(Mental) Health Inspection?
On Saturday night, I ventured into the International District to have some Malay Satay Hut foods with M*A*N. (p.s. Do not look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach! Good, otherwise.) We hopped on a 49 route bus which, since it was late on a weekend night and morphed into the 7 route, took us all the way into the ID. It was SLOW GOIN' as our driver demonstrated typical Seattle-style passive non-maneuvers through traffic. Following dinner, I felt a little sick (due to the pictures referenced above) and much to my dismay, the SAME driver picked us up. He must have driven so slowly that he only made it to the end of the line and back during the entire time we were eating. The coach was 85+ degrees and fetid. Nevertheless, the driver's comments were the creepiest part of the evening. Remembering us, he commented "AH! All the way down here for some chow?! Better get a health inspection!" Ew, man! WTF?
New Rogue?
M*A*N reported a few days ago that the #4001 had recently re-appeared in the fleet sporting a black back panel -- similar to the style of the infamous #4044 "Rogue Bus". I can confirm his attentiveness as I also spotted the newly repaneled #4001 yesterday while it finished its 43 route on Pine Street downtown. A new, hip Metro rehab style, perhaps??
Ring Spot
Last night while watching "The Ring", M*A*N and I were pleased to find out that the movie was set in our very own city of Seattle. And we were doubly pleased to spot a Metro bus in the movie! It drove by too quickly to catch the route or coach number, but it was without-a-doubt a true Metro bus. Kudos to "The Ring" makers for not wussing out and using a generic sound stage friendly bus replacement.
Surreal Moment
M*A*N and I were waiting to get our seats for a movie a few nights ago and were approached by a young man leaving the previous screening.
His question: "Do you know anything about Seattle buses?"
multiple O, minimal P
Took an exciting spotting-focused trip to Tacoma this weekend and had the opportunity to spot Peirce Transit buses as well as the new Sound Transit light rail. The redeveloped downtown offers a pleasant spotting environment as well as multiple options inculding express buses, local buses and light rail all on one street in front of the former train station and Washington history museum.
On Sunday, our crew of spotters outnumbered the passengers on most coaches we observed, hence, "minimal P". Another slight dissapointment was the lack of vintage models. The Light rail fleet also proved to be more of a "newbie" appropriate spotting project - with a very short line and small fleet we exhausted it pretty quickly.
MO Endorsement: Bob Ferguson!
The Stranger recently printed some
"bullshit" coming out of the King County Council races:
The claim: In his TV ad, Robert Rosencrantz says, "Dwight Pelz . . . [blah blah blah]. . . charged the county $12,000 for gas.
Bullshit: Blah blah blah . . . As for the $12,000 gas bill, Pelz uses his car less than any other council member except
Bob Ferguson, who takes the bus.
Bob Ferguson is running against Carolyn Edmonds in the upcoming primary, and it is my honor to say that Multiple O
"enthusiastically endorses" Mr. Ferguson in the election! Bonus points will be given to the first MultipleO-er to spot Bob (plus, of course, coach number, route, direction, date, time, and ideally a photograph) on a Metro bus! Remember to
Vote on September 20!
buses out-of-place
In the past two days, I've made two bizarre spots of Metro buses not serving any know route. These happenings surprised me so much that I failed to note any coach numbers (sorry!).
The first was around 4:3o PM Wed, a diesel articulted coach was turning left from northbound 12th ave onto westbound John st. No Metro service is available on that section of 12th Ave...
A 4000 articulated was spotted at about 9AM this morning on 15th Ave, out of sevice but on a section of route 10. I've never seen an articulated on this route
BotM
The new September
Bus of the Month has been posted! Yet again, it proves to be a rather generic-looking coach. Of interest, however, is the dual-sloped windshield that is also popularized on some of the Chicago Pace buses spotted last month.
Holiday Joy
With today being a federal holiday, the Metro opts to run only the newest trolley buses -- i.e. the #4000 series (being the oldest in the fleet and requiring the most on-call mechanics) gets a three-day weekend like the rest of us. It is not quite so surprising, therefore, that another *missing link* in the #4200 series was spotted for the first time!
The lovely #4207 was spotted going southbound on Broadway on route #49 around 3:10pm!
~s43
