On Friday, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 587 is honoring fallen King County Metro bus operator Shawn Yim with a funeral procession through Downtown Seattle and a memorial service at Lumen Field Event Center (also known as WAMU Theater). Yim was killed in the line of duty on December 18 after being stabbed repeatedly in an altercation with a passenger. To allow for bus operators to participate in the memorial, King County Metro has announced plans for reduced service Friday.
“With many Metro staff members attending these events to honor our fallen colleague and friend, there will be a very large number of bus trip cancellations and delays on Friday,” Metro spokesperson Jeff Swizer wrote on the Metro Matters blog. “Riders are encouraged to sign up to receive transit alerts for their routes, however some real-time information in trip planning and transit tools, and transit alerts, may not be fully accurate during this period.”
The procession of local transit vehicles starts at 10am at Central/Atlantic Base in SoDo with the route headed up Fourth Avenue toward Seattle Center along Broad Street and 5th Avenue N before looping back on SR 99 via Mercer Street to arrive at Lumen Field Events Center for the 11am memorial.
“A memorial procession of several dozen buses and transit vehicles from Metro and agencies around the region is scheduled to leave the SODO area at 10 a.m.,” Switzer continued. “No personal vehicles will be included in the procession. Cross-street traffic will be temporarily held as the procession passes. The public is encouraged to allow additional travel time due to temporary traffic delays.”
“Metro pass sales offices plan to provide regular service, while our customer service call center and lost and found services will be temporarily short-staffed while employees attend the memorial,” Switzer added.
While Metro doesn’t have an exact estimate for what percentage of service it will be able to deliver Friday, the agency warned it could be a significant portion. “Friday’s memorial procession and service will be attended by hundreds of Metro transit operators and staff to honor the memory of Shawn Yim,” Switzer told The Urbanist.
Sound Transit operating normally Friday until 5:30pm
While Metro service will be disrupted during the day Friday, Sound Transit is planning to operate 1 Line light rail service on a normal schedule — at least until planned maintenance work in the evening. At 5:30pm, nightly reduced service begins to allow for 130th Street Station roof work over the next two months. Through February 27, Sound Transit is reducing 1 Line frequencies to every 12 minutes after 5:30pm every night (from 8 or 10 minutes normally).
This weekend, the agency begins more intensive tie-in work (for the full 2 Line opening planned later this year) that will entail a suspension of light rail service between SoDO and Capitol Hill starting at 10pm Friday January 10. That disruption will last through Sunday, with a bus bridge offering replacement service. For more on the Sound Transit maintenance disruptions, check out our full article.
The King County Water Taxi will be operating on a normal schedule Friday, with Switzer suggesting that as a transit alternative. If using Metro, Switzer encouraged riders to use frequent routes (such as RapidRide lines) that are less likely to see cancelations compared to infrequent lines that may never come or be greatly delayed.
“There will be a very high number of bus trip cancellations on Friday,” Switzer said. “We are encouraging bus riders to seek out more frequent routes or make alternate travel plans.”
In search of safety solutions
Yim’s death has hit Metro’s operator community hard and led to increased calls for safety improvements, as Urbanist columnist and Metro bus driver and supervisor Nathan Vass recounted in a op-ed earlier this month.
“Safety continues to be our agency’s top priority,” Switzer said in his post. “In recent years, Metro has more than doubled the number of transit security officers—from 80 to over 170. We’re hiring more, while simultaneously recruiting for additional Metro Transit Police.”
Several members of the King County Council have pledged new initiatives to improve safety and implement suggestions from ATU 587, such as physical barriers separating drivers from passengers. Metro pledged to pilot this new safety feature on buses.
“Metro is also redesigning our buses to strengthen the protections in place for our operators,” Switzer said. “We’re assessing and improving upon the operator partition that was installed on all buses in 2020 and 2021. And we have two pilot buses featuring different prototypes of cockpit-style doors for the operator’s compartment.”
Switzer said Metro had “placed an order with a bus manufacturer for four test buses that will feature an ADA-compliant, European-style operator compartment design.” He noted this would make buses more like a light rail train or streetcar, where drivers has their own compartment.
Metro has also sought to spur action on broader fixes for public safety issues that are spilling onto buses, streetcars, and trains — though exactly how to best increase public safety remains hotly debated.
“More broadly, Metro and labor leaders are in active discussions with cities, law enforcement and other regional partners about actions that can be taken to improve the security challenges that exist in the communities and on the streets where Metro provides service,” Switzer concluded.
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrian streets, bus lanes, and a mass-timber building spree to end our housing crisis. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and loves to explore the city by foot and by bike.