After last winter's snow debacle, both the City of Seattle and Metro are making plans for this year's storm season. The goal is to keep main streets open and key bus lines running.
What fate awaits Eastlake under the new snow plans? It's hard to know how the new plans will work but at least this winter there will be plans.
In case of a storm, Metro says it will keep Route 70 running between the University District and downtown down Eastlake Ave. (see PDF with this post). And that appears to be the only route that will be servicing Eastlake. It is one of 70 routes Metro says it will try to keep running during a snow storm.
Metro's Emergency Service Network page has a few details about service during a storm (watch Metro's home page for emergency alerts, sign up now for alerts to be sent to your e-mail or phone).
Meanwhile, the City of Seattle did a test of its new snow procedure last week. It has a map showing which streets it will attempt to keep open. Eastlake Ave. E. is in Level 2, which means one lane in each direction will be kept bare and wet (see attached PDF and detail map). Also in Level 2 are 10th Ave. E and Harvard Ave. E.
Boylston Ave. E. comes under Level 3: "Curves, hills & stopping zones treated." Also in Level 3 are Fuhrman Ave. E. along Portage Bay and Delmar Drive down to E. Lynn. In Montlake, 24th Ave. E. is in Level 1, which means all lanes are supposed to be kept bare and wet.
The Seattle Department of Transportation's Winter Weather page has more details on the city's plans. The page says a printed brochure of the snow routes will be available "soon" at city libraries and Neighborhood Service Centers. The SDOT says:
"We commit to using all the tools at our disposal to make sure that the people of Seattle as well as our interagency partners are fully informed and involved in our snow response."
Informed is good. So are passable streets.
Another good resource on transportation issues is the Seattle Transit Blog.
the problem was that the 70 is such a simple route, and is really dependent on the udist and downtown hubs. normally that's not a huge problem but last year any travel i did that involved a transfer was incredibly screwed up.
i'd take the 70 up to udist, and then be foiled by impossibly delayed transfers at that hub. or i'd go downtown and end up stranded there until the transfer finally showed up. i had a 45 minute wait downtown in one case. anyway, i'm not that concerned about the 70 showing up and picking me up, but instead about the chaos in whatever hub it drops me off at.