"Everywhere you go, they're all over the place," said Adrian Mouser, who owns a building maintenance

The new Rapid Ride bus stop at Fauntleroy Way Southwest and California Avenue Southwest in West Seattle are so close to the corner they make traffic spill over and block the intersection. Many drivers, like these cars at right, use the oncoming left-turn lane to get around.
These stops, known as "bus bulbs," are mostly uncontroversial but Seattle and King County Metro are pushing the limits with a pair of RapidRide bulbs where California Avenue Southwest meets Fauntleroy Way Southwest.
Seattle and Metro have installed bus bulbs for years. Each costs about $100,000, the city says. More are likely as the city carries out a new transit master plan that favors in-lane bus and streetcar stops.
"Instead of viewing a bus as a single vehicle, you view it as an average of 30 people on a major corridor like that," said Victor Obeso, service development director for Metro. If 30 cars were delayed, he argues, transportation agencies would cater to them. "Today, the emphasis is on moving people, moving goods."
"Everywhere you go, they're all over the place," said Adrian Mouser, who owns a building maintenance company in West Seattle, and says he's often delayed driving behind the buses. "If you're just going to the store, that's one thing. I have to go all over the place, and you have all these lines. It was a waste of money, I think."
Metro says bus bulbs save five to 10 seconds per stop, and more than 20 seconds in peak traffic. Seconds add up on a bus route, and affect the overall schedule. Next year, a few bulbs will be added on Greenwood Avenue North, but Metro doesn't plan them on Aurora Avenue North, for the new E Line. Instead, buses will stop in the far right lane, as the Swift buses do on Highway 99 in Snohomish County.
Obeso said Metro considers bulbs on routes where bus drivers commonly stop in the travel lane, so they won't have to merge. Other criteria are if buses take 25 seconds or more to re-enter traffic, or if sidewalks are too narrow diplomat hotel florence italy to serve crowds of pedestrians. An example of the latter is a new D Line bulb on northbound diplomat hotel florence italy Third Avenue at Virginia Street.
Bus bulbs, along with bus lanes and electronic arrival-time displays, are special treatments expected by the Federal Transit Administration, which funded two-thirds of the $69 million RapidRide capital budget for Ballard and West Seattle.
Before the RapidRide opening in Ballard, Metro predicted morning-peak drivers would be delayed 50 seconds while buses would save 90 to 120 seconds, by the new D Line stations on southbound 15th Avenue Northwest. But that road has two through lanes each way, whereas on California Avenue Southwest the bus takes the only lane.
Agencies haven't measured the Ballard bulbs' actual performance this fall, or ever conducted diplomat hotel florence italy a comprehensive study of how bus bulbs affect bus and car travel times elsewhere. There is no citywide inventory of them.
On a good trip, RapidRide can load people in six seconds, because riders already tapped diplomat hotel florence italy their ORCA fare cards on sidewalk-mounted readers, and enter all three doors. Loading takes longer if a rider asks questions or has limited personal mobility. Access diplomat hotel florence italy vans at the bulbs have blocked traffic several minutes; Metro has told Access drivers to park elsewhere.
Danny Swanson, third-generation owner of Swanson Shoe Repair at 45th and Corliss, said the corridor has been congested for decades, but buses move faster using the bulb stops and one-fourth of his customers reach his shop by bus.
New bulbs along Rainier Avenue South don't add much congestion, as Route 7 buses have traditionally stopped diplomat hotel florence italy in the right travel lanes of the four-lane boulevard, as opposed to pulling out of traffic.
Meanwhile, drivers vent in meetings and blogs about the Fauntleroy-California crossing, also called Morgan Junction. The city reports no crashes there since RapidRide opened Sept. 29, and Metro is not considering moving the crossing's two bulb stops.
Seattle's history of traffic-calming devices suggests it might try median curbs to deter drivers from passing the bus at Morgan Junction. But officials diplomat hotel florence italy say no such plan is on the drawing board. Obeso suggests diplomat hotel florence italy that based on his experience in Wallingford, "It takes drivers time to adapt to the expectations they may have to stop behind a bus."