Hack the Trip Planner

(hack in the sense of use differently than the software suggests, provide better advice...)

RantWoman needs to share with the world two Trip Planner hacks she has realized in the last several weeks.

1. RantWoman transfers all the time from the southbound E line to the Eastbound 8 at Denny Way. RantWoman assumes she knows what she is doing so she has never consulted the Trip Planner. RantWoman's first instinct has been to get off the E line just N of Denny and wend her way through ugly crossings at Aurora and then cross Denny to get the bus at Dexter. 

Silly RantWoman.

Recently RantWoman realized that if she stays on the E line until the stop AFTER Denny, Wall St and 5th Avenue, she has NO street crossings but a bent walk over sidewalk and past planter box to the eastbound stop at 6th and Denny. MUCH saner pedestrian routing.

2. Recently RantWoman has had several conversations with people who ride the 372 and want to go downtown but are REALLY NOT CRAZY ABOUT what the Trip Planner suggests a blocks-long walk from the 372 stop on campus to the Light Rail.

RantWoman can definitely see their point. RantWoman herself is fine with that walk on a sunny day with nothing falling out of the sky. Well except RantWoman definitely prefers as much winter sunbathing as she can get her eyeballs near. If it is sunny, RantWoman does not want to be in the Light Rail tunnel. If it is raining, RantWoman really does not want to walk to the tunnel or feels darned entitled to whine if she does. And we will not even mention RantMom and her cane.

But....

RantWoman can ride the 372 to its last stop on Campus Parkway just W of 15th. RantWoman can then walk BACK to 15th Ave NE and turn left (north). There is a bus stop right there with buses that go downtown, to Broadway and then downtown, to Issaquah even on weekends, and a bunch of other places during the week.

The downtown bus takes longer than the train, but so? There is natural light. There is mobile service. What more could a person want?