Seattle's got snow
Metro: Our buses were at the mercy of Mother Nature | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News | Local & Regi.
By Matt Markovich
Story Published: Nov 23, 2010 at 6:18 PM PST
Story Updated: Nov 23, 2010 at 6:48 PM PST
SEATTLE -- The snow has come and gone, leaving behind a flurry of questions about response time and effectiveness this time around.
One lingering question: did King County Metro's new snow policy help or hinder Monday night's commute?
For many, jack-knifed articulated buses caused many problems. The same buses caused many problems in the big snowstorm of 2008. Metro rewrote its snow policy because of it, but the changes didn't prevent the crashes Monday brought.
One Metro bus slid helplessly down a slick street in Capitol Hill, banging into a telephone pole at the mercy of the elements. And Metro says it, too, was at the mercy of Mother Nature.
Bus rider Mayme Cook says her ride from downtown Seattle to Greenlake took "three and a half hours."
This week's snow storm was the first test of Metro's revamped snow policy. In 2008, Metro was criticized when many of its 1,400 buses became paralyzed in that deep freeze.
But on Monday night, there were jacked-knifed articulated buses blocking city streets, blocking Interstate 5, even blocking other busses.
Metro says its buses didn't contribute to the mess, and simply got swept up in in.
"Traffic was gridlocked and once the vehicles stop it means they weren't breaking down the ice and snow on the road," said Metro spokesperson Linda Theilke. "So things were freezing up again. It's just really hard to keep on going."
Metro pulled 60 electric-powered articulated buses off the street because they perform so poorly in the snow. But it kept nearly 700 other articulated buses on the road, and Metro is now defending the choice to do so.
"If we parked all of our 60-foot buses, we wouldn't have enough to meet the demand out there," Theilke said.
Metro added gridlock prevented tow trucks from getting to the jack-knifed busses.
Meantime, riders complained Metro's the new text alert system, which sends riders text messages on delays, route changes and cancellations, wasn't accurate.
"They didn't tell us the express lanes were closed, yeah, so it was a mess," said Cook.
Metro cancelled only 14 of its 220 routes on Tuesday.
Metro does have a new plan to reduce its routes down to a core of 70 essential routes, but says it didn't think the storm was going to be bad enough for such drastic measures.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg)
And see WSDOT blames 'perfect storm' for highway mess | KING5.com | Seattle Area Local News
By Matt Markovich
Story Published: Nov 23, 2010 at 6:18 PM PST
Story Updated: Nov 23, 2010 at 6:48 PM PST
SEATTLE -- The snow has come and gone, leaving behind a flurry of questions about response time and effectiveness this time around.
One lingering question: did King County Metro's new snow policy help or hinder Monday night's commute?
For many, jack-knifed articulated buses caused many problems. The same buses caused many problems in the big snowstorm of 2008. Metro rewrote its snow policy because of it, but the changes didn't prevent the crashes Monday brought.
One Metro bus slid helplessly down a slick street in Capitol Hill, banging into a telephone pole at the mercy of the elements. And Metro says it, too, was at the mercy of Mother Nature.
Bus rider Mayme Cook says her ride from downtown Seattle to Greenlake took "three and a half hours."
This week's snow storm was the first test of Metro's revamped snow policy. In 2008, Metro was criticized when many of its 1,400 buses became paralyzed in that deep freeze.
But on Monday night, there were jacked-knifed articulated buses blocking city streets, blocking Interstate 5, even blocking other busses.
Metro says its buses didn't contribute to the mess, and simply got swept up in in.
"Traffic was gridlocked and once the vehicles stop it means they weren't breaking down the ice and snow on the road," said Metro spokesperson Linda Theilke. "So things were freezing up again. It's just really hard to keep on going."
Metro pulled 60 electric-powered articulated buses off the street because they perform so poorly in the snow. But it kept nearly 700 other articulated buses on the road, and Metro is now defending the choice to do so.
"If we parked all of our 60-foot buses, we wouldn't have enough to meet the demand out there," Theilke said.
Metro added gridlock prevented tow trucks from getting to the jack-knifed busses.
Meantime, riders complained Metro's the new text alert system, which sends riders text messages on delays, route changes and cancellations, wasn't accurate.
"They didn't tell us the express lanes were closed, yeah, so it was a mess," said Cook.
Metro cancelled only 14 of its 220 routes on Tuesday.
Metro does have a new plan to reduce its routes down to a core of 70 essential routes, but says it didn't think the storm was going to be bad enough for such drastic measures.
Click to view(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg)
And see WSDOT blames 'perfect storm' for highway mess | KING5.com | Seattle Area Local News