The in basket: When I recently joined Bremerton Public Works execs on a tour of city projects, Managing Street Engineer Gunnar Fridriksson told me something that came as quite a surprise.

He said Kitsap Transit’s worker/driver bus program, in which civilians, mostly working for the Navy, drive transit-provided motor coaches to and from work, picking up and dropping off co-workers en route, is the only thing of its kind in the whole nation.

Given its success here, that was hard to believe.

The out basket: And yet, it appears to be true. Well, nearly true. Mason Transit has four such routes, but they serve the same work sites.

John Clauson, Kitsap Transit’s executive director, says there were only eight or 10 routes in the program they inherited in 1983 from the private bus company that was the forerunner to Kitsap Transit. Today there are 30 routes, plus those Mason Transit runs.

“As far as I know, we are the only system in the U.S. that has this type of program and I know that we are the only one in the state, along with Mason Transit now, that have this type of unique operation,” John said.

I Googled and Binged “workers/driver bus programs” and found no others

Gunnar made his remark as we watched a procession of worker/driver buses make their way north on Washington Avenue at shipyard quitting time. Public Works director Chal Martin was there, too, and observed that city plans to reduce

Washington to one lane in each direction in 2015 would never work if the buses weren’t taking dozens if not hundreds of single-car drivers off that street by providing them rides to and from work.

The in basket: Bob Thompson asks, “Why are bus stops after traffic lights along 11th

street in Bremerton instead of before the light?  Does Bremerton think it is funny to have cars behind the bus, stop in the intersection?

“Granted the driver of the car should stop before the intersection, but it still happens,” he said.

The out basket: I’ve wondered about this also, like on Burwell Street at State Street in Bremerton and on Mile Hill Drive at Retsil Road in Port Orchard. Pulling around a stopped bus sometimes is forbidden by striping or by oncoming traffic.

But it turns out there are sound reasons for it, and the state Department of Transportation includes in its Design Manual a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of what they call far side, near-side and mid-block bus stops. Far-side stops are the ones Bob objects to, on the far side of the an intersection.

John Clauson, executive director of Kitsap Transit, says, “Far-side bus stops have more advantages than not. If a bus were to stop prior to a traffic signal, passengers may be tempted to cross at the crosswalk, in front of the bus, and be unaware of vehicles coming around the bus.

“Unlike school buses, traffic does not have to stop for a transit bus.”

The state’s design manual also says far-side stops make right turns by other traffic at the intersection easier, the bus doesn’t obstruct sight distance for vehicles entering or crossing from side streets, it’s easier for the bus to get back into traffic, and buses will not obscure traffic control devices or pedestrian movements from other drivers.

It also says each bus stop location should be evaluated for circumstances that might make  near-side or mid-block stops preferable, which is why not all bus stops are far-side.

The in basket: Randy Fox e-mailed to say he’d seen the experimental fast ferry Rich Passage 1 out for what looked to him like a joy ride on July 28.

“The family and I went out on our boat to the Waterman area to go crabbing and some bottom fishing…following behind the ‘Rich Pass 1,’ thinking that it was going to keep going through Rich Pass and out to the Sound area.

“Instead it stopped, turned to face and wait for the Seattle/ Bremerton ferry to pass by. Then the Rich Pass 1 followed behind it passing us at high speeds, making big wakes.

“About five minutes passed and you hear it coming back our way again. We thought that was strange, so we paid close attention to the boat. Didn’t see any passengers in the lower part of the boat. So we thought maybe it was training.

“I only noticed one silhouette at the controls and no one else in the pilot house. and this went on for about six hours. And that size of boat, the fuel cost isn’t cheap.

“I thought Kitsap Transit was having trouble with funding to fix the Admiral Pete when it was lengthened.
“Why did we see Rich Pass 1 out wasting fuel?”

The out basket: Kitsap Transit’s Executive Director John Clauson says, “Any activity with the Rich Passage 1 (RP1) outside of the scheduled runs to and from Seattle is still part of the wake research project being conducted by Golder Associates.

“Because the load varies with the scheduled runs, other testing must be done in a very controlled setting with added weight to simulate passenger loads.  Because of the time needed to load and offload the measured ballast, we are unable to complete this work between the morning and afternoon runs; thus the need to have two weekends for additional wake acceptance testing.

He sent a schedule of testing that showed most testing in the interim between morning and afternoon weekday commuter runs, but half-load wake testing ballasted with water bladders the weekend Randy saw it.

“During the week of August 6, they will do light-load conditions between the commute periods,” he said.

“Regarding the single person in the pilot house; because we are not carrying passengers onboard, we only need two people to operate during these additional test runs.  In addition, the testing schedule is on top of the regular service schedule, which in itself has stretched the already limited crew resources; so again, only a skipper and one crew member is used.

“Lastly,” John said, “these additional test runs fall into the wake testing project, so they are covered under the federal grant funding, the same as the regular service runs.”