Dear Diary,
Yes, I had a good birthday. Thank you for asking. I wish any of your readers at all had asked, but one can't have everything.
Two years ago, I went way outside your usual topic, dear Diary, and wrote about bus stops. Let's see...
Why?
I'd been seeing signs around the neighbourhood for months saying our bus line was to be cut. But I'd been busy with school, and hadn't paid attention.
When I finally did pay attention, the signs were saying there was one last survey, one last chance to make our voices heard. But the survey turned out to have only one question: "What do you think is the best thing about the planned changes?"
When I started thinking about writing something, I contacted King County Metro's PR people, who were absolutely astonished to be asked for ridership numbers. As if the level of usage of a bus line had nothing at all to do with its being eliminated. Well, to be fair, the route 271 had about a hundred times more use than the route 20, and the 271 is now history.
But why, if the 20's lack of riders wasn't the reason, why was it being eliminated?
What?
As I said in the previous part, I went places and I photographed things - went to the bus stops being retired from service and photographed them.
I also did a passel of research, but too much of it relied on fallible me. In part III of "A Requiem for Seventy-Seven Bus Stops", I listed, I think, six cuts of North Seattle bus stops, previous to those I was writing about. But in preparing to write this page, I made a list, and I'd missed a cut only one year before. Also, a relevant cut.
I was writing about, inter alia, the route 28X, but I hadn't noticed two other routes in the same general area that had been cut in September 2023. In summer 2023, the routes 15X, 18X and 28X all operated west of Greenwood Ave N, south of the city limits, east of Puget Sound, and north of NW 85th St / Holman Road N/NW. In summer 2025, they were all gone; only two short loops, 17X and 28X, probably one or two stops each, remained, near the southern edge.
Subsequently? The route 75 was re-routed in March of this year, eliminating service on NE 125th St from Roosevelt Way NE to 5th Ave NE, and on 5th Ave NE from NE 125th St to NE Northgate Way.
And this fall, the introduction of the route 77 added service on N/NE 130th St from Meridian Ave N to 5th Ave NE.
Why not?
I never intended to add another main topic for you, dear Diary, and to be useful, I think ongoing coverage of transit - well, specifically, of buses - would need a lot of attention, not just a twice-yearly look-see.
I'd actually have to read the Seattle Transit Blog regularly. Learn how to read it regularly, for that matter.
What now?
I dunno. A twice-yearly look-see is well within my powers; a twice-yearly photographing hike a bit less so, while I remain in school.
But serious study of transit? Scary.
Human readers, if any: The point of this page is not confessional. It is to elicit comments on what you'd like to read. It is utterly failing in that goal at present, so I reluctantly concede I'll have to allow more time. But this topic is exactly the kind of thing where comments really could make a difference.
Dear Diary, this quarter, I have classes in person, in Everett, Mondays and Wednesdays, and online Tuesdays and Wednesdays. While I also have plenty of assignments due the rest of the week, you shouldn't expect the parts recently promised:
- In this page, the remaining parts
- In "Building a Baseline", Bitter Lake and downtown Lake City
- And in "Under Construction", the remaining parts
until Thursday at earliest, in any given week.
So happy days and nights until then, dear Diary.
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