Standing in the aisles on buses

Q: Carol Wessberg of the Maple Leaf neighborhood feels she's in a predicament in which she's being encouraged to drive rather than take the bus.

"I do have a bus pass," she said, "but [I] believe I'll be giving that up because the bus commute to the Maple Leaf neighborhood has become so unpleasant." Far too many times, she said, she's taken Metro's Route 66 after 4:30 p.m. only to end up standing in the aisle "packed like sardines for the commute." Or worse yet, being asked by the bus driver not to get on and to wait for the next bus.

Wessberg says she has safety concerns as well. "Standing that many people on the bus feels very frightening when the driver is forced to brake hard," she said. "I am concerned as to what would happen if we were involved in an actual accident. I have stopped riding the [Route] 41 for the very same reason. I'm disappointed that the 66 has now also reached that dangerous place."

Wessberg said she doesn't understand why Metro doesn't have more frequent service on that route, or switch to articulated buses with more capacity, much like those for Route 67, which travels a similar route.

"It's obvious that folks have chosen not to drive, but for how long?" she asked.

A: Metro Transit spokeswoman Linda Thielke says the agency is aware that there are a couple of afternoon peak trips on Route 66 that have passengers standing in the aisle. But that's not unusual for any of Metro's busier routes, particularly during the afternoon commute, she said.

"While Metro would like to be able to provide a seat for every passenger on all routes, its buses are designed to safely accommodate standing passengers by providing rails and straps for them to hold onto," Thielke said.

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In responding to Wessberg's concerns, Thielke noted that passenger loads on Metro buses can fluctuate hourly, daily and seasonally. "On the Route 66, most trips aren't at standing capacity," she said. "When they are, it is relatively short-lived, typically less than 20 minutes."

Route 41, too, has a few trips with standing passengers, she conceded. "But if passengers wait for the next trip — about five minutes later — they often find a bus with empty seats."

Thielke said the agency does monitor routes that consistently have standing passengers, and makes adjustments in bus assignments when possible. "Adding more frequent service is costly, and must be prioritized with other requests for service within Metro's limited budget," she said.

Q: Before a solid white stripe made it illegal for drivers to make a last-minute lane change on the approach to northbound Interstate 5 from the West Seattle Bridge, some drivers made a bad habit of doing it.

They still do in northbound I-5 just after the Lake City Way exit, says Larry Miner of Mill Creek.

He's talking about those over-anxious drivers who, during the evening commute when traffic tends to slow down and back up at the Northgate merge, make a practice of trying to crowd into the line of slowed motorists.

His gripe is mainly with large trucks that travel in the right lane to avoid the traffic in the center lane and then push their way back in at the last possible point near the Northgate exit.

The lane says exit only, "yet these trucks continue to ignore the signs and the law," without regard to those motorists trying to obeying the law, he said.

"Now this may sound like an annoyance," he said. "And it is."

A: A common term for this reader's gripe is "queue jumping." That's when drivers use a faster-moving lane to get a better spot in an adjacent lane that is stopped or moving slowly. Unfortunately, says state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Myly Posse, the practice is not illegal. (The exception is where it's specifically prohibited, as at the West Seattle Bridge exit, where it's a $101 infraction.)

Otherwise, "it is at best an annoyance, and at worst a dangerous trigger for road rage," she said.

In responding to a similar question some time ago, a State Patrol spokesman noted that if an officer sees a queue jumper make an unsafe lane change, fail to signal, drive on the shoulder or drive negligently, the officer can cite the driver.

As aggravating as queue jumping is, the spokesman said, drivers are encouraged to resist the urge to retaliate. Road-rage incidents are often set off by a retaliatory act and can lead to far more serious crimes than traffic infractions.