15-Minute Headway on 15th Ave S Between Beacon Hill Station and Georgetown, All Day & Evening, 7 Days a Week, Virtually for Free

Route 60 map from KC Metro website

Route 107 map from Metro website

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King County Metro Route 60 has received at least two large investments from 2014 Seattle Proposition 1 funds that extend span of 30-minute-or-better headway all the way to 7 am to 11 pm seven days a week and, as of this September, now provide 15-minute headway from 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays.

Route 107 has also seen good investment from Metro since it was rolled out last fall, with 30-minute headway all the way from 7 am to at least 9 pm, seven days a week, and a perfectly-placed layover spot that allows it to round the corner to the southbound bus stop across from Beacon Hill Station.

Both serve the corridor on 15th Ave S from Beacon Hill Station down to Georgetown, with whichever bus comes along first picking up the bulk of bus riders at any of the stops in that corridor.

However, the two routes are not timed to provide coordinated headway on the corridor, producing a painfully wasteful service pattern.

During weekday evenings, routes 60 and 107 pass Beacon Hill Station southbound at almost the same time. Northbound, route 107 is scheduled to arrive at Beacon Hill Station 11-14 minutes before route 60.

On weekend afternoons, the two routes are scheduled to pass by the station southbound roughly two to three minutes apart. Northbound, they are scheduled to arrive roughly eight to eleven minutes apart.

With cleverly-coordinated timing during evenings and weekends, routes 60 and 107 could provide roughly 15-minute-or-better headway on 15th Ave S between Beacon Hill Station and Georgetown from 7 am to 9 pm or later, seven days a week.

But even if that is easier said than done, having at least 10 minutes between each bus would mean that 2 out of 3 trains going each way would have a bus to which to transfer to head down 15 Ave S, and riders headed to the station from 15th Ave S would be able to catch the next train 2/3rds of the time, the following train 1/3rd of the time, for most of the evening and weekends.