The big orange panels are staying — for now (Image: CHS)
Hoped to optimize an area that was already heavily served by a tangle of King County Metro bus routes in neighborhoods unlikely to be connected to Sound Transit’s light rail network anytime soon, the RapidRide G bus rapid transit line is currently serving around 4,000 trips a day up and down Madison and across Capitol Hill.
CHS checked in with the new transit line to see how A) ridership is faring and B) get updates on launch growing pains including construction problems that are making big orange steel panels a permanent part of First Hill’s streetscape.
A) RIDERSHIP: The first trip counts for the new 2.5-mile line are encouraging. RapidRide G averaged more than 4,100 trips a day on weekdays in October, doubling the boarding totals reported in the line’s first month of service in September. For comparison, the much longer 12-mile RapidRide C connecting across West Seattle to averages more than 7,500 trips per weekday and the 9-mile RapidRide D between Crown Hill and Downtown, more than 8,800. The RapidRide G’s “trip density” above 1,600 boardings per mile is tops in the city.
RapidRide G’s first ridership totals
G’s weekday totals are also double the daily ridership totals of the old Route 12 line it displaced. The new alignment for 12 has dropped ridership on that line has dropped more than 30% to just over 1,100 trips a day. Route 11, also moved off E Madison, previously carried around 2,300 trips per weekday. It has also dropped with its trips down 18%.
RapidRide G’s ridership, meanwhile, has been evenly split across eastbound and westbound boardings. The performance also comes as overall Metro ridership was reported down 18% in October, year over year. UPDATE: Thanks to the attentive reader who caught this squirrely stat and helped explain why Metro totals are actually up year over year. They write: “King County Metro ridership is actually up 4.8% year on year (this will likely increase as KCM adds the last of the October numbers). The reason it says -18% is because in October 2023 KCM included Link ridership in the aggregate but has not done so for about 6 months. If KCM were to add Link back in, that would add about 100k daily riders on top of the 306k bus riders.” — Thanks a million for the catch.
The numbers are far below forecasts cooked up long before the pandemic reset public transit behaviors. City of Seattle transportation officials boasted of forecasts predicting 12,000 RapidRide G riders a day during the design phases of the project nearly a decade ago but stopped including ridership forecasts in later communications around the project.
You can view Metro system ridership reports here. The Urbanist has more takeaways on the early RapidRide G totals.
B) PAINS AND PERFORMANCE: Metro and the city have continued to fine tune the signals and traffic management required for the line to achieve its planned “bus every six minutes” peak schedule but the construction issues discovered at RapidRide G’s launch remain unchanged.
First, the large orange steel panels installed along Madison are staying indefinitely.
“The orange steel plates next to three RapidRide G Line bus stops were added to slightly raise the buses to ensure that the left-side door bridge plates operated smoothly at three specific locations where the platforms are less than an inch too high,” a spokesperson for the Seattle Department of Transportation explains. “This has successfully resulted in ADA bridge plates working consistently since service began.”
In October, CHS reported as riders noted large orange steel panels placed at platforms at the route when the line began its first service. SDOT, which managed construction of the $144 million line, placed the segments to raise buses the less than an inch required for the RapidRide wheelchair ramps to properly operate. Metro said it is looking into solutions that could include making adjustments to the buses or lowering the cement platforms at eastbound stop 104 at Terry, eastbound stop 105 at Summit, and westbound 124 at the three-way intersection of Madison, Union, and 12th Ave. Metro says the platform mistakes were made due to measurements not taking into account raised bumps added for blind and vision-impaired riders.
With the big panels here to stay for now, the other major construction problem identified at RapidRide G launch has an even more uncertain timeline. SDOT and Metro said no work has been completed to upgrade each of the route’s 25 shelters after inspections revealed issues with “paint thickness and color, incorrect welds, and holes within the frames.”
Metro says the repairs if left unaddressed “could lead to rust and other damage.”
A spokesperson says one shelter has, indeed, been removed — “One shelter has been brought into King County Metro’s maintenance facility to assess the best path forward,” the spokesperson said. “We are still considering options.”
Given the uncertainty, officials say they don’t yet have a price tag for performing the necessary upgrades on the 25 shelters and fixing the three center island loading platforms that will need to be modified if the large orange panels are ever to be removed.
“We haven’t finalized cost estimates or construction schedule because we are still discussing which option would be the most cost-effective and sustainable solution,” an SDOT representative said. “We have been having productive conversations with our partners at King County Metro and making good progress to identify the best path forward with both issues.”
As for the problems, the representative said the issues around the mistakes were overblown.
“Catching and addressing construction issues is a normal part of launching any complex project,” they said. “These issues were identified during our standard inspections and operational testing, and we made effective short-term solutions before bus service began.”
Metro and SDOT have emphasized that the problems have had “no effect on the bus service and ADA accessible doors.”
As for signal timing, SDOT says it has been working with Metro “to fine tune signal timing to improve traffic flow and reduce bus delays.”
“Since bus service began, we have implemented new signal timing along Madison St and made additional upgrades and adjustments at the intersections of 6th Ave, Boren Ave, 12th Ave, 15th Ave, 23rd Ave, and MLK Jr Way to solve specific issues affecting bus service and reliability,” a spokesperson said.
Along the route, other finishing touches are wrapped up. SDOT has been planting 108 new trees and making landscaping improvements on Madison over I-5 where planters will include a mix of shrubs, grasses, perennials, and small trees.
The route’s addition of six-minute peak service, bus priority signals, and upgraded pedestrian crossings to Madison also includes art. Installation is nearly complete of a colorful sculpture by artist Ben Zamora at the three-way intersection of Madison,14th Ave, and Pike.
SDOT expects to complete work on the surrounding plaza by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, a late discovered surprise was being filled in near 10th Ave earlier this month where crews discovered an “abandoned tunnel” under the sidewalk.
“While we do not know the exact history, we believe that this is tunnel was likely associated with the old Madison St Cable Car,” an SDOT spokesperson said. Work to fill in the tunnel was expected to take two to three weeks.
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So they’re not gonna fix the problem where the shelters have zero protection from wind and rain bc they don’t have glass? Or grilles? Damn.
Unfortunately, any shelters with glass around here quickly become taxpayer-funded drug dealing and consumption sites.
I can’t express to you how much I don’t care about that. I just want the chance to not get wet even though I’m under a shelter because it’s raining sideways. If the guy next to me is smoking fent I’ll just step out of the wind trail.
wack you are so noble! If only the rest of these selfish closeted right wingers had your empathy!
wtf are you talking about?
Exactly, it’s unfortunate but we must make life worse for everybody, otherwise we would be making life easier for drug users and the homeless, which would be unacceptable.
There is simply no other way.
Making life worse for everyone to “fix” something is the MAGA way to do it.
You’re right, get the damn criminals off the streets. Until then – seriously – we should not build any shelters.
really? there will always be criminals on the streets dude.
if that method was going to work it would have already
RapidRide Route G was projected to have 12k+ riders per day when it was announced. We’re at a third of that….does Metro have a new prediction?
I love mass transit but we tore up a huge arterial for years, took away a lane of traffic, spent billions, and now each of those buses is on average handling 10-11 riders. With rush hour fluctuations that means some of the off-hours ones have a handful of riders…how is this better than the old #11 and other routes that this replaced?
The linked urbanist article states it’s already at double the ridership of the 11 and it’s expected to grow as more people try it out and service improves with better light timing. I think we may see a lot of additional development and ridership along the corridor in the next decade.
The Urbanist? The Pro-developer group that wanted to create a 24 hour street line around downtown Seattle for bar hopping?
Build! Build! Build!
The article they have about building units downtown that are 70 square feet in size, which they believe Amazon employees would find enticing? Where do we begin with on how wrong that is?
But hey, if you like what they say, they have some fundraising coming up at some mansion on First Hill you can attend.
It’s an article summarizing publicly available transit data… but way to deflect with a bunch of hyperbole and nothing of substance 🙄
We didn’t take away a lane of traffic, it’s right there being used by buses.
4000 riders per day would account for like a third or more of all people who travel along Madison st daily.
