• She likely could afford a car since she has a mayor's salary, but wisely chooses to ride the bus because of its many benefits to society

To give more history about this route, there is a annual "race the 8! event scheduled by seattle urbanists where people start off on the worst part of its route and do increasingly outlandish activities on foot while still beating it to its designations. Folks have beat it juggling, walking backwards, dancing, etc. Katie and her kids participated before she was the mayor, and you guessed it, beat it.

This route serves an intensely dense part of the city and has been failing people for years. The city/county have been making piddly, empty changes for nearly a decade that fixed nothing, like adding a 1 block bus lane. Yup, one block only.

The bus is regularly 30-40 minutes late, which makes using it miserable and unreliable. The reason its route is terrible is that there is a highway onramp thats right there near Amazon HQ. So for years and years people commuting in and out of the city have been prioritized over people who live in it, and no previous mayor had the stones to push back and fix it for actual residents.

Cause they had an extra lane for their private vehicle and they feel like a service their taxes paid for has been robbed from them to serve people "that haven't worked hard enough for it." They worked hard to buy and pay for their car and they feel upset if their ability to use their private vehicle on public infrastructure has been diminished. Despite the fact that cars have been given the vast majority of space and funding for decades. There is also nothing stopping them from using the improved bus service except their preconception that "its for the poors."