Columbia Citizens

Hi Neighbors,

I've got an important favor to ask of all of you! I'd really appreciate it if you could fill out Metro's questionnaire about the latest proposed bus service revisions in Southeast Seattle that attempt to reduce redundancies with the upcoming Link Light Rail service. This questionnaire is
due tomorrow Feb 6th. It can be filled out online at:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/sc/plans/2009/012009-sesea-quest.html

And more info about the proposed service revisions can be found here:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/sc/plans/2009/012009-sesea.html

I'm very concerned about how these revisions will effect our neighborhood — especially those of us that live along MLK but not fortunate enough to be within walking distance of a light rail station. The plan is to take out the two current bus routes that run along MLK —eliminating the 42 completely, and stopping the 48 at Mt Baker Station. These routes are being replaced by the 8 which would extended up MLK, however this will only run every 30 minutes and up to 15 minutes on the peak hours. I have a couple concerns about this:

1) MLK will not being effectively served by Metro. It doesn't matter if the Light Rail will run every 6 minutes if you need to wait up to 30 minutes for a bus connection to and from a station. This is especially a shame for all of the business owners who have persisted through seemingly endless construction and now will have to watch the trains pass by without seeing an increase business because the transit connection is not efficient.

2) Metro will be less effective for myself and other riders like me when Link Light Rail opens. By eliminating the 48 I will now need to take 3 busses to get to work, and myself and others that commute frequently to the University from South Seattle no longer have a direct bus to do so.

I see two potential revisions Metro could make to correct for this oversight:

1) Improve the frequency of the 8 so that it truly serves as a reliable connection for light rail.

2) Extend the 48 to Rainier Beach, rather then terminating them at Mount Baker or Columbia City (as most 48s are now). The 48 is not a redundant route with the Light Rail since it does not go downtown. It connects multiple communities, and keeping it running down all the way down MLK will provide another connection option for Light Rail riders in the Rainier Valley.

Please take a couple minutes to read through Metro's plans and fill out the questionnaire. I sincerely feel that their current plan is not in the best interest of our community, and the only way to get them to change it is with all of our feedback.

OMRay commented on my Flickr photo about this same topic. He said:

The Open House was a waste of time. They've already made up their minds, as far as I can tell.

That makes me kinda sad. I hope OMRay is wrong … so does he, I'm guessing.

In last week's Stranger, Erica Barnett raises several good points regarding the decision to scale back changes to bus service in the SE corridor

Under the Bus by Erica C. Barnett

On Monday, May 18, the council voted to approve a sweeping array of changes to bus service in Southeast Seattle. Ostensibly, the changes are designed to improve bus access to Sound Transit's light rail, opening in July, for Southeast Seattle residents; in reality, the improvements have been steadily eroded by special interests.

It is saddening to see cuts to the proposed increase of service for the route 8 and 9 along with the demise of the planned route 50 to West Seattle. When the survey was distributed earlier this year, I saw that our cross town transit options were getting better with each revision. Only now I see that progress halted to maintain the current routes.

I hope there will be more opportunities to promote future routes that cross connect the separate quadrants of Seattle. The survey was an enjoyable change to the earlier route updates and it would have been pleasant to travel directly to West Seattle without passing through downtown.

Waiting until the next review period…