Seattle's New Superhero Is Bus Lane Avenger

SEATTLE, WA — Frustrated bus commuters of Puget Sound, you have a new superhero.

A video emerged late last week of a fed-up woman directing cars out of the bus-only lane at Olive Way and 6th Avenue in downtown Seattle. "Directing" is putting it lightly, though — she swore at drivers and ushered them out of the lane as commuters waiting at the nearby bus stop clapped and cheered.

"Get out of this lane, it's a Bus. Only. Lane," she said, emphasizing each word. She flings her arms toward the general traffic lanes to make sure the drivers know what she's talking about.

Most cars obey her and slowly pull out of the bus lane. At one point, a newer white Lexus pulls right up to her in a sort of menacing way. But she stands her ground.

"You're in the wrong lane honey!" she tells the driver of the white car.

Her act of vigilante traffic enforcement has won loud praise from transit riders. But others — those who see unused bus-only lanes as wasted space — are not as enthused.

Todd Myers, director of the conservative Washington Policy Center's environmental arm, accused the woman of making life harder for car commuters.

"A Seattle 'hero' is when you enforce laws that make life more difficult for others when it adds nothing to your life," he wrote on Twitter.

The bus lane vs. car lane war has been raging for years. Bus riders point out that one bus can carry 50 or more people, so buses should get priority over single-occupant cars. But if there's no bus in the bus-only lane, there's no harm if a few cars slip in, drivers argue.

Enforcement of bus-only lanes has been tricky. Seattle needs approval from the Legislature to install cameras to catch bus-lane cheats. A measure passed in the House last spring to do that, but went nowhere in the Senate. Police can (and do) hand out $136 bus lane violation tickets, but scores of drivers get away with violations every day. In the bus-lane hero video, most cars jump right back in the bus lane after driving around the woman.

The frustration of seeing drivers break the law while standing at a crowded bus stop on a hot summer afternoon was probably the tipping point for Seattle's new bus-lane avenger. She became so popular over the weekend, someone designed a new city of Seattle flag featuring an image of the woman and the phrase, "Get the f--k out of the bus lane!" underneath her.