Thank you for wearing a mask! Mask usage among bus and shuttle passengers increased to 88% during the week of Nov. 23.
Our mask counters observed the following usage among bus and shuttle passengers in recent weeks:
- 88% – Week of Nov. 23., 2020
- 85% – Week of Nov. 16, 2020
- 83% – Week of Nov. 9, 2020
- 84% – Week of Nov. 2, 2020
More mask dispensers installed
Metro is currently installing mask dispensers on another 200 buses. In total, Metro will have installed dispensers on more than 340 buses by Dec. 14.
These routes include the RapidRide A, B, D, E, and F lines, and the 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 36, 43, 44, 49, 70, and 120.
These routes were prioritized for mask dispenser installation based on ridership, crowding concerns, and operator reports of mask non-compliance.
Please wear a mask!
As we shared previously in the “Our plea to riders: Wear a mask!” blog post:
“Masks are especially important because a significant number of people are COVID-19 positive but don’t have symptoms. Masks protect people from both symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19. Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that not only does wearing a mask protect others, it protects you, too. In their words, ‘Masks also help reduce inhalation of these droplets by the wearer.’”
Learn how to keep yourself, your fellow riders, and Metro’s employees safe at kingcounty.gov/HealthierMetro
Methodology for observed mask usage among bus and shuttle passengers: Metro measures customer mask use across the system by choosing a randomized sample of trips to observe. For each observation, we take a point-in-time measurement of the total number of passengers on a vehicle and the number of passengers who are wearing masks. The measure is taken at each trip’s peak load point (the bus stop at which the highest number of passengers are typically onboard). Due to the time it takes us to make observations, we sample only a small portion of the system each week.
Adding mask dispensers to the buses sounds good in theory, but this doesn’t address the problems with overcrowding and people not complying with the mask rules. I ride the southbound route 36 bus on weekday afternoons between 3 PM -4 PM. This route uses the small 40′ buses for most of its trips and is routinely hits the 12 passenger limit within the first 2 stops. Howver, the drivers continue picking up passengers even if nobody’s getting off at a stop and routinely let the bus get to 18 or more passengers, which means all the seats are occupied and that people are standing in the aisles. Many of the people boarding the bus along 3rd Ave. either aren’t wearing masks at all or are wearing them incorrectly (i.e., pulled below their noses or pulled under their chins instead of covering their noses and mouths). I see similar problems with non-compliance on the northbound route 70 bus that leaves 5th Ave./ S. Jackson St. at 5:59 AM on weekdays.
Having mask dispensers on the buses isn’t going to help unless Metro also gets security people to monitor mask use and passenger counts. I’ve noticed most of the people who aren’t wearing masks correctly when the bus picks them up don’t fix them once they board, so I think drivers should bypass stops if the only person there isn’t already wearing a mask correctly. When I’ve gone to Southcenter, many of the stores have someone at their entrance to monitor customer limits and mask use, so why isn’t Metro doing likewise? These stores won’t even let people in unless they’re wearing a mask, yet Metro blatantly lets people violate the mask rules.
Incidentally, someone on the Metro Facebook page recently posted that a route 107 driver turned away a passenger who tried to board the bus without wearing a mask. The comments about that post were extremely positive and basically had the tone of “YES!!” and applause, so there are obviously a lot of other people who agree that Metro needs better enforcement of the mask rule. Metro is doing such a poor job with mask enforcement that the few drivers who actually do enforce it are praised for being the exception. Mask enforcement needs to be treated as the rule, not an exception. A lot of people no longer use Metro because they don’t feel safe around the many people who aren’t wearing masks correctly or because so many mentally unstable homeless people are causing disturbances at the bus stops and on the buses.
There are a number of busses that resemble a homeless shelter on wheels,especially early in morning ,but nearly always when it’s raining . I get it that if someone has nowhere to go, that riding a bus for hours is likely preferable to being outside when it’s 630am and 36 degrees out and raining. But…..I’ve almost gotten into altercations with some who feel that my opening the window is somehow a directly hostile action personally directed towards them . Fortunately most of those who get up to shut my window generally get the point when I block them from doing it and suggest they sit the fuck down or at very least take their disgusting odor somewhere else . Again , I don’t necessarily think anyone has more of a right to use Metro then anyone else , although honestly it pisses me the fuck off having the bus held up for some lousy tweaked out fuck giving driver same stale story as to why he doesn’t have correct colored transfer . But, there is no way I or really anyone else should accomadate some loud mouth piece of shit who wants to bully others into keeping every window on bus or the E line shut cos he and his 5 large bags filled with trash are trying to sleep and he’s cold.
Generally this is a person who loudly rants to his buddies about how COVID is a hoax and no one is going to make him wear a mask .
Think I’m overstating this?
Enjoy riding the wonderful E line from 85th headed north in the morning and see if I’m wrong !
Why is anyone without a mask permitted on the bus?
I’m not sure that your methodology would stand up to any real-world scientific analysis, and is totally misleading if all someone is doing is counting masks after a bus stop where the most people get on. I ride on a “small” bus, and when one person out of the four to six people who are riding isn’t masking up, that’s an endangerment to everyone on the bus, given that only one person is at the very infrequent bus stops. If your 40-60 person buses are capped at 50% (20-30 people), then 100-88 = 12% would be 2-4 people get to go maskless and contaminate the bus. Not something to brag about.