With the passage of Proposition 1, the City of Seattle now has a funding mechanism that is expected to raise $45 million per year to help address overcrowding and reliability issues with Metro Transit and to add frequency to meet demand for more transit, effective Sept. 26.
Here are some of the changes from Metro’s website (metro.kingcounty.gov/up/sc/rideralert/2015/sept/route-revisions.html) for Routes 2, 8, 11, 12, 43 and 48. You may wish to compare these to the proposed changes that occur in March 2016, which are currently being debated by the Metropolitan King County Council.
•Route 2 — Frequency improves from 30 minutes to 15 minutes with the addition of trips to Downtown Seattle and trips to Madrona each evening, and trips on Saturdays.
On Sundays, early morning and late-evening service frequency also improves from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. 
Most of the new Route 2 trips on weekday evenings and Sunday connects to Route 13.
•Route 8 — On Saturdays, 15-minute service extends with the addition of trips to the Seattle Center and Rainier Beach. 
On Sundays, trips are added to maintain a 30-minute service frequency for most of the day.
•Route 11 — On weekdays, midday service frequency improves to every 15 minutes with the addition of trips to Downtown Seattle and Madison Park. Also, 15-minute service frequency extends to about 8 p.m.
Late-night service frequency improves from 60 minutes to 30 minutes with the addition of two westbound and two eastbound trips.
On Saturdays, midday and early evening service frequency improves to every 15 minutes trips. Late-night service frequency improves to every 30 minutes.
On Sundays, early morning and late-night service frequency improves.
•Route 12 — On weekdays and Saturdays, evening service frequency improves to every 15 minutes.
On Sundays, service frequency improvse to every 30 minutes.
Service is extended until midnight on all days.
•Route 43 — On Saturday mornings, service frequency improves to every 15 minutes. On weekday and Saturday evenings until about 10 p.m. and on Sundays from the start of service until about 10 p.m., Route 43 does not connect to Route 44.
•Route 48 — On Saturday evenings and during the day on Sunday, service frequency improves to every 15 minutes. 

March restructuring
Metro’s changes for March 2016 are mean-spirited since they remove many of the improvements implemented with Prop. 1 funding. First, it puts Routes 8 and 11 on East Madison up to 19th Avenue East, where the two buses will turn north to East John Street, then to light rail on Broadway, next to Olive Way/Bellevue Avenue, then to Pine Street downtown.
This change leaves a gap in service between 19th and East Madison Street until Broadway and Pine, which is not filled by Route 12, which goes west on Madison. This is in addition to a difficult bus turn on 19th Avenue East.
These changes leave a gap on East John between 23rd and 19th Avenues East, plus it eliminates Route 43, only to partially replace it with Route 11.
The County Council is now reviewing the Metro proposal, and based on preliminary comments, it appears that some council members are suggesting “no action,” creating a phased approach or postponing the restructure for a year.
The council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee will be have a meeting to discuss the proposed restructure on Oct. 14 at 9:30 a.m. 
Just look at the Metro’s flip-flop: In June 2015, it proposed putting Routes 8 and 11 on East John and Thomas streets, and now it proposes putting them on East Madison.
I agree with the suggestion to postpone the changes until after light rail goes in and the impact of Prop. 1 funding is seen. 
Metro has missed one big constituency in the March 2016 restructure by ignoring the needs of seniors and handicapped passengers. Metro is telling these people to walk or take Access, and this is not right since we have ADA-compliant buses.
It is easy for groups on East Madison to claim they can live with the new 11 routing, forgetting that the bus serves areas between Lake Washington and downtown today, but not in March 2016. There are more destinations than the downtown retail area.
Metro has held public meetings earlier this year, but based on its proposal, it’s not listening to the users, including residents, workers, seniors and the handicapped.
Seattle approved Prop. 1 for improved bus service, so why are we paying extra sales taxes for less service in March 2016? 

Move Seattle, Madison BRT
In November, Seattle residents will vote on Move Seattle (www.seattle.gov/transportation/LevytoMoveSeattle.htm) to improve an aging transportation system. Seattle voters are asked to support a $930 million property tax measure that replaces the existing Bridging the Gap transportation levy, which expires at the end of this year.
Part of this package is a proposal for a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) on the Madison corridor (www.seattle.gov/transportation/madisonbrt.htm). It would provide fast, reliable service and major infrastructure improvements that are long overdue; the last improvements were for the 1962 World’s Fair. Improvement includes streets, lighting, sidewalks and bus shelters.
There are still questions about how far east the BRT will go.
Lindy Wishard, Dick Clark, Bob Edmiston, Jim Stearns and Ken Myrabo are just some of the community leaders on the Madison Corridor who support the Madison BRT.

REG NEWBECK is a Madison Park resident. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.