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Wednesday
May 17, 2006
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Sometimes it's easier to travel halfway around the world than it is to plan a cross-town bus trip....

Finding out I needed an emergency filling was bad enough, but the only available dentist who could see me on my last day in Seattle was all the way down in Burien, a suburb about 10 miles SW of the center and--I imagined--difficult to get to by bus.

Seattle Metro bus system is fairly adequate, but what it lacks is good maps. Luckily, some clever soul has developed busmonster.com, the visual organization of which I prefer to Metro's text-based trip planner.

First I typed my emergency dental appointment destination address: 14212 Ann Baum Blvd
.

I guess I heard the appointment scheduler wrong, so I clicked what I really meant: 14212 Ambaum Blvd SW...

 
...and found the stops near my destination


Then I clicked "Routes" and found out I needed the 120. When the bubble came up, I clicked "120 - Burien Park and Ride"


After clicking the "Inbound to: Burien" radio button, I zoomed out and selected a random downtown Seattle stop.


The best was 2nd and Lenora. From there I went to Metro for schedule. The 7:51 #120 would get me to my appointment on time.
http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/bus/schedules/s120_0_.html

How to get downtown? I'd take the 7:26 #5 from outside our place to 5th and Lenora, then walk 3 blocks to 2nd for the 120. http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/bus/schedules/s005_0_.html

And that's exactly what happened. The bus ride was painless and even the emergency filling I needed didn't hurt much at all.