Buses Piling Up At NE 45th Street Turn-Around

 

Metro bus revised its bus service in Laurelhurst and throughout the city last fall. 

Laurelhurst went from one to 2 new bus routes, 31 and 32 route, running from 5:45am to 11:30pm, stopping at the NE 45th Street Hospital turnaround, and no longer going through the neighborhood.

Metro said that the Routes 31 and 32 were revised to provide improved east-west transit connectivity along NE 45th Street and to make connections between the new U District Station and Seattle Children’s Hospital. 

However, with 2 busses running the same route at around the same times, neighbors report that many times it results in 3-4 busses at the NE 45th Street turnaround, with one bus usually hanging out on to NE 45th Street.

One neighbor said: 

NE 45th is a very busy street in and out of the neighborhood. If they all happen to be there at the same time, can't the schedules be changed so they don't all show up there? Especially since ridership is very low. Why don't the busses wait at a previous stop to get back on their schedule?  Seems very odd to have 3-4 busses piling up in a low ridership neighborhood.

The Laurelhurst Blog contacted Metro and a representative responded: 

Our staff spoke to a neighbor to hear their perspective on driveway concerns, and we are glad to hear drivers are courteous and are able to quickly move a bus that might temporarily be blocking a driveway while they are in service. By working with operations staff, we expect these instances to become less frequent through better coordination.

Buses run approximately every 15 minutes during most of the day, and every 7-8 minutes during the peak periods. No more than two buses are expected to share the terminal at the same time at Seattle Children’s Hospital. 

 

Based on some initial observations, there is sufficient room for three buses to enter the turnaround without hanging out in the sidewalk area. We’ll work with drivers on those routes to ensure they are pulling far enough ahead to make enough room for each other.

 

Based on scheduling, the pace of buses serving that location should not cause backups or bunching.  However due to traffic or boarding delays, or other issues on a trip, it can affect the spacing between buses, and following trips can catch up to delayed trips. While we do not schedule more than two buses to share the terminal, there may be instances where a third bus may arrive at the terminal as a result of some of these kinds of impacts. Our scheduling staff will be looking at the trip timing to see if there are refinements or revisions to smooth out the rhythm of service.

I’ve informed our scheduling and service quality staff so they can take steps to work with the bus drivers of these routes to better avoid these situations to the extent possible.

Metro Bus Route 78, ran  for about four years and replaced long-time neighborhood route 25, which was deleted due to low ridership. The route went throughout the neighborhood with multiple stops, but only ran once an hour and ridership was low. Route 78 ran from Children's Hospital to the UW Light rail station at Husky Stadium.

Go to Metro's website for more information.