America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Seattle vs. Fremont

4:55 PM EDT on September 5, 2017

First round action in Streetsblog's Sorriest Bus Stop in America competition continues today with two formidable West Coast contenders.

Let's take a look at the shoddy pedestrian environment that sprawling land use planning, car-centric street design, and plain old disregard for bus riders have created in what are supposedly two enlightened regions of the country. Vote for the worst and decide which bus stop will go on to the Elite 8 and potential national infamy.

Fremont, California

Reader Larry Kawalec submitted this stop, located, appropriately enough, at Auto Mall Parkway and Technology Drive. He says it's within one mile of...

[a] nursing school, mobile home park, churches, swim school, a REI store, and many, many employers including a HP facility employing a thousand people. The bus connects to regional transit (BART).

Meanwhile, he says, the conditions are terrible:

Nursing students need to walk 1/2 mile in the bike lane next to 45+ heavy traffic.
Auto mall is a cut through between the 880 and 680 freeways.
Note the pitiful handicapped ramp but no sidewalk.

And that little metal structure next to the bus stop pole? It's not to lean against -- it's to stop people from walking across Auto Mall Parkway.

Agencies responsible: Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, Fremont Public Works.

Seattle

This stop comes from reader Alexander Lew, who writes:

Here's one in Seattle, WA (yes, in a city that funded $54 billion in transit improvements!). The bus lets you off onto the freight railroad tracks. When it's rainy (which is like most of the year), the trackbed gets pretty muddy.

Imagine standing at that stop with a train roaring behind you, and high-speed traffic in front of you.

Agencies responsible: Washington DOT, King County Metro.