Eastside Bus Changes Make Headlines
King County Metro has come up with an ingenious, groundbreaking plan: adjust bus routes as the transportation needs of the people change. Revolutionary.
With more jobs, more shops, more restaurants and more entertainment on the Eastside these days, King County Metro says it wants to overhaul its bus routes to better serve those residents whose travels rarely take them into Seattle anymore.More capacity along popular routes? Eliminating unpopular routes? Who would have thought of such a plan! Seriously though, if this is uncommon enough as to be deemed newsworthy when it happens, isn't something a little messed up? Wouldn't a bus system running at peak efficiency be frequently trying out new routes, adjusting capacity on existing routes, and eliminating unused routes? Of course, that assumes that Metro is concerned with efficiency...
Over the next few years Metro hopes to better connect Eastside cities, increase the frequency of buses along popular routes, improve evening and weekend service and make the most of new park-and-rides and transit centers.
Surely if this is news it's only because it's long overdue, right? Here's the reaction from the ever-anonymous "editorial" author at the Seattle Times.
King County Metro's idea to readjust bus routes on the Eastside is a good one. This needs to be done deliberately, because bus service needs to be predictable. But every decade or so, it does need to be done because the mix of people and their destinations constantly changes.Buses are flexible, I'm with you there, but adjusting schedules only "every decade or so"? Yikes. What possible reason could there be to react that slowly to shifting commuter demand?
...
Whatever Metro does will cause complaints. People resist change, but this is the sort of change that, done right, will be appreciated.
It also demonstrates the advantage of the bus over the train. Rail is fixed. The idea with rail is that people will move to the rail stations. Sometimes people cooperate with these ideas and sometimes not.
Buses are built for a world in which people change plans for their own reasons, and the buses follow.
(Karen Gaudette, Seattle Times, 04.11.2006)
(Editorial, Seattle Times, 04.12.2006)
1 comment:
Interesting blog. I'll have to add this to my blog roll. I sold my car nearly 3 years ago, and I now ride the bus everywhere. I'd like to see Metro revise the busing (especially to have more east-west routes in North Seattle), but I think no matter what you do, you'll inconvenience some people, who will yell and scream. It's probably the reason they've been reluctant to change. It's a Seattle thing I guess...
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