5 ms·

can you explain "rolling mental institutions" ? Like crazies using public transportation ?

• dabockster 9y ago
  Not him/her, but certain King County Metro routes are/were known for having buses full of mentally troubled homeless people during certain times. My friends and I made the mistake of using one such route to get back to Bellevue after a night out in Pioneer Square back in 2014. Had a guy obviously whacked out on something try to sell us an obviously stolen watch. Another guy had a shopping cart full of trash on the bus as we crossed the 520 bridge (old bridge). It's gotten significantly better since Metro stepped up security, though. Those cops are usually pretty chill themselves as well. The real disturbing thing is that Seattle is probably some of the best transit in the area in terms of coverage (even in the above state of being). Everett, Tacoma, Kitsap, Olympia... None cover as much in-city territory as King County Metro. So when you hear people complain about how Metro sucks, just remember that you would need to walk much further in the other areas around Seattle to cover the last mile.
• RickS 9y ago
  Without ranting too long about this, yes. SF transit is has been really deeply infiltrated by the mentally ill. Feces caked escalators, openly shooting up, masturbating on the cars, sleeping all day on the looping routes (there's an article out there about the muni buses that only shut down for a few hours a night, so the homeless will buy a day pass, ride for most of the day, repeat). Turns out a few uniformed officers at the major platforms goes a long way. I've yet to see someone shooting heroin on a seattle transit platform, and I've never seen anyone's genitals. Huge step up from SF. Mental breakdowns on buses are both rare and mild relative to SF.