Add Bus Service to First Avenue

Ryan Parker had a recent editorial about adding bus service on First Avenue. I completely agree. There are many options and issues to consider.

Center Running with Normal Buses

Many of you are familiar with the RapidRide G buses on Madison Street that run in the center of the street and use center platforms. These buses avoid congestion that occasionally occurs with BAT lanes. There are no turning cars to worry about: it's is like a busway in the middle of the street. On Madison Street they achieve this with special buses that have doors on both sides. This is very effective but it limits flexibility.

There is another technique that can achieve the same goal but does not require special buses. The buses serve center platforms from the right side (like a normal bus) even though the platform is in the middle of the street. You can see this in action for part of Van Ness Avenue in San Fransisco. You can also see how this works in these diagrams for a potential Aurora rebuild. By staggering the bus stops in this manner you can use regular buses to serve center platforms while still using a limited amount of street space. You would take just as much right-of-way from First Avenue as they planned on taking for the streetcar (with just as much of a speed improvement) but be able to serve it with any bus in our system.

Tradeoffs with RoutingMap of bus routes downtown. Routes that run on Third Avenue could be shifted to First Avenue. Depending on the route(s) that are shifted they could cover different parts of First Avenue. Shifting the 1 for example would cover more of First Avenue than shifting the 70.

There are a number of different routes that could serve First Avenue including something brand new. Various tradeoffs and issues come into play such as:

1. The cheapest option from a service standpoint is to shift an existing route to First Avenue but otherwise leave it the same. The second-cheapest is to have a small extension of an existing route. The most expensive would be a brand new route.
2. Moving trolley wire costs money, and Metro has been resistant to running trolleys regularly off-wire.
3. Buses are paired through downtown (i. e. through-routed). This saves a considerable amount of money. Breaking the pairing would add to overlap. This could add extra service to First Avenue although it would cost more. For example the 1 is paired with the 14, so it starts in Mt Baker as the 14, changes the number to 1 just before downtown, and continues to the northern terminus on Queen Anne. If the the routes were split and allowed to overlap on First Avenue, the 14 could run from Mt Baker to Uptown (Lower Queen Anne), and the 1 could run from Upper Queen Anne to Pioneer Square.
4. We should consider common market". Basically this means that buses that cover the same area should serve the same stops when possible (e. g. the 65 and 75 both go to the UW and both serve the same bus stops in Lake City).
5. The more you can continue on First Avenue the more coverage you add. The proposed streetcar left out Belltown. A bus like the 24 would cover all" of First Avenue (or at least from Jackson to Denny). Moving the 70 would cover only the southern half. The 5/21 would cover somewhere in between.
6. Transfers should be a consideration. Moving the 5/21 to First Avenue would connect to more buses running on Third Avenue than moving the 1/14.

Given we have more than enough buses running through downtown, I don't think we should add a new route on First. That was one of the many flaws with the proposed streetcar extension known as the Culture Connecor (CC) (previously named the City Center Streetcar (CCC)). It is much cheaper to just shift some bus routes. Even with that idea in mind I think every alternative would involve a tradeoff.

For example the city has considered shifting the 1/14 over to First Avenue. This would provide thorough coverage on First (much better than the proposed CC routing) but it would require adding wire or running off-wire for a considerable distance. While this is common in other cities, it isn't common here. This would also break the common market" concept for some trips. Right now from Third Avenue I can take the 7 and 14 to Rainier & Jackson. This would reduce that trip to just the 7.

Moving the 24/33/124 would not require moving wire. From a common market" standpoint the impact is minor; some of the trips would no longer involve these buses but there would still be plenty of alternatives. One of the bigger issues is transfers. Riders from Magnolia would transfer to 1, 2, 13 or D to head down Third Avenue. This seems adequate but the transfer is awkward, especially inbound (towards downtown). A new bus stop along Denny west of First could be served by all of those buses, making an inbound transfer trivial. Riders using the 124 (coming and going south of downtown) would have plenty of opportunities to transfer to other buses on Third at Jackson. All riders would connect to Link, Sounder and Amtrak in the CID.

Another possibility would to send the 101 and 150 to First Avenue. Right now these buses run on 2nd and 4th. They end their runs at roughly Stewart and Denny. It wouldn't cost that much money to redirect those routes towards First Avenue and end where the Metro 8 ends (in Uptown). They 101 and 150 are currently timed to run opposite each other along 2nd to provide combined 7.5 minute headways weekday daytime. That could continue and shift to First Avenue. Like the riders from the 124 they would have plenty of opportunity to transfer to a bus on Third Avenue if that is what they prefer.

There are a lot more possibilities. We could combine a few buses (and time them appropriately), or add a lot of buses and not worry about the timing (thus creating a spine" on First Avenue just as there is a spine on Third). But with only one bus lane each direction it is unlikely the buses would skip stops (and leap frog") as they do on Third Avenue. Thus it would make sense to not add too many buses on First.