The first thing I learned, and this was early, very early in the challenge, is that no matter what bus you take, OneBusAway is the only way to get where you are going. I knew this was true for all of the routes I regularly used way before the challenge, but not even the simplest or the least frequent of routes can maintain a consistent on-time performance.
Commuter routes, no matter how packed or delayed they tend to be, are the only option for getting to and from West Seattle or North Seattle at rush hour. This is for one reason only: the express lanes and the bus only lanes they have the privilege of using. It's amazing how much of a difference they make - I've been in a car in such traffic countless times, and the experience on the bus has always been better.
It is really great that there will be Northgate Link in the foreseeable future: if you haven't noticed already, route 41 customers line up to board Tokyo subway style, many of them having to wait for the next bus. I also can't think of one time I have been on a 70-74 route, night or day, where there were any significant number of open seats.
For 3rd Avenue downtown transfers, always, ALWAYS go to Virginia or Bell Streets if both routes stop in that general area - there are less people at the stops, you'll be able to catch a seat on buses that start their routes there, and if you're on RapidRide, you'll be able to tap your pass at the reader before boarding.
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All in all, the bus challenge opened my eyes to a large portion of Seattle and to the demographics and particularities of different neighborhoods I had not seen much of. It also showed me a lot more about Metro, the way it runs, and the bus drivers that work so hard to make the bus ride safe and efficient.
It also exposed me to the massive flaws of the system even more than I would have expected - the set of routes I find myself on the most give me a pretty complete view of this in the first place, but I gained an even better view of this from the challenge. Metro is going to suffer with the upcoming service cuts - buses are going to be even more crowded and even later than their current level - which is really saying something.
Hopefully Metro gets rid of some of the stupid routes as well - routes like the 25 barely have any consistently appearing customers, and I've yet to see one come close to filling up its seats.
It's been great, and I've been also thinking of a new challenge for this year.
It's been great, and I've been also thinking of a new challenge for this year.