SEATTLE — Seeing red from the driver’s seat can mean a few things.
Rage. Impatience. And, maybe in the future, a ticket for driving in a bus-only lane, which are often painted a very obvious and characteristic red to alert motorists that they’re not allowed there.
Last month, King County Metro started a pilot project mounting cameras equipped with artificial intelligence on two buses to watch for drivers in transit-only lanes.
Erik Rundell, who leads Metro’s planning policy team and is the project’s manager, said driving in transit lanes can lead to bus delays or collisions, which in turn wastes passengers’ time and taxpayer money.
“This will help us understand when, where and to what extent it’s happening,” Rundell said.
For the pilot the agency has focused on the RapidRide E Line — which runs along Aurora Avenue North between Shoreline and downtown Seattle — and Route 7, which connects Rainier Beach to downtown Seattle, largely along Rainier Avenue South.
Metro chose these lines, Rundell said, because they run long distances, and have extensive bus-only lanes, which come and go along the route.
The 60-day demonstration is only gathering data — no drivers will be issued any tickets or fines, in part, because Metro doesn’t have the authority to issue tickets. Instead, the project will “assess and evaluate” how often motorists break the law by driving in bus lanes.
Two cameras — both front facing and installed inside the bus at the top of the windshield — will record drivers in bus lanes for 10 seconds, according to a Metro blog post about the project, which began Nov. 6.
When complete, Metro will examine the results to determine if it should recommend using cameras to issue tickets to lawbreakers. In this case, the city of Seattle and other jurisdictions where Metro operates would have to create a program to cite drivers using bus cameras.
That’s a ways off, Rundell said. He declined to estimate the soonest tickets could be issued, if Metro pursued it.
Seattle currently uses photo enforcement for drivers who block intersections and travel in transit-only lanes, but the program is limited. Cameras are mounted in 11 locations citywide, primarily in the city’s core but also on the West Seattle Bridge. First-time violators get a warning. Second time merits a $75 ticket.
The expansion to bus cameras was allowed by House Bill 2384, which passed in the 2024 legislative session. It authorized sweeping changes to state rules governing when and where cameras can be used to enforce traffic laws.
Before the changes, only sworn police officers could review footage and issue tickets, and 50% of whatever fine was imposed went to state coffers.
Now, noncommissioned public employees can review and issue fines, and local jurisdictions keep the money generated by cameras, but it can only be used for traffic safety projects. The new law also put a limit on how much a driver can be cited, at $145 for each infraction.
Onboard bus cameras issuing tickets would be new to Seattle, but not the U.S.
New York City and Washington, D.C., both have programs, and Rundell said he and his team have talked to people at those transit agencies.
In New York, bus cameras capture license plate, location and time stamp information and transmit those details for review and processing to the city’s transportation department, which it administers with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city finance department. Since 2019, the city has issued 438,660 notices to drivers who violate bus lane, double parking and bus stop rules, according to Mass Transit magazine.
This year, New York expanded the bus camera program to cover all five of the city’s boroughs on more than 1,000 buses.
The program in Washington, D.C., began last year with cameras on 140 buses. Two city employees review the footage before issuing a $100 ticket. At its peak, buses were capturing about 20,000 infractions a week, but that fell to 13,000 this fall after people were “getting the message,” a city spokesperson told a local radio station.
Los Angeles and Chicago also have launched pilot programs putting cameras on buses to help enforce transit lanes. In Chicago, the cameras also monitor for vehicles blocking bike lanes, which merits a $250 fine.
Many of these cities — Seattle included — are using the same technology from Hayden AI, a San Francisco-based startup.
According to a profile of the company on Next City, Hayden AI creates a detailed map of the bus route — including information on bus stops, lanes and more — before deploying its technology. As the system learns the route, machine learning helps it to better identify lane obstructions.
The company says its technology can help reduce the cost of enforcing bus lane laws because it requires fewer humans to watch for scofflaws. And it adds a certain poetic justice to the whole process, by allowing buses themselves to nab the people who block their way.
Such poetry will surely be heard along the E Line and Route 7, which have large numbers of riders on streets with fairly high traffic counts.
Route 7 runs 256 bus trips on weekdays, with an estimated 11,000 boardings. The transit agency said illegal bus lane driving occurs frequently on this route, and suggested that the route has only operated on time 73% of the time because of the activity. Metro has an on-time goal of 80% or better.
The E Line operates 278 bus trips on weekdays, and is on time for about 75% of its trips. Weekday boardings average about 13,000, but can reach as high as 15,000.
Metro said Route 7 buses and autos collided 123 times in 2023 and so far this year. At the same time, 120 collisions occurred between cars and E Line buses.
At the end of the day, a transit agency’s success is determined by getting people where they need to go, conveniently and on time.
Bus lanes — and there are 87 miles in King County, with 71 miles in Seattle — do that, Rundell said. As long as no one is in the way.
“Bus lanes are a valuable tool for our passengers,” Rundell said. “Bus lanes actually work.”