So we got:
-Improvements to water and drainage lines
-the whole road got repaved with concrete improving driving conditions for everyone
-traffic safety improvements
-sidewalk repaving
-transit times slashed by like half for bus riders
-more people taking the bus instead of driving because it’s more convenient alleviating traffic in the long term
-Reduced emissions from more efficient buses and more people taking the bus
-More people who live in the area of move near the corridor for the transit ditching their cars both alleviating traffic reducing parking constraints in the area increasingly reducing emissions and pollution
-Less tire and brake dust, which produce over 60% of environmental microplastics btw, because you have 11 people in a one bus instead of 8 to 11 cars
-A massive job creation project that injected money into the local economy
-A permeant mass transit corridor allowing for more people to access downtown more quickly so they need not contributing to gridlock congestion which with return to office mandates is going to be increasingly important
And the fact that the buses aren’t packed to the brim means more people will want to use allow for all of these benefits to grow over time as the city continues to grow
And it’s only been a month, more people are already riding transit in the area then previously based on the numbers and it usually takes years to see the full benefits of a project like this, this is an unabashed success.
Meeting projections made 5+ years ago pre pandemic when ridership was higher everywhere and population growth was much higher after one month of the line opening would be an absurd expectation
This project would give the city a return on investment if it cost twice as much without a doubt.
I don’t even ride the bus there but just driving in the area I’ve been very happy with the results
Sorry, but it is BS that people are giving up their cars. It is possible that they may be using them less, but I’d want to see the data that shows car trips are being reduced before I’d just accept that.. It is ridiculous however to conclude that people are giving up cars.. A single bus line that goes downtown isn’t going to convince people of that, not to mention that one of the big draws to this area is the recreational opportunities. One bus to one of the most already overcrowded and unpleasant hiking trails that’s really close to the city isn’t what people are looking for. Many are most certainly keeping their cars for the weekends, even if they use them less otherwise.
There are other ways to get cars and get out to hiking without a vehicle. Basecamp is local and has options along with other businesses or groups in Meetup, Turo is relatively affordable, or making plans with friends and coworkers. I’ve camped Dash Point via bus and am looking into doing a transit trip around the Olympic Peninsula in the next year. Also, you can connect to some less traveled trails via the connector route pretty easily and can encourage it to grow. The only reason that connector exists is because some UW grad student summer intern suggested it and worked on the project with staff.
There’s tons of evidence in the region that we’ve had pretty low or flat growth in vehicle miles traveled despite astronomical population growth, this is because we have a relatively strong transportation network in the region that allows for many people to move around without a vehicle and allows for some to live without owning a vehicle. Yes, it’s currently a small amount at the margins, but it only gets easier with better infrastructure and a bigger network. We know that more cars and more lanes isn’t the answer and only induces more traffic.
ooooo Dash Point.. now that’s getting out into the wilderness 🤣.
I had a wonderful time watching the crows mimicking the seagulls picking up shells and flying up high and dropping them on the rocks. There’s natural spaces all around us and not enough “wilderness” for everyone to just “get out into” or there wouldn’t be anymore wilderness (sort of the problem you’re describing). Instead of complaining about nonsense you have absolutely no control over, try shifting your perspective and focusing on the nature in your community and focusing on making that thrive.
I’m not complaining about anything- except you making stuff up. You actually have zero data showing people are giving up cars… and certainly none showing a single bus line is doing it. You are engaging in wishful thinking. Being able to get away from this city is as much of a draw to living here as the city itself is. People like to get further away than watching seagulls in the suburbs…
This you? “One bus to one of the most already overcrowded and unpleasant hiking trails that’s really close to the city isn’t what people are looking for.”
Check your car ownership data below…
and have you been on a highway around here recently? More traffic than ever out there… it’s always like rush hour. Seattle has the second highest rate of car ownership in the top 10 most densely populated cities.. Only Long Beach has a higher rate. The rate of car ownership *leveled* around 2019 – it had been rising just as fast as population up to that point. The leveling off was not due to new people not bringing in cars… they were still doing that. What changed was actually people cutting back on owning more than one vehicle per household. People are not giving up their vehicles… some may be commuting alone less, but they still want the convenience of a personal vehicle for non-work uses.
