The Commute

The National Safety Council is estimating 447 people will die in traffic accidents over the Thankgiving holiday and 23,7000 will be disabled. That’s down from 484 deaths last year. I don’t know how they’re figuring but they do say to wear your seat belt. You have a 45 percent better chance of surviving.

Seat belts will save 395 lives this weekend. If everybody wore their belts, another 103 would be spared.

If you spot a drunk driver, pull over in a safe spot and call the police.

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Before the week is over, I should mention that it is Teens Don’t Text and Drive Week. They’ve got a day or week or month for just about everything nowadays. I wonder if there’s a czar somewhere you have to get hold of to see if you can have a day, like “Ed Friedrich Finally Writes a Blog Entry Day.”

Anyway, a press release from the National Safety Council says that more than 10 drivers ages 15 to 20 are killed in crashes every day, and another 745 are injured. It doesn’t say how much of that carnage is from texting.

It does say that not texting should be part of your GDL — Graduated Driver Licensing — along with setting a curfew, no speeding, no teen passengers, no cell phones while driving and seat belts at all times.

I can see how you could crash while texting. I can barely sit on the couch and do it.

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A fund has been set up to benefit the five kids of a highway worker killed last week while clearing storm debris from Highway 101. Neal Richards died on Nov. 18.

Oddly enough, he had a sister who was a road crew flagger killed last year in a highway construction work zone.

Contributions can be made at any Bank of America branch.

Funeral and memorial services will be held on Saturday. A procession will begin at 11 a.m. at Drennan and Ford Funeral Home in Port Angeles and travel to Sequim View Cemetery in Sequim. Graveside services will begin at noon.

A memorial will be held at 2 p.m. ad the Elks Lodge in Port Angeles, followed by a reception there.

The D

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The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for tonight has been canceled because not enough committee members were available to make a quorum. The meeting has not been rescheduled.

It was the first of three public meetings to discuss what bridge tolls will be raised to in July.

Submit comments or questions to the citizen advisory committee online at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Tolling/TNBTolling/CACfeedback.htm or by mail to TNB-CAC, 401 2nd Ave. South, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98104-2862.

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Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Marta Coursey just sent out an e-mail that the rumors that the Steilacoom II was “sinking” stemmed from a photo posted on the Bitter End blog. The author has acknowledged that the photos he received were fake.

The Steilacoom II is out of service because of a ship service diesel generator issue. It’s not known what caused it to fail, but parts have arrived from Portland and are being installed now. The damage is unrelated to sea conditions on Admiralty Inlet, Coursey said.

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A generator problem on the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry Steilacoom II will shut down the route until early Friday afternoon, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Marta Coursey said at noon Thursday. The boat has been out since early Wednesday afternoon.

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Kitsap Transit came out Wednesday with how it plans to get along without the Manette Bridge, which will be closed all of next week between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. They’ve got it figured out before the state has even announced — to us, anyway — that the bridge will be closed. I presume its for annual inspection.

Routes 21, 25 and 29 will be detoured, and KT will run a Manette shuttle to serve riders who’ll lose service on the aforementioned routes.

Here’s the details:

#21 Perry Avenue - The #21 bus will travel to and from the Bremerton Transportation Center using the Warren Avenue Bridge.  It will serve Sheridan between Wheaton and Schley, Schley between Sheridan and Magnuson, Magnuson to Perry Avenue and Perry from Stone Way to Sylvan. The portion of the trip between Perry and Sylvan and the East Bremerton Transfer Center will operate normally.

#25 East Park – The #25 bus will travel to and from the Bremerton Transportation Center using the Warren Avenue Bridge.  It will serve the Harrison Hospital loop then serve the north portion of Lebo, Rickey, Pine and Sheridan as it normally does.

#29 Trenton Avenue – The #29 bus will travel to and from the Bremerton Transportation Center using the Warren Avenue Bridge. It will serve Sheridan between Wheaton and Perry, Perry between Sheridan and Stone Way, and Stone Way between Perry and Trenton. The portion of the trip north of Trenton and Stone Way and the East Bremerton Transfer Center will operate normally.

Manette Closure Shuttle – The Manette Closure Shuttle bus will serve Shore Drive, 11th, the south end of Trenton Avenue and Perry Avenue, Old Wheaton Way and Harrison Hospital, taking riders to the East Bremerton Transfer Center.  It will meet the eastside buses at the transfer center, then operate as a take-home back to the Manette area.

Manette Closure Shuttle Schedule: www.kitsaptransit.com/MCShuttle.html

Manette Closure Shuttle Map: www.kitsaptransit.com/mapManette.html

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There will be no ferry service between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island until at least Thursday.
The Steilacoom II had generator problems that forced it to cancel sailings, beginning with the 2:15 p.m. departure from Port Townsend. A crew from the Eagle Harbor maintenance facility is on site and will work into the night to make repairs, said Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Linda Lacombe. It might be into Thursday morning before it can be fixed.
The operations center will send out an update before midnight so people will know what to expect in the morning, she said.
The state is leasing the Steilacoom II from Pierce County until an under-construction ferry can take over next summer.

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(Another guest post from Derek.)

I don’t know how many times I’ve been out with friends in Seattle when I’ve been blindsided by this question. “What time do you need to catch your boat?”

Naturally, my jaw goes slack and the hamster upstairs starts running a little faster. Oh, and I pull out my iPod Touch. The rest of this post is also for you iPhone owners.

Those crumpled ferry schedules in your pockets are SO 2004. Now, when you need to find out when the next boat leaves, you reach for your smartphone. This doesn’t really apply to you hardened ferry commuters who can recite the schedule for your usual run backwards, frontwards, divided by three and in Swahili. But for occasional rider, or those of us who sometimes use other routes (I take Edmonds/Kingston to get to my Dad’s house, but use the Bremerton/Seattle ferry 90 percent of the time.) having access to schedules on your iPhone/iPod Touch are mighty handy.

Right now, there’s a $5 app, an app in development that says it’ll be free, and my slightly more homebrew solution that’s gloriously free.

1.)

First up: WSF Puget Sound Ferry Schedule app, $4.99
Here’s what you get:

My thoughts: I own this app, actually. It has a load of features (some of which require internet access that I don’t always have on my iPod, but what iPhone users would.) and is essentially a repackaged version of the Washington State Ferries’ Web site. You can access the full schedules without an internet connection.
The next app, which is apparently in development, could be a problem for this developer. The reason? It appears to offer the same features, but will apparently be free. I like the convenience of a schedule in my pocket, along with alerts and cams, but $5 is kind of steep. (As a side note, I downloaded a much earlier version and don’t recall paying $5. I can’t remember for sure, but I think it was a couple bucks.)

*NOTE: This app was created by a private developer, not the ferry system.*

2.)
iFerry, a effort by a Bainbridge company that is “coming soon” to the app store, according to its Web site.

It looks like it’ll have much the same functionality of the previous app, with a few nice additional touches. And it says it’ll be free.

Let’s run down it’s planned features:

My thoughts: Looks neat. Hope it stays free. Gonna put a dent in the other app’s sales if it is free. It will have ads. But the other app does, too. Keep an eye on both apps to see what happens when they compete. Will they both be free? Will they both decide to charge? Will they not have any real impact on the other?

3.)
My super-cheap workaround.

If you just CAN’T wait until the new app, and don’t want to spend money on the first one, have I got a slightly convoluted, but free solution for you. I’ll give you a couple, actually.

First, for those of us with iPod Touches who don’t want to pay $8 (YIKES) for WSF’s Boingo wifi, you can simply head to the WSF site at home, and pull up the schedule or schedules to your most-used routes. On your iPod (Or iPhone) align the schedule so it fills the screen nicely, and hit the round button, and top on/off button at the same time. I’ll make a screen grab from your device, and save it in your Photos thingamajig. Every time you need to scan the schedule, just pull up the photo. Our Kitsap schedules stay pretty much the same. Naturally you won’t get automatic ferry updates, terminal cameras and other gee whiz geegaws, but it’s f-r-e-e. And you don’t have to worry about losing that paper schedule you crumpled in your pocket.

For those of you fancy pants people with iPhones, here’s a free workaround to get the two most important features: The schedule and service alerts.

First, you could just bookmark the schedule page. Or, you could add that page as an icon on your home page. Just pull up the schedule in your browser, click the + button, and select “Add to Home Screen”. Icon created! Magic!

You want route alerts, do you? Well, you’ve got internets in your pocket, so head to the state’s Web site here, and sign up for ferry alerts to your routes of choice. Every time a service alert is sent, you’ll get an e-mail.

There you have my thoughts on ferry planning for iPod Touch/iPhone owners. Those of you with Blackberries, Android or WinMo phones, share your tips in the comments, eh?

And for those of you Luddites who still use paper schedules? Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, actually. And that, too, is gloriously free.

- Derek Sheppard

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Keurig will serve free, freshly brewed gourmet coffee to commuters this week at the Bainbridge and Bremerton ferry terminals.

The Tully’s coffee will be available at a Keurig booth from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday at the Bremerton terminal and from 6 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 28, 29 and 30 at the Bainbridge terminal.

Commuters can get coffee in their choice of flavor and brewer discounts for future use. Keurig will also donate $10,000 to Food Lifeline.

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