It’s been a bit over a month now since King County Metro Route #42 travelled its last circuit in Seattle, in spite of attempted grassroots efforts to keep it going. The #42 wasn’t a particularly newsy bus, unlike the #7 or the #358. It wasn’t complained about much, like the RapidRide. And it certainly wasn’t beloved like some busses. What it did do was make it possible to see and get to parts of the city that are now going to be neglected. Metro argues that the #42 was underused, and that there are other options available in place of this route. Nothing will be quite the same as the view from the city from the #42.
Starting downtown, the #42 paralleled the #7 until Mt. Baker Transit Center. Then, the #42 began to follow Martin Luther King Jr. Way S until it reached S. Alaska Street. At Alaska, it turned left, then left again at Rainier until S. Genesee, which it followed until 37th Avenue S. At 37th, it turned right and then right again at S. Oregon Street, ending near the Columbia Public Health Center and Rainier Community Center. This took a planned 20 minutes from 3rd Avenue S and S Main Street to 36th Avenue S and S Oregon. Not bad for a trip that Google Maps estimates takes 12-14 minutes by car (especially if you add in parking time).
Now, the alternative for bus riders is to take the #7 on the off chance that they want to travel from downtown to Rainier Community Center. Metro’s schedule pages also claims that this route takes 20 minutes, but any rider of this route knows that this is unlikely. The #7 is one of the busiest bus routes and carries over 11,000 riders each day. It’s also one of the busiest routes for security incidents. Having so many riders boarding and departing the bus, paired with general traffic woes and then adding in security issues makes for a slow bus. So is the estimated 20 minutes from 3rd and Main to Rainier Community Center realistic? Maybe at a very low ridership time of day, but not during most times of the day. So, the #7 isn’t really a comparable alternative to the #42.
The #42 had its problems, though. In 2009, Rickie Beavers was arrested for selling crack while on the job—driving the route 42. But still, the #42 did go places where it’s inconvenient or impossible to travel to using other bus routes. For example: Dearborn from 4th Avenue to Rainier. Sure, the #7 Express runs along Dearborn, and the regular #7 runs along Jackson a few blocks to the north, but those aren’t extremely easy blocks to walk if you want to reach a destination along Dearborn. Between 7th and 8th, the International District Community Center and Seattle Public Library share a block with a clinic. Further along Dearborn you’ll find the flagship Goodwill Store—and who wants to walk a more than a block with bags of treasures from a shopping spree at Goodwill? Other businesses are located along this stretch of Dearborn too, of course. At Rainier, the #7 and #42 were interchangeable until the Mount Baker Transit Station, when the #7 stayed on Rainier and the #42 shifted to Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. At that point, the #42 and the #8 were running parallel…but without the #42 around, if you are coming from downtown Seattle, you’ll need to transfer to the #8. Which may be an even slower route than the #7. You could transfer to Link Light Rail, but that’ll cost another fare (Metro transfers don’t work on Light Rail) and the next Light Rail station is at Columbia City. At Alaska Street, you can currently disembark the #8 or Link Light Rail, then walk the rest of the old #42 route to the Rainier Community Center, which is about a half a mile. For many bus riders, that’s no problem…however, for those whose mobility may make that last stretch a difficulty, the #42 will be missed.
King County Metro argues that by eliminating the #42, they have eliminated waste and overlap, which is surely true and important. With mass transit facing huge cuts to service (up to 17%!) these decisions are not easy, and it’s more important to make sure that the most areas of Seattle area served. But, the #42 served well, was fought for by many, and will be missed.
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