Report Says Metro Runs on People

The Municipal League of King County have judged Metro and found its bus service wanting. For one thing, Metro is too expensive: "Metro's total bus operating costs grew 42 percent from 2000 to 2007, though bus-service hours increased just 8 percent." And for another, its allocation of services seems more politically based than real-world: in short, "Buses should be deployed based on where people travel."

Taking the last first, back in 2001 Metro adopted a formula that specified 40 percent of new bus service would go to the Eastside, 40 percent to South King County, and only 20 percent to Seattle and Shoreline. The west got "shorted" because everyone thought there was more than enough bus service over here, and that people in the suburbs were underserved. Or, more cynically, to mollify the "we don't live in Seattle, we don't want to pay for their buses" crowd, Metro decided to feed 'em bread and articulated buses.

No matter how you look at it, the reasoning for set percentages is pretty feeble; maybe someone from Google or Microsoft could explain to the politicos how a weighted algorithm can work to accomplish multiple objectives like maintaining a baseline standard of service and directing funding to where demand is highest.

Metro's average operating cost of $4.10 per passenger trip doesn't really tell us that much, other than that in comparison to the nation's other large transit systems, they're running on the pricey side. "Factors include Seattle's high living costs, automatic pay boosts in union contracts, articulated buses, park-and-ride lots, and a downtown tunnel," says the Seattle Times, in an unexplored breakdown.

Why would articulated buses end up costing more? What are those bus tunnel costs: staffing, maintenance? And why isn't Metro's failure to predict and hedge against high fuel costs--which prompted not one but two fare increases--listed as a factor?

Been waiting for less crowded commute buses since 1952. Item 25649, City Light Photographic Negatives (Record Series 1204-01), Seattle Municipal Archives, from our Seattlest Flickr pool.