Seattle Transportation Frustrations Ch 1

Well, I hate to start off my blogingcareer witha post about how confusing and passenger unfriendly the Seattle transportation is but it is pretty frustrating when everyday you ride the bus you learn a new rule about the bus.  This is actually a subject that gets my bubbles boiling so if you notice me going into depth about this just understand that I spend about as much time on the bus as many people spend at their job.  

So Seattle is really trying to provide good public transporation and I can definitely say they are doing a better job than other towns like Mindon, NE or Ellensburg, WA but they are lacking in the areas that seem intuitive to me.  Here is an example of a typical day  for me on the Seattle Metro. 

So I am downtown Seattle and need to catch a bus to go to the University Distract and I know taht there are three routes (71,72 and 73) that will get me there.  I have my bike and I know the buses have bike racks on the front.  The internet said that I could pick up the bus at 3rd and Pine so I headed over there.  Upon arriving there was nobody waiting for the bus.  I asked around and they told me that the buses were running in the bus tunnel.  Bus Tunnel?  There were no signs for the bus tunnel or at least none that were BIG ENOUGH and BRIGHT enough for me to see.  A nearby homeless man that was playing his coffee can drums told me that I could get in the bus tunnel a few block away by Nordsroms so I headed over there but still did not see anything big or flashing saying bus tunnel.  I asked another person and they said that they ride the bus pretty frequently and they didn’t know anything about a bus tunnel.  Finally I find the entrance to this unkown cave and come to find out the entrance is just an escalator that seems to be going in to Nordstroms from the outside.   Now, I konwI don’t see very well and it was probably written in 10pt font somewhere but if your promoting public transportation you don’t advertise in 10pt font.  

So I thew my bike on my back and went down the escalator into this untraveled tunnel.  Now I know you are all wondering why I am questioning the city’s dicision on transportation and here I am a blind kid riding my bike around the city.  Well, we are going to leave that for another time but I will say that practice makes perfect and I let my senses take over.  Now back to my bus trip.  

After getting othe escalator there were a number of signs overhead that I couldn’t read that had arrows on where to catch each bus.  I again asked someone and they showed me where the 71-73 buses pick up.  I stood waiting and a 71 came.  I told the bus driver I was going to put my bike on the front and he said, “no your not.  You can’t put your bus on in the tunnel.  You have to go to the south or north end of the city to the end of the tunnel.”  What?  That doesn’t make sense?  I stood there for a second pondering the reason for this and then just behind the 71 was the 72 bus followed by a 73 bus.  These buses travel every 30min and go the same route for half their route but they pick up one right after the other.   In my head, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to spread these buses 10min apart so people missing the bus by minutes would wait less than 10min rather than 30. 

I went up to the street and out the bus tunnel.  I was in the middle of the city and would have to bike or probably safer, walk my bike to the south end through the not so safe Pioneer Ssquare or to the northend of the city which was much more appealing.  This wasn’t as easy for me as they thought because I can’t se the street signs and didn’t know exactly where I was going so I again just randomly asked the homeless guys where the convention center was located.  I finally arrived at the bus tunnel and it was just about 6:30pm.  I was finally going to get on the bus, or so I thought.  As I went down the escalator  to the loading deck a security man came up and said, “bus tunnel’s closed after 6pm.  The buses are back on the street.”  I said, What?   I thought the bus tunnel was to take the buses off the city streets to reduce the traffic?  The man said, “the bus tunnel is closed after 6pm on weekdays and closed on weekends.”   Hmmm….  “You have to catch the bus at 9th adn Stewart,” said the security guard.  Again, I never saw any signs for the bus tunnel or for hours of operation of the bus tunnel.   I can also speak for others that were franticlly running the streets trying to find their bus. 

So I found 9th and Stewart and walked up to the bus stop sign.  I pulled out my 10X magnifier and looked really close at the sign.  With my 10X magnifier I could normally just barely read some of the times on the time tables.  As I went to look at the time schedule it wasn’t there.  There was no time table to know when the buses were coming and I didn’t even know if  they would let me put my bike on the bus at this stop anyways. 

After waiting 25minutes and becoming freinds withone of the locals waiting at the stop with me the number 71 came by and I put my bike on the front and go on the bus.  When getting on the bus and pulling out my money the bus driver said, “pay when you get off sir.”  I rode the bus the day before in a different area and paid when I got on the bus.  It seemed like the right thing to do and I got no hastles then.  Come to find out there was a sign at his pay stand that did say Pay When you Leave.   Ooops didn’t see that one!  

So, that is Ch 1 in I am sure many Seattle Transportation Frustrations.  Stayed tuned for more stories.  There are many more rules for me to learn about the Seattle Metro I am sure.