As of tomorrow, Saturday, February 6, Metro will be making a number of changes to citywide bus routes and its bike policy. The affected routes in Queen Anne include (from Metro website):
- 1 – On evenings and Sunday, all trips that have been shuttles between 10th Ave W & W Fulton St and 1st Ave N & N Republican St will begin operating the regular route to and from downtown Seattle. Also, the number of trips operating between Seattle Center West and downtown Seattle will increase on evenings and Sunday. The number of trips serving Kinnear will remain unchanged.
- 2 – Two southbound express trips from 7th Ave W & W Raye St at 6:07 and 6:43 am will be discontinued. The southbound express trip from Queen Anne Ave N & W Mercer St at 7:36 am will also be discontinued. On Sunday, early morning and late evening service frequencies will be reduced from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.
- 3/4/13 – The northbound Route 4 shuttle trip from 25th Ave S & S Walker St to 23rd Ave & E Jefferson St at 11:44 pm weekdays will be discontinued. On Sunday, early morning and late evening service frequencies on routes 3, 4 and 13 will be reduced from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.
- 8 – Service will improve to every 15 minutes weekdays from about 4:45 am to 7:30 pm. On Saturday, service will improve to every 15 minutes from about 8 am to 7 pm.
- 16 – In early February, several Route 16 bus stops will be closed to improve schedule reliability. Visit Metro Online or refer to the posted Rider Alert at your bus stop for more details.
- 17 – On Sunday, service frequency before about 9 am and after 7 pm will be reduced from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.
- 26 – The southbound trip to downtown Seattle from Ravenna Blvd & Woodlawn Ave N at 4:02 pm will leave at 4:12 pm.
- 26, 28 – On Saturday and Sunday, some late evening trips will be adjusted or canceled, reducing frequency from 30 minutes to 60 minutes during some periods.
- 33 – On Sunday, service frequency will be reduced from 45 minutes to 60 minutes.
If you’d like to check the changes to a specific route, new timetables were just posted today. To see the full list of route changes citywide, check the Metro website.
As of tomorrow, Metro will also be easing its bike rules, allowing cyclists to load and unload their bikes at any downtown bus stop, and all buses for that matter, at any time. This decision came in response “increased demand for linking bike and bus trips,” according to Metro, who will be conducting a safety and operations evaluation over the one-year demonstration project before making it permanent. Up until this point cyclists were restricted from loading bikes onto Metro buses downtown during peak hours.
To ensure the success of the new policy, Metro reminds bicyclists to:
- Always alert the bus driver prior to loading or unloading a bike
- Make sure the driver acknowledges you before stepping in front of a bus
- Be aware of traffic around you when loading and unloading your bike
- Use caution in stepping up and down from high curbs
For more information on taking bikes on Metro buses, click here.
And lastly, Metro has also extended its no-fee ORCA card promotion through the end of the month due to popular demand. Anyone who wants to get an ORCA card for free should do so by Sunday, February 28. As of Monday, March 1, the $5 fee for the card will be reinstated.