changes in June. Why? I’ll let another Wallingford resident Erik Blazing tell it:
For several years now, my morning commute was usually via the last run of the 26X (the one that arrives at 40th & Wallingford ~8:38am). That run was always served by one of the large articulated buses. It wasn’t a particularly full bus- people at the later stops typically had to stand, but it wasn’t completely packed.Metro updates their routes/schedules quarterly, which I’ve seen on other routes, but it’s never impacted the 26X until the June 6 changes this year. They switched the last morning run of the 26X to one of the shorter, non-articulated buses… with the predictable result of that run becoming overcrowded. It’s less comfortable, of course, but also causes passengers to get left behind. Most Wallingfordians can get on the bus, but the poor folks at the last two stops (40th & Stone Way, and Bridge Way just before the Aurora Bridge) typically get left behind. As far as I know, none of the other runs of the 26X were impacted- they still use the articulated buses. Since it’s the last Express run of the day (even though it’s not particularly late in the morning by today’s standards), it leaves people stuck.I submitted a customer service complaint via Metro’s website and got a response (unfortunately I deleted it, otherwise I’d forward it to you). The service rep explained that Metro has a limited number of the higher-capacity articulated buses, and that it uses ridership data to decide which routes & runs to use them on. They implied that the last run of the 26X didn’t make the cut and that other routes/times warranted the larger vehicle instead. They pointed out the quarterly schedule updates and implied that the larger vehicle would be reinstated if the data showed it was needed.I’m a pretty avid transit user and I regularly use maybe a dozen different routes. I believe what they say… that run of the 26X was less crowded than some of the other routes I’m familiar with. But it does leave Wallingford residents who are late commuters (say, ones who leave home after 8:20am… like me and a ton of other people) with a transit quandary. All of the routes that go downtown in a reasonable amount of time (the 26X, 16, 71, 72, 73, 74) are overcrowded to the point where they fill up and have to leave passengers behind. This is a daily occurrence, not an isolated thing. Other route options, like the 26 local (which is easily the stupidest bus route I’ve ever used in any city), are so slow that they’re not viable vs. driving, biking, or even walking.The ultimate solution to this is going to come next year when the light rail opens to Husky Stadium, which will completely remake the transit patterns in Wallingford. The 26 local will be eliminated and the 26 will become an “all-day express”, which I think makes a ton of sense. I don’t see why they don’t make that change earlier, but I’ll take it. I’m guessing that the easy access to Husky Stadium via the Burke Gilman trail and routes 31 & 32 will push Wallingford residents towards the train, and I’ll definitely be one of them. The train will be both faster and more predictable. We need to build more train lines, but progress on that front is extremely slow.
I went to check out the 8:38 am 26 Express to see if Erik Blazing was right. Everyone at the Wallingford Ave N and N 40th Street stop got on no problem but they quickly filled up every available seat, which means that every person at a stop afterward had to stand. No one was ever left behind though. Maybe riders like my husband and Erik just abandoned that particular bus a few times after the changes.
I’m a huge proponent of public transportation and I voted for Prop 1, but things like this are really discouraging.
Yeah. I’ve had similar experiences on the 66X since the changes.
Bit of melodrama there about the 26 local. From 45th to downtown, the local only takes about 10 minutes more than the express (I take it when I’ve missed the express). The earlier 26X runs fill at those last couple of stops also, even if they are the longer models. As far as light rail – the trains don’t run every second so there will be wait time for the next train, and there is still travel time to the station, and the trains will most likely be standing room only once all the U District express routes dump onto them. Don’t expect miracles. The 26X may turn out to be a faster way downtown.
I disagree with the 26 route portrayal. For those of us closer to the lake it’s great. Walking 10 minutes just to get to the closest 26x stop makes that bus a losing proposition, not saving me any time at all. Losing it will only further exacerbate the problem of the 26x load and further spotlight the insufficiency of Seattle’s transit as compared to other cities.
I have to second Beth’s comment. I frequently took the 26x at various times between 7 & 8 and even the articulated buses were standing room only. There were a few times where those at Bridge Way barely made it on. But even if you were left at Bridge Way, you’d have options for the 16 or the 5. And I also took the 26 on occasion and didn’t find it too horribly long a ride. Also appreciated it when I had to get from East Queen Anne to home. The route that’s stupid to you more than likely serves a customer with different transit needs.
Having recently moved to Lower Queen Anne and still working downtown, I often ride the bus in the morning to get to work more quickly and then walk home. I’ve learned that leaving even just 15 minutes later makes my bus ride comparable to a walk. So I get up earlier now. Yes it’s annoying when bus schedules change or when buses are crowded or late. But buses can’t serve everyone’s individual needs, so we just have to learn to adjust.
Both the 26X and 16 go through Wallingford. This is an extreme problem with both of these buses in the morning. I have been taking this route for nearly 30 years, and in the last two year I rarely get a seat getting on at 40th and Stone Way. Sometimes the bus passes by as too full. Complaining to Metro doesn’t seem to help. I think it is time that developers pay taxes to support the growth of infrastructure to support their mega-apartments.