“From 2010 to 2018, total daily vehicle miles in the region grew at a much slower rate than population or employment. As VMT grew by 6%, population grew by 12% and employment by 22%. Transit boardings in the region increased 20% during this period”
Your feelings aren’t facts 🙄
https://www.psrc.org/about-us/media-hub/vehicle-miles-traveled-person-continues-decline-region
You aren’t even talking about the same thing I am… whether people commute alone less has nothing to do with what I an disputing you about… which is whether or not people are giving up their personal automobiles – the facts show they are not… only their second ones.
Oh and your data appears to be old. ‘Seattle-area drivers lost an average of 58 hours in traffic delays in 2023 per INRIX. This was a 12-hour increase from 2022, the largest jump of any major U.S. metro area year-over-year’
That Inrix report also shows that it was still an 11% decrease in congestion relative to 2019!
Also, you complain about comparing different data and then switch from car ownership to time in traffic. You’re really fighting hard for your car, moving the goalposts and stretching truths to make yourself feel better…
And don’t forget COVID and telecommuting has a lot more to do with this than any transit… Miles driven plunged when lockdowns hit, but so did transit usage. We’ve been slower than most areas to return to offices. But again.. not what I’m talking about. It’s easy to use an alternate to driving for routine trips like a commute or just jaunts around the city. That doesn’t mean people here are dropping their cars totally. I haven’t driven to work in 18 years.. save a few days when my bike commute would have been truly hazardous. That’s not even factoring I my decision to still own a car.
Good for you and your car, there’s lots of us, and an increasing segment of the population, that see it as a viable solution and one of the only ones that will leave our planet in any sort of shape for future generations to inherit.
Also, the same source you’re getting the car ownership data notes that over 30% of rental households are car-free and it’s the fastest growing segment… 🙄
“Another contributing factor is that the total number of owner-occupied homes in Seattle hasn’t increased for the past several years. The number of renter households, on the other hand, has surged — in fact, Seattle recently became a renter-majority city. And while renter households without a car are increasing at the fastest rate, there’s still been a bump in the raw number of renter households that do have one or more cars. To be sure, homeowners still own or lease the bulk of the vehicles in Seattle — they have about 265,000 of them, while renters have 195,000. And only 4% of owner-occupied households are car-less, compared with 31% of renter households.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattles-car-population-has-finally-peaked/
Nice cherry you picked there… but here’s the parts you left out.
” Seattle has finally reached peak car, and only one other densely populated U.S. city has more cars per capita A few years ago, during the height of Seattle’s historic population boom, I wrote about a remarkable trend: Our city was adding cars just as fast as people That trend appears to be over, at least for now. Census data shows that Seattle’s car “population” — the number of vehicles owned or leased by city residents — has finally leveled off”
“the number of vehicles in the city hasn’t gone down, it hasn’t gone up either…. From 2017 to 2019, the total number of cars belonging to homeowners declined by nearly 17,000. The number of cars belonging to renters increased by almost the same amount”
“There’s no getting around the fact that Seattle is, for a large and densely populated city, very car-dependent. Just look at per capita number of cars. We have 460,000 cars for a population of about 750,000. That pencils out to 610 cars for every 1,000 residents.”
You already shared that info, I wasn’t disputing that, just pointing out that you cherry picked your ownership data and then jumped to the false conclusion that no one is going carless despite the data being right there in the same article…
I never said Seattle doesn’t have a lot of cars, we do and we devote way to much space and other resources to their travel and storage to the detriment of our people. Car brain is real, and the fact that an admittedly daily bike commuter can’t see that is just more proof.
Lol… ‘car brain’… You have ‘smug brain’… this all started because I found your post to be extremely puffed up attributing one bus line for a great number of things that are a bit over the top, especially getting people to drop their cars, something that people here are just (data supported) not overwhelmingly interested in doing.
You managed to turn it into an even bigger smug fest about how awesome you are for bus camping… Have fun with that. Yeah, I am a bicycle commuter. I do actually do it so that I’m not driving so much and I do it for the exercise and because it’s simply more relaxing than diving, but I’m not going to become a martyr either. Life is for living. You want to have the smallest possible impact on the earth? Enjoy your own life and don’t reproduce.
I’m not sure how much more useful the bus line is or will eventually be than the old ones… Downtown Seattle is becoming less and less of a commute destination.. the light rail making it to Bellevue and Redmond will be MUCH more impactful, IMHO, but I never opposed it. We got a whole bunch of federal money for some seriously needed infrastructure improvements. The bus line was a perk. It is however not going to solve global warming.
