Google Maps Makes New Routes Easy

Saturday morning, cold and gray.  As I leave the house, the sky spits rain that hits my face as icy pricks.  Matt has the car this weekend, so I’m relying on alternate transportation to get where I need to go.


I’m on my way to the North Spokane Library for a writing workshop that starts at 10:15 and have mapped a route from my house that has me walking out the door at 9:02 a.m. and arriving at the library about ten minutes before 10.  My destination lies in a part of town that I’m not well acquainted with, but Google Maps tells me there’s a Sweet Frostings nearby where I can while away the twenty extra minutes.

Zoom in and out to get a better look 

at your route.  Along the bottom ribbon, 

select the bus icon for STA routes.  The

number "33" in the blue box indicates

the bus route number.

Although I’ve been commuting by public transportation for almost a year, it’s been a few months since I’ve attempted a new bus route.  Day after day I take the same route and am so habituated to it that I can readily become engrossed in a book.  I sense where we are by the sway of the bus, the rev of the engine, and the automated voice prompts.

This morning’s route is straight forward, but I’m relying on Google Map’s directions since I’m heading into unfamiliar territory.  Google Maps is the best way to access Spokane Transit Authority routes (select the bus option under “directions” instead of drive or walk).  It shows the beginning and end points, all of the bus stops along the way, transfers, and segments where walking is required.  Voice navigation can be turned on just like when you’re using the app in your car and it will alert you three stops before your destination.

I board the bus just as the rain lets up and collapse my dripping umbrella.  A handful of us transit Wellesley together, quietly surfing our phones.  I can’t concentrate on my book because I’m following my on-screen progress.  At Division and Wellesley, I follow two young people off the bus and then traipse along behind them as we cross the busy intersection.  They peel off at the NorthTown Mall – perhaps heading to work in one of the stores or restaurants that will open soon.

The white circles denote bus stops. The small blue

dots indicate walking section.  The heavy blue

line is the bus route.

Google Maps shows me where to walk, but I can see the #25 stop as soon as I look up – it’s demarcated by a roomy shelter set between gold-leaf trees.  The wind is chilly and so I seek relief inside and intently monitor oncoming northbound traffic so I can step out and be seen by the driver in time for him or her to safely pull over.

I wait ten minutes and, right on time, my ride arrives.  We motor past the strip development that defines Division:  Flamin' Joe’s Firey Ribs, Tire-Rama, Senor Froggy, Red Box.  I peer past the row of commerce to the dense housing I’ve never noticed before – hundreds of apartment units in side-by-side complexes, houses, fourplexes.  Fellow riders hop on and off all along the way, most likely coming and going to and from work and home.

I watch for the arrival of my bus on 

Division from the dry glass walled

shelter.

I track us on Google Maps north along Division, then east on North Country, then left on Hawthorne.  I pull the bell cord, the driver swings to the sidewalk and I disembark directly across from the library.  The bus is right on schedule which means I have time a'plenty to walk up to Sweet Frostings Blissful Bakery.  Inside, the lights are bright and the décor cheery, there's even a faux fireplace that inexplicably warms me.  One young man greets me and takes my coffee order while the other breezily boxes up a quad pack of Harry Potter cupcakes.  I carry my steamy Americano to the window seat and close the map app. Google Maps and the STA worked seamlessly together this morning and now it’s time to settle in for a day of learning.

Every bus ride is better when it ends with a piping hot espresso.  Here, Sweet Frostings Blissful Bakery.