Barely an inch or 2 of snow Tuesday morning in the largest metropolitan area in the Upper Midwest brought to a frustratingly slow crawl a transit bus system that serves on average 270,000 or more commuters every weekday.
Metro Transit needed just two words to explain why: Timing and demand.
From almost the moment the buses started snaking along highways, thoroughfares and residential streets, the pace of bus service worsened until well after 9 a.m., considered roughly the end of a weekday's morning commute.
By 9:30 a.m., roughly two-thirds of all buses on their routes were running late. The average steadily and relentlessly grew longer, topping out at an almost unheard-of 24 minutes before shrinking again throughout the morning.
Metro Transit declared at 1 p.m. on Twitter that "the bus system has stabilized & delays are now minimal. We will continue to monitor. Thanks for your patience today."
Patience, indeed.
On one popular bus route that slices up Lyndale Avenue in south Minneapolis, some frustrated riders were getting off well before their usual jumping-off point and hoofing it the rest of the way to their destination.
One rider on that route, the No. 4, boarded at Lake Street and Lyndale and had yet to make it even 10 blocks after an hour. Her usual 20-minute bus ride downtown lasted nearly 1½ hours.
