The story hasn’t changed much since Friday, except that we have a lot more snow on the ground than we did before.
Our exclusive backyard snow measurement system here at HQ shows a total accumulation of 12 inches, which is 3 inches more than we had this time yesterday. One small change is that the temperatures are a bit warmer, up to a toasty 30F this morning.
Arterials are packed snow and ice and are guaranteed to be difficult for any vehicles without 4WD or other good traction devices. And the snow has piled up enough that most side streets will be very difficult for normal-sized vehicles. If you’ve got a car parked on the street, it appears that your chances of getting it out are very, very slim. There’s deep snow piled on all sides of vehicles, and it’s in multiple crunchy layers of snow and ice.
We have exactly zero bus service to the neighborhood this morning, with routes 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, and 27 “temporarily suspended.” The #48 is only traveling the north part of its route, going no further south than the U-District. The #14 is also only doing the north part of its route on Capitol Hill, and is not going south of Pike or up Jackson to the CD and Mt. Baker.
If you must get to work today, your best bet will be to walk. The trip downtown will take about an hour and fifteen minutes in these conditions from most parts of the neighborhood, so dress warmly and leave yourself plenty of time.
Stay tuned for further updates. We’ll go out in a few minutes for a walking tour to see how some of the hills are.
Cool new applet shows where the buses are running real time.
You will see nothing running in the CD here:
http://busview.org/busview_launch.jsp
The 14 is running sporadically down Jackson.
I guess there are no hills north of the CD for busses to get stuck on.
The public service of our intrepid reporters, blog masters and neighbors is now a place for up-to-date info.
On the front page of seattle.gov they have a link to Neighborhood Blogs which take you to this:
http://www.seattle.gov/html/citizen/media.htm#blogs
Way to go!!
And, you can check out how friends around the area are doing, too.
BTW — the U of Wa suspended operations today and I heard a rumor there is some power out in South Lake Union, if that helps you not try to be a hero and get anyplace unnecessarily!
‘Should we all plan on getting some x-country skis?’
I’m thinking snowshoes would be fun.
‘Does anyone else get kind of obsessive/compulsive about shoveling snow?’
If I had a snow shovel :-) My attitude has been to just wait for melt and rain… I have been using the (now a sorry sight) broom and laying down salt just around the door so I can get out.
Has anyone seen it running yet in the CD or been on it today?
thanks much!
I have not seen one, but metro says that it’s now running its regular route
That’s what I was afraid of…Metro’s online time tracker tool doesn’t seem to be functioning either!
I’m in Tokyo now but am scheduled to fly into SeaTac early Wednesday morning. My question is: will a taxi be able to get me to my house on Madrona Drive at Pine St? I can postpone my flight if necessary. Thanks!
We live right near you and heard taxis were not coming down here. There is no bus service either. Maybe you could get downtown and figure out a way to get home. Good luck. Stay warm….E
Thanks! I have a lot of luggage and a disabled right arm– I don’t want to get stuck anywhere. I think I’ll wait until Sunday. Things have got to improve sometime, right?!?
Just saw a #48 go south down 23rd past Cherry
Good call. More is expected tonight. We have been house bound since Wednesday night. No bus or taxi service to Madrona.
Walked up to 34th and Union, but was very icy under the powder.We did call the Mayor’s office about the CD being shut
down by Metro….The rep said it was not the Mayor’s issue, call Metro….of course!!!!!!! And no shuttles for seniors either.
Stay warm and safe, Happy Holidays….E
I got a flight back to SeaTac on Monday. If there’s still no taxi then, I’m moving to California. This is really crazy! Have a Merry Xmas, Ladye, and thanks for your help . . . Jack
1) I’m not surprised the Mayor’s office said “call Metro”. Calling Metro won’t do any good – Metro is operated by the County Council. If you want to get some action, get in touch with Ron Sims’ office or our Councilmember, Larry Gossett. Metro’s shut down a ton of routes system-wide, so it’s not a “let’s get the CD” thing, but it’s still worth complaining.
2) If you want to complain to the City, ask for a fully sanded route other than Jackson to allow Metro to move buses up and down the hills.
3) The bus tracker and all the other online tools rely on ground-based sensors, not satellite-based GPS. That means any time the bus goes off route – which happens often when it snows – the tracking tools all fall apart. So just b/c you don’t see a bus on the tracker, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
4) I spent 45 minutes downtown Friday night waiting for something to come by…the only thing that would get even close was the 14, and the first one of those was so packed it looked like the Tokyo subway. I struggled on to the next one, 45 minutes later, and stood in the back stairwell until 12th. The articulateds are all out of service right now due to jack-knifing and other struggles with the long buses, so that hurts system capacity that much more.
Makes one wonder, despite the SLUT issues and Portland’s problems with their light rail switches during the storm, how a Jackson streetcar would perform in this stuff.
It’s that darn topography. Every thing must be flat north of the CD so busses can run. We are the only area with hills! Darn!!