I think you’re referring to Jase’s comment with a bunch of benefits from mass transit, to which you responded
“Sorry, but it is BS that people are giving up their cars. It is possible that they may be using them less, but I’d want to see the data that shows car trips are being reduced before I’d just accept that.. It is ridiculous however to conclude that people are giving up cars.”
Which is just factually not true, plenty of people are, and it’s a growing segment. The more there are alternatives to getting out of the city the better. I gave some examples, you’re the one that looked down on them with smugness.
Bingo.
Thanks for the positive comments. I get tired of so many negative complaints about everything.
“Less tire and brake dust, which produce over 60% of environmental microplastics”
Have you thought about fact checking the above, for that matter, even stop and thinking about what you are being fed before putting it on display for everyone else to read?
Reading posts like the above explain where some of crazy making policies are coming from.
Don’t forget that we narrowed the lanes, didn’t bother to add bike lanes, and created a nightmare for anyone wanting to make a left turn.
As much as I like riding my bike in the bus lane at a casual speed, those steel plates are slick and are going to result in the city being sued over creating a hazardous environment for bikes.
I just don’t know how the unlicensed operator of an unregistered and uninsured vehicle which falls over when it comes to a stop can threaten to sue the city for unsafe commercial arterial conditions. Motorcyclists – yes. Pedestrians – yes. Spandex cycling heroes – no.
Your “argument” started out semi-smart but then went downhill very quickly….🤦♂️
…and it’s the people going downhill who’s most at risk! I would know…lol I went down HARD and separated my shoulder going to Safeway on Madison.
That’s quite a lot of irrational hate you got there dude…
Ummm…Wanna pay for my shoulder? I am living proof you are completely ignorant for making that comment.
Yup…I busted my ass 6 weeks ago with leaves on a plate. Grade 2 separation of my left shoulder. It sucks.
SDOT should also ask questions about the additional carbon pollution from the monstrously slower traffic that has resulted from the “road diet” solution.
Traffic is faster. Or did you not read and critically think?
Meanwhile, back in the reality-based world….
i haven’t gotten stuck on Madison any more than I did pre-construction…possibly less.
utter waste of money. I feel sorry for all the business and locals that suffered the 3+ years of construction.
and for what? a route that quite frankly might be worse than prior.
You do understand that busses are a boon for businesses right? I’d provide you witht he data but. It seems you are uninterested.
Please do. I’d love to see it.
How often have you ridden it?
have you even used it tiff
Thank you for this update. It is good news that there is a decent ridership for the G-line. However, I would not congratulate SDOT on the planning. An definite update on the timeline for the work to restore the electric trolley lines were suppose to be restored within the Rapid Ride G project would be appreciated. So far the diesel buses are continuing to replace the electric trolleys for the construction of the Rapid Ride project. The trolley lines have not been restored, and the Metro bus lot is full of electric trolleys that seem permanently parked — not in service.
SDOT paid Metro to take the wire down, Metro is responsible for rebuilding it, and at the moment the scheduling of that work is unclear for both the 2 and the 12. Metro is supposedly behind on its work,and there is not an agreement about stringing the wire for the 12 or the 2 first. Why not do it at the same time? The 2 seems most reasonable to be first since it is not adding new wire, but just restoring it.
Apparently the WB island turn from Madison to Union’s bus only lane is to tight and will need to be widened. SDOT chose to ignore community members who spoke up about this prior to construction,
Metro also prefers that the 2 continue to use the westbound bus stop on Madison rather than create a new stop on the island, and SDOT prefers to move the stop. In addition, there is concern that between 13th and Union, the newly designed Madison with one lane tends to fill up during the peak hours, which interferes with the westbound 2 being able to access Madison. Again, the Metro bus lot is full of trolleys that seem permanently parked, and our air quality and noise pollution is the worse due to the diesel buses that are currently being used on those routes. Remember SDOT also did not deliver the promised electric trolley on the Rapid Ride.
Nice. With 144 million, we could have bought 4,000 people $30k cars, and invest the remaining $24 million into EV infrastructure.
As someone who takes public transport daily – this is the WORST investment I’ve ever seen our city do, and can’t believe we are still dealing with it.
