Seattle appeared to have local bus services (blue) as well as express ones (red) that ran with more limited stops between neighbourhoods.  These Rapid routes made it easier to go long distances in a very spread out city (remember, most of its growth has been in the automobile era, and thus is sprawly).

The Rapid routes had their own bus stops, with distinctive red branding. Electronic boards informed passengers when the next buses would arrive, and their destinations.

The yellow box on the post is a fare card reader. In Ottawa, we buy a certain amount of time on the transit system, we have a time to ride. Reading one’s card before the bus arrives might squander riding time, particularly if making a round trip, but many other systems are a ticket to ride one direction / trip.

Pre-reading the card makes boarding faster as passengers enter via any door. However, doing away with the audible “ding” as you scan your card inside the bus,  that announces your honesty,  might be a problem. In Holland, that “ding” is a DING! DING! You have paid, and been seen and heard by all to have paid. I liked it. But in Ottawa, it might wake up somnolent commuters who don’t get enough nap time at work.

Note the route map shown above is not a generic all-routes-everywhere map, but specific to the routes and connections accessible from this bus stop. It makes for clearer info on this route, but doesn’t tell you about connections or crossing routes.

below: trees planted at a bus stop. Ever see this in Ottawa?

 

 

This shelter (below) has etched glass in a abstracted pattern.  It obscures scratching by street artists or vandals.

I wonder how well Ottawa’s glass walled LRT stations will hold up to sharpened screwdrivers? Etching the bottom reachable area of glass walls in our stations would have a lot of design and “art” potential.

 

 

below: the etching on the local-route glass shelter of sea, mountains, and forest, which tied in nicely with the colourful mural at the base. Alas, oppressed street artists always reach new heights:

 

 

While we are on the pacific NW Coast, here’s a few pic from Portland [there were many Portland streetcar pic in the December series Building LeBetter Flats]. The post below advertises that there is frequent service on this route:

 

 

 

below: a naked street with streetcar (not LRT !) tracks-only down the centre portion. 

 

downtown Portland streetcar with mixed traffic:

 

 

Planters along the sidewalk help direct pedestrian traffic onto the sidewalk and discourages mid-block crossings of the tracks: