Beacon Hill writer, performer and raconteur Brian McGuigan publishes his “Bus Bitch” column on a semi-regular basis (when he feels like it). Email him with your stories, tips and pictures of your bus-riding calamities. In the meantime, here’s his latest – a super useful guide to getting around in what he’s so aptly coined the “Snowpocalypse”.
If you’re anything like me (and for your sake, I hope you are) than by now, the snow has lost its sedentary-inducing, Dean Martin-on-the-stereo-as-cookies-bake, cardboard-box-cum-sleigh charm, and you have probably done absolutely all the sitting on the couch, watching TV, Internets surfing, drinking, eating, anxiously cleaning, Christmas-shopping (Online, of course.) and planning you can handle.
And some of you may actually have to go into work or buy groceries or, dare I say it, just want to get out of the freaking house. Only there is—depending on where in the Rainier Valley you live—upwards of 12 inches of snow out there (More than a foot and a half in my backyard!). Not something you should be driving in unless you have 4WD, chains or a snow plow attached to your front end (Let Nickels know! He needs you right now!)
Of course, the poor weather doesn’t bode so well for Seattle Metro, which is running at a significantly reduced capacity. More than 300 buses had been out of commission over the snowy weekend— cutting service back to less than 80% of its normal levels (If you ride Metro regularly, you know the normal levels are crap, so crap minus 80% is…; you do the math.).
Despite the malevolent fisting the Rainier Valley usually receives from Metro, our buses are actually running, somewhat. The 7 (Minus the Prentice loop), 34, 36 (to Beacon and Cloverdale), 106, 42 (No service S. of Rainier and Henderson) and 49 are all reportedly running adverse weather routes. RV Routes not running are the 14 (No service to Mt. Baker.) and the 39 (Shuttle between the VA and Rainier Beach only) and most anything south of Rainier and Henderson.
However, reports from the commute this morning were grim, as it took commuters as much as two hours to get Downtown from the RV with buses stalling out on major arterials and some passing groups of bundled up straphangers altogether. This, of course, isn’t promising news for the evening’s commute when temperatures are expected to dip further below freezing with snow in the forecast for the next few days.
So, unless you’re hoofing it (Get out those boots!) or in the mood to wait in the cold for a few hours, your best bet is to stay in—no matter how close you are to cabin fever—or put your gloves on and shovel. Might as well get a head start.
If you’ve braved the Snowpocalypse by bus or by car, tell us how you did it in the Comments below. If you aren’t leaving your house until we go back to the regularly scheduled season of rain, tell us what you’re doing to pass the time. We need some ideas…
Lots of cold people waiting for a northbound bus at Rainier and McClellan. Photo/do communications, inc.
Who to know, where to eat & what to do in one of America’s most diverse zip codes!
{ 22 comments }
I’ll refrain my comment about the use of fisting as a negative….
I had to work this weekend, as did many of my other Rainier Valley neighbors. I fortunately got out Sunday morning at 8:00am and jumped on a bus within 10 minutes. It was awesome for me, but not so much for a neighbor who had been waiting at the same stop for an hour. He started his wait at 7:00am to get to his job at the airport by 10:00am. That’s dedication. He proceed to tell the bus driver that he was his hero.
Metro drivers should be commended, but my beef is with the mayor. What’s new?
Has anyone noticed that Rainier Avenue was not plowed past Mt. Baker? Did anyone else hear the Mayor’s briefing on Saturday where he said that his priority was keeping the areas around the Seattle Center and Qwest clear for the events this weekend? Yet, Rainier Valley’s main arterial doesn’t get one plow moved through it.
If I am wrong, please feel free to correct me.
We saw a plow heading southbound on Rainier past the Rainier Beach Library yesterday afternoon around 2:00….
@Whitney. Hop off the sex-positive horse for a sec: a malevolent fisting is never pleasant, whether you’re into that sort of thing or not. Sure, there are folks out there who love that shit (No pun intended.), but in the end (Again, no pun intended.), it’s still gonna hurt, at least a wee bit.
For the purposes of this story, the metaphor works. Metro, the city, Nickels, all these fuckers are fisting the RV, lubeless, white-knuckled, Tom Cruise-sized hands in “Tropic Thunder” kind of fisting, and, again, whether you’re into that or not, it hurts, dearly. The least you could do, Nickels, is give us a reach-around.
@Queenie.
Saw one on Beacon Ave. yesterday too. I wouldn’t exactly say the plows are out in full force, but at least we have a smidge of street access, although I know there are many folks who can’t get off of their blocks. Anyone out there stuck?
I haven’t left my house today, but in looking out at my view of Rainier Avenue at Austin, I do see that it has been plowed at some point today.
bus bitch, funny stuff…
Yes, funny stuff…
BUT… “If you’re anything like me (and for your sake, I hope you are) than by now, the snow has lost its sedentary-inducing,…
Should be then and not than, I believe Mr. Bitch.
I went downtown today via the 7 local around 11:30 am from Graham & Rainier. It took about 1 1/2 hours for the bus to arrive, and we all (there were about 15 of us waiting) watched EIGHT 7's heading southbound. I stayed because sooner or later one of them had to come back! There was one southbound snow plow, and 2 rear wheel drive chain-less cars that required assistance from the bus passengers to get past the bus stop.