The developer impact fee is a very good idea and one that has been adopted all around us, even Bellevue. But I believe state law somehow constrains what the funds can be spent on, such that the recipient has to be identifiably related to the development impact. There’s probably some way that could work out to contribute to bus service funding, but you might have to ask the lawyers to be sure.
We’ll really need something like that, though, because the number of people getting on at 40th and Stone is going to increase by about a thousand in the next couple of years, due to multistory residential coming in around there, filled with young people who according to acolytes of the Stranger don’t want cars any more. They’ll pay taxes etc., but that won’t cover the short term incremental cost of ramping up the transit system, that’s a development impact.
#16 route deletions
Don’t forget the deletions from the #16 route proposed as part of Metro’s next “More buses, more options” offering.
Deleting the 16 route to Northgate, to North Seattle College, to all of the medical facilities along Meridian Ave.?
Re-routing the 16 off of Aurora Avenue into clogged Fremont, across the up-down Fremont Bridge, and onto Dexter Avenue? Twenty more minutes of travel time?
This is better service?
(as a guest from another neighborhood) – This is typical of the ballyhooed Metro “improvements” and some of the transit oriented blogs have broken the changes down very specifically. Service is being dramatically shifted around, according to the planners’ perceptions of the long term changes in the city structure. Bus service is being funneled to the new light rail stations and urban villages. This is happening nationally. I’ve read several articles praising to the skies new transit plans in Los Angeles, Kansas City?, and elsewhere – how they are expanding service on the same budget.
What they are doing, is dropping bus routes like the 30 completely, linking up the 71 with the 16 (it won’t go to the UDistrict any more), and shaving back service in neighborhoods where the transit planners think everyone has a car and is willing to drive it. Meanwhile, “feeder” lines are being expanded. And in Metro’s case, the money that we voted on has been used to expand service on lines that come from outside Seattle but stop along Seattle arterials. I read a long explanation by someone explaining why this was a good and rational and appropriate thing for Seattle to do. But meanwhile, all the older folk east of me, who aren’t fortunate enough to live along the entirely inadequate 65 are expected to use DART.
The article I read about the Seattle “improvements” might have been on the Seattle Transit Blog.
I am guessing you are hailing from the NE section of town, where no one uses a bus except traveling north and south on an arterial. Crosstown routes that would connect the arterial routes would be really useful.
I’m on the 16/26 and grateful we still have two routes serving the twisty streets. I am hopeful that light rail will spur more crosstown connector lines. Not as hopeful as I used to be.
Put me on the train. I waited 27 minutes for a 16-bus home yesterday, starting at just after 5 pm. I was so pleased to arrive at the stop–the first stop on the route–2 minutes before it was due, but apparently it left before I arrived. The next bus was due to arrive at 5:18, and that was either a no-show, or 14 minutes late. The next bus–I’m guessing now–which was due at 5:30 arrived 5:32, which seemed reasonable, but of course the question remains whether it’s a 2-minutes-late 5:30 or a 14-minutes-late 5:18. Oh yes, and this 5:32 bus, it’s a single. Half the seats were occupied AT THE FIRST STOP. And the driver didn’t know whether the next bus was “right behind” or not. I arrived Tangletown just about 6:25.
How do they even judge the unmet demand if they base their planning on counts? Are they “counting” the passengers stranded at the stops?
When the train starts up, I’ll likely bike there unless there’s considered improvements to reliability, timeliness, and sufficient capacity on the buses.
I commuted from Fremont to Downtown for 15 years ’til ’98 on the Bus & during that time my average trip time doubled. From the above & similar comments it’s always the same tripe of I want someone else to pay for my ride with developer fees, increased car tabs, special levies, etc. — why not just stop misappropriated subsidies & increase mass transit fares to reflect their true cost of Metro’s crappy service (vs. Uber or cheaper Lyft) & extremely over-priced initial-cost inflexible rail? And we wonder why over half (with car pools) of Seattleites still commute by car versus just a 4% increase in mass transit use from 1990 to 2012 to 20% vs. almost 3 times as many cars at 58%.: http://2035.seattle.gov/how-we-get-around-2/
Mass Transit ridership nationwide has actually dropped & will probably soon do so here as the public comes to its senses. In Seattle it has become a very expensive joke (e.g, the empty SLUT, etc.) which is to be expected when career government bureaucrats inefficiently run it into the ground & they can’t even fix the potholes as our aging road, bridge, & tunnel infrastructure falls apart, This Fall’s proposed real estate tax “Move” Seattle levy vote is just another boondoggle waste like the much delayed Bertha TBM cost-over-run just rife for more corrupt or inept gov’t mishandling!
The plan as i read it means no #26 Local at all. Former riders of the #26 local are expected to ride the #26 X which goes up onto Aurora from 40th and Stone Way for the trip downtown. There will be more 26X buses in service. More #26X buses will be going both north and south getting onto, riding on and getting off of the Aurora Bridge.
