A wholesome alternative to World Events anxiety: CONSTRUCTION at UW Montlake.

 

Map of the Montlake UW Medical Center

RantWoman has a medical appointment at the UW Montlake Medical Center soon.

Oh FUN! The reminder text came with info about construction in the main entrance, closed street crossings and who knows what all.

UW Medical Center – Montlake Entrance Upgrade and Waterproofing | UW Medicine

RantWoman first attempted to interact with the map on her phone. Bad idea. RantWoman has a couple options for enlargement but it's too easy to lose context and full orientation clues.

RantWoman appreciates that there are directions aimed at pedestrians. RantWoman however is baffled by some of the text and the map doesn't help. For one thing RantWoman is confused by the appearance of bus stops. The cute little bus icon seems to be pointing perpendicular to the direction buses travel and RantWoman is completely confused by how to get from the bus stop to pedestrian-friendly paths, with or without traffic signals.

Well, one suggested routing suggests to RantWoman crossing Pacific St somewhere Montlake. RantWoman has used that street crossing. RantWoman does not like it nearly as much as the simple straightforward one near a bus stop. RantWoman hopes between signage and the "Ask a human algorithm that she can find the underground tunnel referenced in the directions.

RantWoman appreciates that the text prints out in large print. RantWoman wishes she could say the same thing about the map shown above. RantWoman's first effort to print the whole webpage yielded lovely readable text but the map took up about 1/4 of the 11" side of regular 8.5 x 11 inch paper. 

Black and white printing also obliterated several of the lightly colored lines in the map.

But lo RantWoman is resourceful. RantWoman decided just to download the map image and print that. That is more steps than lots of people will want to try and RantWoman had to fight off several AI-based offers of "help." RantWoman now has an almost workable map.

HOWEVER, RantWoman how the miniscule map works for drivers, especially drivers unfamiliar with the area. Surely not only RantWoman but also at least some drivers would really appreciate an easily printable map, a page with only the map, with the text on another page.

There. Enough rant for now. RantWoman will now get to bed so she can pop out of bed and interact with the built environment well-rested.

PS. After whining and grumbling about all the travel disruptions over the weekend, RantWoman's travel experience was tolerable.

Adventures of RantWoman: Who needs riots? Thank you transportation planners? And Happy Ride Transit Month

Leg 1

7+5 downtown busier than usual and a helpful police officer directing at what is a pretty simple street crossing anyway. The 5 did fill up with people who all debarked at stops near the Fremont fair.

Event with a guest working on Accessmap.app who is going to get an email with suggestions about something to indicate whether streets are arterials, minor arterials or residential streets.

After event, a walk from Greenwood to Aurora along the N side of N85th street, to save a couple street crossings.

E line to another stop.

(Ordinarily RantWoman would just take the E line downtown and transfer to the 8 at Denny. Separate whine about that not being viable right now.)

Walk to catch the Eastbound 40 to Northgate station, followed by 1 line to Capitol Hill and the 8 home from there. Train crowded and platform way more crowded than average. Train was terminated at Capitol Hill, single tracking and there were humans to guide people to the shuttles (or bus lines) downtown. RantWoman found this tolerable even with having to add an extra transit segment and the Juneuary temps and bluster.