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Harbor Island losing its bus?

Generally it’s a good idea to focus transit service on trunk lines, to put the service where the most riders are. So, generally, King County Metro should be congratulated for its proposed route changes.

But that’s not the only priority. While nobody expects Metro to go everywhere, it shouldn’t cut entire neighborhoods off, particularly job centers where workers have grown to rely upon transit, which benefits all of us as well as the riders. Outside the major nodes it’s ok to ask people to walk, in excess of a half-mile in some cases, but how much beyond that is ok?

Harbor Island is about to lose its service entirely outside of the SW Spokane Street corridor at the south end. It’s more than a mile from there to the northern-most employers such as Vigor Marine and Crowley, much of it not particularly safe or comfortable, particularly in the dark. Today Route 35 runs two buses each rush hour (none the rest of the time), a bit

Photo courtesy of King County Department of Transportation
earlier than normal closing times in the afternoon but moderately workable for now. This route will go away under the current proposal. Only Spokane will be served by the new Route 50, leaving the rest of the island 100% high and dry.

The current riders don’t want much, or so says the one who inspired this post — just a couple trips up the island at rush hour, ideally including one a little later than the current 4:09. Something a few blocks from work rather than the solid mile.

Solutions might be a special looping version of Route 50 a couple times per rush hour (either in addition to or instead of the main 50), or a separate rush hour shuttle connecting from the 50 to the north end of the island. Neither would be free, but either would be cheap vs. deleting a whole district from service.

Transit should help the the city function well, and parallel our regional strategy. Harbor Island packs a lot of economic punch, cramming in a lot of seaport and industry uses. It’s done this for generations. We’re not talking about leapfrogging new development and expecting new public services to cover it. This is about serving what’s existed for generations, and an existing community of riders.

Please don’t cut off this community.

 

This entry was posted by Matt Hays on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Planning, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Matt the Engineer

    That’s a tough one. It sure sounds like a good idea to provide service to these workers, but I took a look at the actual numbers. Passenger miles per platform hour (PMPPH) for #36 is 1.4. If I understand the metric correctly, that means there’s an average of 1.4 people riding this bus on any given point. The bottom 25% of routes had 8.2 PMPPH.

    I think it’s ok to run some unproductive routes, if they provide a real benefit to our city. But there’s a point at which we have to wonder if we’re just wasting bus hours.

    Maybe a vanpool would be a better idea for Harbor Island.

  • Matt the Engineer

    One more note – looking through the numbers again that’s the absolute worst performing bus in Seattle.

  • Matt the Engineer

    (corrections: that’s the #35, and I mean worst performing that goes downtown)

  • Matt Hays

    I just talked to a former driver on that route, who recalls something like 6-12 per typical run. Not a high performer but better than 1.4. I don’t know these stats, but suspect they have to do with distance to the current Downtown start point.

    That’s with 3:39 and 4:09 afternoon pickups timed for shipyard workers. With the suggested solutions I mention, at least one could be closer to normal office hours.

  • Matt the Engineer

    Yes, I belive “platform hours” includes deadheading and other loss, but these hours would still be saved by removing the bus.

    Here’s an out-of-the-box idea. How about the West Seattle Ferry? It shouldn’t be too far out of their way to stop by Harbor Island a few times a day.

  • La-Tonia D Willis

    I am sorry to hear that this service will be terminated. I just read the notice on Metro’s website about the discontinued 35 Harbor Island route. As your blog points out Harbor Island “packs economic punch” and it is unrealistic to impact the ridership in such a negative and illogical manner. I don’t know what the hell Metro is thinking!