seeking Seattle transportative enlightenment

[calimac]

The Potlatch web page says that "the handy new light rail ... doesn't go quite as far as the Hotel."

And the light rail's web page shows the line going only as far as the Westlake station, which is at Fourth and Pine.

Google Maps, however, appears to show light rail continuing up Westlake Avenue as far as the lake and then turning east, with the last station at Fairview and Ward.

However, the light rail project website shows an under-construction extension going not in that direction at all, but heading up Pine towards Capitol Hill.

Is the Google Maps extension a phantom, or what?, and will I get in trouble with all the Google apologists again if I suggest that their maps are not perfect in every way?

Comments

[ckd]

Different line; that's the South Lake Union Trolley. (Not its official name for obvious acronym-related reasons.) You can connect between the two at Westlake.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Thank you; when I Googled its name I found it, but the point is that I had to know its name first. Apparently it's a different transit authority, and how kind of the people who run the light rail not to intimate the streetcar's existence anywhere that I could find it, and the streetcar's feeling about the light rail seems to be mutual.

[ckd]

One of the several dysfunctions of the Seattle area's transportation "system" is the patchwork nature of the transit options. Metro, Sound Transit, the monorail, etc....

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

There are patchwork agencies in the Bay Area too; four agencies around the southern lobe of the Bay alone, and at least two to the north, plus BART and CalTrain which are each separate from any of them. But we also have this unifying schedule and planning site which is linked to from, as far as I've noticed, all the local agencies' sites.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

What? Google Maps not perfect in every way? Surely you jest!

Sarcast-o-meter set on stun, of course. The light rail will take you downtown from the airport, though you have to walk about a quarter mile in the airport garage to get to the station.

Once you're downtown, you can get out at any of the stations; I'd choose the University Street station myself. Go upstairs to Third Avenue from the light rail station (I'm a little fuzzy on exactly where on Third the bus stop will be; they've been juggling locations recently, but it shouldn't be more than a block away)and take a 3, 4, or 16 to 5th and John. From 5th & John, walk east two small blocks on John to Taylor; walk north one block on Taylor to the hotel.

See you in February.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've been terrified of taking buses from downtown for years, since my personal intimate knowledge of the bus system predates the tunnel, I have no idea when to use it and when not to. I have to pretend I know nothing and then use an online trip planner.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I'm told that there's a planned extension of the light rail to the U district, but multiple years away.

I was afraid of the bus tunnel for a while, but I've come to love it.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I linked to the page about that extension; it's going to the U-district via the top of Capitol Hill, and apparently they're digging the tunnel now.

I'd be more comfortable with the tunnel if I spent more time in Seattle and using transit. But the gap between the intensive use I made of it while living there and the very limited since then is large.