I'd heard of Seattle's reputation for chronic traffic congestion,
long before my recent two day visit. I can't say if it's true,
because the stories were enough to scare me off the roads during
rush hour. But I believe the tales -- instead of flat, unobstructed
land, this major city south of Vancouver, BC is restricted in many
directions by water. I did take one bus at the tail end of the
afternoon commute -- and got stuck on a drawbridge, waiting for a
ship to pass.
Plenty of waterways means having to
build bridges -- and that's a recipe for bottlenecks. Nonetheless, a
very limited choice of east-west routes does not
seem to have thwarted urban sprawl. Homes cover hillsides and crowd
shorelines, and even downtown Seattle is very rugged. The city also
has a reputation as a great city to visit, and I can vouch for that
one. What surprised me were the hills -- streets worthy of San
Francisco require extra effort just to stroll around.
Unlike its west coast counterpart,
Seattle chose to get rid of its cable cars. Pity. At least there is
a rebuilt streetcar line along the downtown waterfront. It's not a
long ride, but the old-fashioned vehicles are charming. A short
monorail also threads its way downtown from the famous Seattle Space
Needle. These two may be popular with the tourists, but in Seattle
public transit means buses. There are electric trolley buses (to
better navigate the hills) and loads of extra-length articulated
buses. A single commuter train route is the only other way to escape
traffic. Transport planners have begun a limited network of bus only
lanes. The most important is the Metro Bus Tunnel, a huge complex
beneath downtown that brings together many routes, free of
interference from cars. The tunnel is built like a subway, with huge
stations and long platforms.
Next year construction will close
this underground route for two years, to be converted into a
combined bus and light rail line. After 7 p.m., when traffic and
pedestrians have largely left the streets of downtown, the tunnel
closes and buses take over the city's avenues.
Overall, I found the buses arrived
fairly frequently, but during my short two-night stay, I grew to
distrust the schedules. Reliability is a major component of any
transit service, not just how often the vehicles come and how long
the trip is.
Transportation planners are trying
to improve the speed and reliability of transit in car-oriented city
-- and that's a challenge without dedicated bus lanes. Buses
belonging to the largest transit authority in the Seattle area have
an average on-time performance of around 80%. Close management of
the lines is one solution, as is closing lesser used stops.
Similar to downtown Portland Oregon's "Fareless Square", an ample
portion of central Seattle offers free rides on most transit service
from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Congestion has also inspired local and state
governments to offer sophisticated commuter information, including
the free 511 service that
gives up-to-date traffic and transit information from any telephone.
511 is available across Washington state, and even has
voice-recognition capability. Instead of punching in numbers, you
can talk your way through a predictable list of choices. After using
511 in San Francisco, I am a big fan. I also liked the online
transit Trip Planner at
www.transit.metrokc.gov.
As technology improves, cities across the world will allow locals
and visitors to access travel information in many forms. Like the
211 and 311 numbers for social service and municipal governments,
the GTA will eventually offer 511. I suspect that commuters here
would use it heavily.