Just remove all homeless + drug using criminals off the streets, the rest is noise.
Worse than the nearly 23x that amount spent on the SR99 tunnel? I would disagree. Using your metric, we could have bought 110,000 people $30k cars with that $3.3B!
Hey, don’t be so mean. What’s a couple billion among friends, right? And the uniformed are people too!
They are slowly killing my A.J….killin’ me…
You’re a public transit user and you want to buy people cars to clog up the streets. Hold x to doubt.
I do daily. You can press x any time you want – but the reality is; this was a useless, dumb waste of money where we could have done 100x better ROI by doing anything else – especially spending the money to get rid of criminals dealing drugs.
4,000 riders is the proof you need. It’s a joke. We’re not NYC, stop trying to make us that and invest in businesses and cleaning up the streets.
how do criminals and drug dealers equate in Metro planning?
Also? We are building massive housing in the corridor. Maybe we SHOULD in fact build in single residential homes. Instead of on the transit lines.
How is buying people cars going to reduce congestion?
How is 4000 people taking a bus that used to be served by other routes reducing congestion?
easy peezy…All those “other routes” have faster traffic with no busses!!!!! OMG! *head desk**head desk**head desk*
Also? Ther new bus route has timed lights and exclusive lanes! FASTER!!!!!
Talking about drugs and homelessness on a Metro public works project that has NOTHING to do with it. NOTHING!
But we here are taking you seriously? Meh…I think not.
It has to do with the spending priorities. We could have spend the billions on this work or we could have spent them solving the problems that are most acute in our city. Especially when the execution of this “planning” has been so poor.
I would feel differently if Metro would come out and say “we messed up” and if there was actual accountability for the people who messed up.
I work in planning and construction of multifamily / multiuse projects… if I attempted to deliver a project with this much re-work required, I’d be fired on the spot. Who lost a job at Metro?
This is the difference between public services here vs in European cities. Their citizens feel like they get their money’s worth because they have high quality service delivery. We emphatically do not.
This was an SDOT project, not Metro. Metro will operate the Rapid Ride, but did not design it.
Many of the cars on Madison are going to the highway and not downtown but it’s still good to have for those going downtown or up the hill. However the trees got messed up by Broadway and still not fixed even though they’re still ripping up other trees with the signals saying it was still part of the bus project.
They are removing trees everywhere. Some is construction. Others are rotted or leaning in a bad way. They just got 4 here on e pine and Broadway.
I was pretty skeptical about this route, since the existing bus service was pretty good, but now I kind of love it. It’s faster than the old routes, and frequent enough that I don’t worry about checking the schedule. But the lack of any sort of wind barrier on the “shelters” is a real drag. I hope they fix it.
Yeah, I use it all the time. I did the 12 and for me it’s a little more inconvenient. But I do not mind at all. I even met a couple of old dudes that are from Haiti. They just got here and was looking for ANY work. I hooked them up with Fare Ambassador and Deckhand on a ferry. “Just tell them you are looking for any job and see what they have.”
I got a couple of people living in affordable housing gigs with Metro that way. They can’t hire enough people.
The construction snafus are unacceptable and are yet another example of the fact that SDOT is the most dysfunctional department in CIty government. Whoever is responsible should be fired.
You ever worked construction?
The construction workers didn’t mess up the design; the engineers and designers did. Construction workers don’t get to decide on design.
yuppers…lol
My point exactly. Plus? Stuff happens. They usually get it right.
The number of riders per bus may not be so impressive since about 10 busses per hour run on the G-line, while 3 buses per hour serve the 11 and 12 each. Each bus is an operational cost. That must figure into the efficiency. I would say the passengers per bus is greater for the other two routes. Also noted is that the Route 10 ridership is down with the opening of the G-line, maybe due to the new it 12 overlapping with it on E. Pine.
I still remember taking my 1st “rapid ride” bus from Ballard to LQA thinking it’d be something of a direct route, hence the “rapid” part. After making every single stop, just like the old line, I realized A) my error and B) how silly all the hoopla was.
This has become our go-to method of getting from our home in Miller Park to medical appointments on First Hill and sports events at the stadiums. No need to check the schedule becaus the service is so frequent and the bus whizzes past the car traffic. Love it!