26X riders will change buses at 40th and Stone Way to access their usual local bus stops in Fremont. Or perhaps will change buses at other stops along N 40th.
Hmm, I thought the 30 or 31 was going to be re-routed to head south on Wallingford to pick up part of the local 26 route? Not sure about this….
That’s what has been proposed. The 26X stays on the current express routing. The 31/32 head south on Wallingford instead of Stone and the 16 serves the southern part of Stone (instead of getting on Aurora) and then goes over to Fremont and down Dexter.
I am a transit planner by profession. I do not work for King County Metro.
Metro has the data for how full their buses are and shift buses accordingly. On average, I highly doubt people are being left behind by the shift to a smaller bus. And if they are, folks have other options so the wait won’t be too long.
Ridership on many routes in Seattle has increased dramatically. The regular crush loads (100 or so folks) on routes between UW and downtown or Northgate and downtown are a lot worse than anything that is normally experienced in Wallingford. There are exceptions, but overall, we’ve got it pretty good.
Bus routes should be shifted around to better match demand. In the end, there is only so much money, and to a large extent, it should go where it will be utilized the most.
As for developer fees funding transit, it works for capital projects, but it’s a one time deal, and is a drop in the bucket to handle the operating costs, which are the key budget piece for bus service.
Be thankful that we have the 26X, 26, and 16, however they turn out in the future. It’s a lot better than the 8.
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Would someone explain, in simple terms, what changes there will be in the 16? I tried to read everything, but still puzzled. Will it still go north to Northgate? Will it still go down Stone Way, then on Aurora? Will there still be stops on N 45th? Bartell, Chevron station?
Anybody know?
Here’s a link to the proposed routing.
http://metro.kingcounty.gov/programs-projects/link-connections/pdf/016-info-05-15.pdf
From 40th/Stone to Green Lake it’s the same as today. N of Green Lake the new routing would head out to Sand Point via NE 65th. S of 40th and Stone the route would head south on Stone and turn onto 35th – picking up the old 26 local routing to Downtown via Dexter.
The 26X, by the way, would be extended to Northgate.
The change in routing on the south end of the 16 is a big deal — through Fremont, down Dexter and through S. Lake Union — has got to add another 15-20 minutes to the trip. It will run every 15 minutes, while the combined 26/26X will operate on Aurora — only about half as often. The north end of 65th, as Dennis said, will go to Green Lake and Ravenna. I’m sure the routing to Sand Point on 65th will be a real barn-burner — perhaps to take your dog to Magnuson?
You could walk down to 40th to catch the 26, but you might just as well walk over to Aurora to catch Rapid Ride. Unless you have mobility issues that would prevent you from getting up the stairs or ramp to the bus stop.
Yes, there are lots of new residents on the south end of Stone Way, but there are also lots of new ones on and near 45th — 250 units by my count between Woodlawn and Midvale by next year.
Metro has stopped taking input on these changes, but County Council is set to vote on them this month, I believe. Our council member is Larry Phillips.
Erik is being a bit of a drama queen. OMG somebody has to stand. try hopping on one of the 70’s on campus parkway, 40+ people are standing during the school year. And if your time is so precious that you can’t take the extra 8 or so minutes – there are commuter buses that cost a little more but that pick up people at 45th and I-5. They will get you DT in half the time that the 26x does.
Generally speaking, the people standing on the 70s buses are under the age of 30. Be home conflict of conversation is about the Wallingford Fremont Green Lake area, not the U District. I live near QFC, and it is approximately a 20+minute walk at a fast pace probably more because of the lights to get to the Avenue to take a 70. Those buses are irrelevant to this conversation. Same comment for I5and 45th. Would your parents, grandparents aunts and uncles feel comfortable on the 70s bus? Again, adding that it has nothing to do with this conversation. Speaking of having a conversation, that’s what we’re doing people are expressing their own thoughts primarilyabout the 16,30s and 26 buses. Of course I’ll comments are welcome, including years,. Calling any of us a name or a descriptive term does not add anything to the conversation and it detracts from you
A few of those words I dictated for being last post came out differently then I spoke them But you can figure it out
I was quite concerned about the 16 changes (the inheritance of the snail route along Dexter), but thankfully since the 26X will serve 40th/Stone I can just walk a few extra blocks down from 44th/Stone and catch that downtown. However, I imagine that stop will be packed with other people like myself who live on upper Stone 😛
And then we get this:
Southbound Route 26 Express to downtown Seattle due to leave Woodlawn Av NE & NE Ravenna Blvd at 8:05 AM has been canceled.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Thank you for riding and for using Metro’s services.
If you look up Route 26 on metro’s site there is a note “This route has improved service thanks to Seattle voters.”
Thanks to all who posted meaningful information on the route changes for 26X and 16 with links to maps and to other connecting routes. Some of the changes do make sense now. Still, I shall miss having a direct route from north of 50th into Fremont on the 26.
Paul, As i remember them, those be l-o-n-g blocks on Stone Way from the stop at 44th-45th down to 40th. An odd street comes in there on the east side. It’s a trek uphill on the way back to 45th.
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