Many of you have written to me with your concerns about the proposed Seattle route restructure plan, scheduled to go into effect on September 30. King County Metro has just further refined this set of major changes on bus routes throughout the City, which were first presented to the public last November. The updated proposal, which can be found here, incorporates public input received from more than 5000 bus riders who attended a series of neighborhood workshops held last fall, or submitted written comments to Metro and the County and City Councils. Many of the concerns raised by riders were specific to Routes 2, 27, 16, 18, 28, 37 and 55. Nearly all the concerns raised about these routes have been addressed by the updated route restructure proposal. However, in some cases, these changes will be offset by less frequent evening and weekday service than what was promised in the November proposal.
Whether these revisions address your concerns or raise new ones, now is the time to weigh in with your opinion. Metro will be holding another round of community meetings to gather additional feedback and finalize the restructure plan for adoption by the King County Council later this spring. Those meetings will be held in neighborhoods all over Seattle throughout the month of February. The schedule can be found here at the Metro website. You may also want to go to the King County Council website and send a comment to the County Councilmember who represents your neighborhood.
As a chair on the Seattle City Council Transportation Committee. I also want to understand how the newly revised plan will affect you and your neighbors. I will convey those concerns and recommendations to Metro Transit’s General Manager and his staff when they come before the City Council to update us on the restructure plan at the Full Council Briefing on Feb. 21 at 9:30am in Council Chambers. You may send me an e-mail at tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov or comment here on my blog.
