Listening and learning
This spring Metro is holding conversations with community organizations, bus riders, and residents of southeast Seattle about transit options in their community. Our goal is to learn about ways to make transit easier and more inviting to use. At every conversation, we ask people to tell us which transit options they use, why they use them, and how these services can be improved. We leave every conversation with a better understanding of how people travel around their community.
Please take a few moments to share your thoughts and ideas >>
Collaborative solutions
Once we get through the initial listening phase of this project, we’ll be sharing everything we heard and working with the community and our partners at Sound Transit and the City of Seattle to find things we can do this year and next to improve people’s experiences using transit. We also expect that we’ll hear bigger ideas that may take more time or community resources to implement. We’ll be sure to capture these ideas and map out a long-term plan for accomplishing them.
Stay engaged
We invite you to partner with us to improve transit in your community. Right now you can share your ideas in our survey, post your thoughts and photos to our Facebook page, or volunteer to attend a community conversation on May 17 from 6-7:30 pm (meeting location in southeast Seattle TBD). We have 15 spots available for the conversation and will be randomly selecting attendees from a list of people who email deanna.martin@kingcounty.gov (email deadline is May 14) and say they’re interested in being a part of the conversation.
In the future we may invite you to join us in cleaning up a bus shelter, improving ways to get ORCA cards, or getting trained to help community members take advantage of transportation resources available to them… the ideas are endless! The important part is that your voice is heard and you have an opportunity to shape improvements to transit service in your community.
Move bike lanes away from bus lines! Bicyclists do nothing but slow down crowded buses. People who use buses usually have no choice, but bicyclists do. It’s just not fair for the low income bus riders… Keep bus service on Seward Ave S south of Othello st and move all the bicycle lanes out of the way. Walking to and from Rainier is not safe.
Fix your transfers, no one wants to cross traffic over and over and wait for a green light in the rain for 5 minutes. Move bus stops closer to the light rail stations. Mt Baker in fact has a turnaround for buses right under the station but no bus goes there. Currently you have to walk and cross 6 lanes of traffic and walk again, and the walk is not safe at night. Get bikes out of the way, move buses closer to stations, consolidate all the crosswalks and traffic lights so buses don’t get stuck….
Route 8 takes way too long to go through Promenade Mall and it’s way off course, it’s like a detour. If it at least if it can stay on 23rd between Jackson and Rainier, it will gain its speed. 48 can share some misery and service Jackson and MLK between Promenade and Mt Baker. There is always a congestion on 23rd between Yesler and Jackson, then there are pedestrians and bicyclists on Jackson… who puts bike lanes on bus lines?! The bus can barely move through all this circus. And when 8 finally get to the Mt Baker station, it stops like a mile away from the station itself. You have to cross the busy Rainier by stopping all the traffic, then you have to walk behind endless fences. Forget doing this if you coming back late at night. It’s just inconvenient and dysfunctional. There is a loop right under the Mt Baker station, but somehow none of the buses go there, which makes it very inconvenient if you want to transfer between 8 and the light rail.
#8 is the worst route in the city, it is way too long and that is why it is always late. Many times two #8s come along and one day three! This is completely unacceptable when people rely on this bus for work. I know some bus stops are slated for removal but there are probably some more that could also go to speed up this route. The bottom line is that the route length needs to be reduced to make it more efficient.
A long time ago I sent in an email complaint to Metro customer service, that was the day 3 number 8s arrived in one go but I never received a reply. The silence was deafening.
I was trying to fill out the survey but it throws me in an endless loop- I answer the first page of the questions, click to get to the next step and end up being on the introductory page.