I'm not convinced Seattle has a city planner. As I spent 4hrs outside or on a bus trying to get from Kirkland to Seattle (normally about 1.5hrs on the bus or 45mins by car in traffic) in minimal Kirkland snow (this was the day before Seattle got snow) I have come to the realization that anyone in Seattle with any authority over roads or transit puts the covers over their head for the few days it snows and hopes it goes away. This year we are in for more snow and extreme cold than usual, and we really need our city to step up.
Yesterday, two charter buses carrying students crashed through a guardrail. Some students had minor injuries. The guardrail just happened to be 20 feet above I-5, the freeway that goes through Seattle and was crowded with cars.
Beings this isn't the first time Seattle has been in the news with buses and guardrails*, me thinks someone is trying to tell Seattle something about their public transportation.
Public transportation in Seattle is a sore subject, which Cameron Crowe demonstrated in the 1992 movie "Singles" where the public transportation project is shot down. This would become a reality 13 years later when the monorail debacle cost us tax dollars but amounted to nothing.
And the earthquake-unfriendly Alaskan Way Viaduct still stands, with no plan in sight. One idea, to route people off the viaduct onto Alaskan Way which parallels the Seattle waterfront, could've only been the idea of someone who hadn't driven those streets in years. I can't imagine how badly we are polluting the waters around the 520 bridge as cars are at a crawl all morning long.
I think my long bus ride could've been avoided had Metro switched to their adverse weather schedule. Simple communication.
What is it going to take for Seattle to show any management skills? Students to fall to their deaths in a bus?
Yesterday, it seems the roads might not have been properly marked as closed.
No warnings were posted on the freeway indicating the route had been closed because of ice.
Rick Sheridan, Seattle Department of Transportation spokesman, said the road closures are short term and often done by the police. He also said that without a way to convey information about closures, like a "dynamic message board," it wouldn't do any good to coordinate with the state Department of Transporation, which oversees the interstate.
Hmm...a way to warn people about an icy road that hovers above the freeway. Interesting concept. I like how he directly points out a way it can be done. But will this get done? Nope. Not in Seattle.
*In 1998 a bus went over the Aurora bridge, killing 3 people. Unrelated to weather, a man shot the driver. I point this out purely as a symbolic gesture. Remembering the victims- Mark McLaughlin and Herman Liebelt. The shooter also died by killing himself.