When I returned around 2:30, it took another hour of waiting before one showed up, and then it was the worst sardine can I've ever been on. The return took 90 minutes, and I got out at Orcas just to breath some fresh air.
So all told, it took nearly 5 hours of waiting and travel time. I don't think I'm going to try this again tomorrow. I'd have more fun shoveling snow.
I work in Redmond, and I made it in on Friday (after 2 hours/3 busses) — no way I wanted to try commuting in the dark, so I put in about 1-1/2 hours, then headed back home….
We live just north of Graham east of Rainier, and our car isn’t going ANYWHERE for the foreseeable future – we finally called a Tow Truck to pull us up the hill as we couldn’t stand it anymore.
He got stuck.
So the stranding continues.
Oh, and after Friday's experience said screw it – no more commutes for me until, well, who knows….
Now our time is spent trying to figure out how to explain that since Mom & Dad can't get anywhere, that somehow affects Santa's ability to deliver presents….
Huh – next time I’ll think through this.
Friday I hopped on at Rainier * Graham after waiting 20-30 minutes. The bus was so full, the driver basically started passing stops at that point, and I felt bad, as those people had already waited probably 30 minutes just to see a bus go by (and who knows when the next one would come). So pretty much all of Columbia City, and RV to McClellan were dealt a Big Blow of frustration
@Denise. Apparently, the cold has affected my editing skills too.
@Denise: Mine, too. Sorry!
@Tlp and Erich. I had a similar experience Friday. Waited for about 30-45 minutes for the 36. Caught the 32, which wasn’t supposed to be running, and after sliding most of the way down Columbian Way, I understood why. We passed so many people that we couldn’t fit on the bus since Metro downgraded to trolleys only (No articulated buses!). Took just shy of two hours to make it up to Capitol Hill.
On the way back, just as bad. I couldn’t catch the 60, so I hoofed it from Cap Hill to the ID. BIG MISTAKE! I almost ate it on the ice so many times. The sidewalks along Broadway through First Hill and down were treacherous. I eventually got on the 36 and not long after we were stuck in the snow, one of the chains came off and we almost abandoned ship. Thankfully, the driver knew what he was doing behind the wheel, and I made it home in one wind-burnt, sock-soaked, cranky piece.
UGH. After work last eve at 5pm, I tried catching a 7 from 5th and Jackson none were coming, so I decided to start treking down Rainier towards home on Orchard, thinking I would eventually be able to catch a 7 along the way. I did not see one bus pass me on Rainier in the ~7 or so miles I walked/slid home. Thankfully, I managed to make it without falling on my ass.
@Neno. 7 miles and not a damn 7 bus? Jesus! That’s terrible! I hope your commute today isn’t as bad.
If only Nickels would stop being a fucking moron and start using salt on city streets! Sand ain’t helping nothing!
You all are much more adventurous than I, at least in this weather!
DG
@BusBitch: Thanks, yeah…I’m hoping to not have to do as much walking today! :/ We’ll see.
And yes, more salt would def be fantastic!
@Neno. Not “more” salt. The city isn’t using ANY salt. None. At all! Just sand and deicer– even though salt is the MOST effective means of melting ice. You can read more about it here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008551284_snowcleanup23m.html
@Bus Bitch – that was interesting, thanks.
From Catharine who had a tough time posting her comment:
Oh goodie, goodie! I get to be Math Bitch, since no one else has been.
(Grammar?)
If Metro has cut service to less than 80% of normal, and normal is crap–I would say it’s only often crap– we only get to subtract a little more than 20% from the normal.
There needs to be some place in the Valley for homeless people to go,
when it’s like this. If I had a car, I would’ve picked him up–but then what to do with the cart… It’s a hard life. The outlying
neighborhoods are considered safer than the downtown streets by some I
have talked to.
PS I already knew that our gutter, the one that misses the downspout,
makes the sidewalk wet, and maybe I already knew that it makes the
sidewalk icy in the right conditions, but this is ridiculous.
I hate to use salt but it goes down to the sidewalk, which is also icy. Does anyone have any sand handy, ha ha. And we use the cat litter that is pressed paper or something.
@Catharine, etc.
I know this debate has ravaged other blogs, but really, WTF is the problem with salt? I understand the environmental implications the greenies are spewing, although I completely disagree that two days of salt–that’s all it would have freaking taken here!– would somehow destroy the Puget Sound ecosystem or cause the geoduck to become extinct.
I– and many others in the RV– have spent the last week either sitting at home or waiting on the corner in the cold for a bus that may or may not show up. Finally, Metro is back on a somewhat normal schedule, but it was pretty terrible for awhile and could have been avoided if the city just dropped a little salt like the state did on 5, the passes, etc.
Nickels really screwed this one up, and I hope his continued bumbling means he’ll be out of office as soon as his term is up.
@busbitch
what is the deicer they use made of that makes it so eco-friendly? Does it evaporate or is it just safer for the fish?
Anyway Happy anniversary to you and Jamie (you missed some good fights, Wanderlei Silva should be waking up soon.
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