Final Analysis: Waiting for Metro Transit to get a clue

Hey, Metro Transit. Throw us a bone!

Were not asking for door-to-door service here, just some old-fashioned, businesslike common sense.

When I ride the bus to and from work, my 10-mile trip takes about an hour and 10 minutes on a good day. If I drive my car, its 30 minutes. So, as you might imagine, I dont take the bus very often. Even less, now that Metro has redesigned my service.

Too bad. I like buses and trains and streetcars. Monorails, even. I support Metros stated mission of moving people efficiently in an urban setting. But Metros means of wooing riders is about as effective and confidence inspiring as Wile E. Coyote trying to subdue Road Runner.

Exhibit A: When the elapsed time of my transit option is more than twice that of my car option, well, you do the math. If I could cut the difference to, say 15 or 20 minutes, Id take the bus regularly. However, when Metro changed its route system last fall, my regular route was scrapped entirely, except for some express buses available only at peak commute times (my total travel time: 70 minutes). Other non-peak choices are a not-so-RapidRide bus (also about 70 minutes) or a local with a transfer to another local (75 to 90 minutes, depending on the wait).

Exhibit B: Metro is putting a lot of faith in bus bulbs. These roadway improvements, to borrow Metros terminology, are bus stops that bump out farther into the street to save the bus driver a precious few seconds at each stop. The idea is to keep the bus in the travel lane, sometimes entirely, sometimes partially, so the bus driver doesnt have to exit the travel lane to pick up passengers and then merge back into traffic. Its more efficient for the bus and hugely annoying for motorists stuck behind the bus. Metro says this inconveniencing of general purpose vehicles is for the greater good and might persuade people in cars to hop a bus instead. Really?

Exhibit C: Last September, Metro eliminated the Ride Free Area, a 40-year-old institution in downtown Seattle, in a dubious bit of horse trading to benefit service elsewhere in King County. The scuttling of the Ride Free Area ensured that a majority of King County Council members would vote to pass a two-year, $20 add-on charge on car tab renewals, which will generate about $25 million. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who can least afford to pay for a bus ride are concentrated in what used to be the Ride Free Area. For them, the elimination of the free pass amounts to an exorbitant fare increase.

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, two of the more popular names in business school classrooms because of their ongoing examination of leadership traits, note in their book Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It; Why People Demand It that a key discipline in admired organizations is the ability to sustain hope. No sensible business operation can curtail its service, antagonize potential clients and raise prices simultaneously and then expect clients to remain sanguine about their prospects of a positive customer experience. Granted, times are tough, money is tight. But thats all the more reason for Metro Transit to curry our favor, not make us angry.

Instead, Metro has chosen to throw us under its buses and hope we dont notice the unsightly tread marks. A common French expression about pedestrians is that theyre viande a pneus, or meat for tires. The expression could easily extend to Metros current customers, its former customers and its future customers.

JOHN LEVESQUE is the managing editor of Seattle Business magazine.