Is Google Maps trying to lure me to my death?

[siderea]

I live in the Greater Davis Square Area, and I have jury duty in a few weeks at the Somerville District Court, on Fellsway. I am trying to figure out how best to get there on the T, and mbta.com and maps.google.com are giving me radically different information.

According to the MBTA Trip Planner, this trip is going to take me about an hour. I walk to Davis Square and catch any a variety of buses (depending on how early I want to arrive) which by way of Sullivan Station and sometimes a transfer, will drop me off on the same side of RT 93 as the courthouse.

According to Google Maps, I can make the trip in under forty minutes, by taking the 89 bus to Foss Park, and then walking along McGrath Highway, and crossing RT 93. This route involves crossing two highway ramps on foot and using the McGrath Highway underpass. I zoomed in with with satellite view, and, yeah, there are white pedestrian-crossing lines on the pavement. Street view doesn't go under the highway.

I have no personal familiarity with the area. Does anybody who has made this pilgrimage before know if the Google Maps route is actually safe for pedestrians?

P.S. The court's own web page just says "Take the #92", which is apparently completely unhelpful.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I just now asked Google Maps for the same public transit directions, and it is entirely wrong about how to walk from Foss Park to the courthouse. Don't even try to follow it. Instead, the underpass you want is this one -- the line that roughly connects Stop & Shop to K-Mart.

(Wait for the Google map to fully load, and the popup to appear -- this may take some time)

[siderea]

Got it, thanks. Have you ever taken that route yourself? It looks... Froggeresque.

[ron_newman]

Yes, I have. It's not for the unadventurous, and I'd avoid it at night.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I never minded it at night when the lights were working, but the last couple of times I used it, the lights weren't working, and that was kinda scary.

[siderea]

...!!! How recently was that?

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Couple of months maybe. But I'd been through several times at night with no lights before that over a fairly broad span of time, so I wouldn't count on it being fixed yet.

Initially it was scary in the "what if someone/something leaps out of the dark" sort of way but resolved more into the "what if I trip over something" sort of way. However, since I'd been passing back through in the dark just a couple hours after passing through in daylight, I kind of set aside the tripping over anything worry (having perceived no major obstacles), and proceeded in something like faith.

Though nothing bad has happened, I still don't particularly like it, and try to plan my errands so I don't end up crossing there at night.

But really, I do think of it as a passage that, as another commenter has indicated, is more a case of bark than bite.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I have seen pedestrians crossing there and have been very glad I was not them.

[gookalockgeek.livejournal.com]

i live by the stop and shop and walk this way all the time. it sure ain't pretty, but it's usually deserted and i have never had a problem at any time of day.

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Would you consider filing a bug? Street view showing the nightmare location and a suggested alternative seems to help. I got some biking bugs fixed this way.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I use that path a lot. It's more bark and very little bite, as it looks bad, but really isn't. Just wait for a break in traffic or wave politely while looking at the oncoming drivers directly, so that they know you're serious about taking your right of way in the crosswalk.