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

[thespian.livejournal.com]

take the 90 from Davis Square, through Sullivan but not all the way to Wellington. it'll drop you off in front of the Bed Bath and Beyond in Assembly Square. The courtyard is basically directly behind it; turn to either direction (left to the K-Mart is slightly shorter), and walk around the building. Takes about 5 minutes.

(to clarify: the bus takes about 20 minutes. the walking about 5. Unless you do it by way of AC Moore and the Christmas Tree Shops).

[ron_newman]

You can indeed walk under I-93 at a place called the 'Kensington underpass', behind Stop & Shop. There are crosswalks, but no signal lights, so use caution here. This is *not* the McGrath Highway underpass that cars use.

Bus 92 goes from Haymarket to Sullivan Square to Assembly Square -- but not at all hours, so check the schedules if you want to use this. Bus 95 runs along Mystic Avenue from Sullivan Square and may also be useful going to, but not back from, the courthouse.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

google maps, I should note, has some weird things where I have frequently had to pin the route differently to get the most efficient route (especially while walking). MBTA is more irritating because they *always* seem to believe that a 4 minute walk trumps a 6 minute walk, even when the slightly longer walk is 40 minutes less travel time, or fewer transfers, or whatever. there *are* bus stops closer to the courtyard (I had a hearing there 3 weeks ago), but they're all much fussier trips.

(btw, when you get there, they will tell you to put your cell phone in the car, and they'll get very pissy with you if you say you don't have one. They *do* have envelopes that security will hold onto if you ask them to, but they don't like doing it and they will never volunteer the envelopes. So when you initially ask, they will hem and haw. Make sure you insist and they'll bring it out. )

Is Google Maps trying to lure me to my death?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

When I had to do it I just sprang for a taxi. But I'm impatient like that. :-)

[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)

[georgy.livejournal.com]

This overpass is also as dodgy as hell.

[siderea]

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

[siderea]

(btw, when you get there, they will tell you to put your cell phone in the car, and they'll get very pissy with you if you say you don't have one. They *do* have envelopes that security will hold onto if you ask them to, but they don't like doing it and they will never volunteer the envelopes. So when you initially ask, they will hem and haw. Make sure you insist and they'll bring it out. )

Very useful to know, thank you! I was actually going to ask that next. Also: do they let laptops in? Is there wifi?

[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.

[ron_newman]

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

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I didn't even try with a laptop, since I was told they'd take an iPad or iPod. I believe it's anything you can communicate with the outside world via, though.

[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.

Re: Is Google Maps trying to lure me to my death?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

+1 on this. I really couldn't figure it out, and decided that <$10 was a useful investment.

off-topic

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Sand Castle is awesome.

Re: off-topic

[thespian.livejournal.com]

i first saw it when i was 7 or 8, and it's seriously haunted me since.

Re: off-topic

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Me too! We used to get the filmstrip from the library and watch it over and over.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

The pedestrian crossings are weird, ugly, and not all that intuitive, but they are reasonably safe and if you pay attention you can figure out how to cross. But don't expect anyone to stop for you--you'll need to wait for lulls in traffic or wait in places where there are actual walk signals, depending on exactly the route you choose. What makes it fairly safe as long as you stay attentive is that you only have to cross where traffic is going in one direction--so you're not having to keep an eye on traffic in multiple directions, and it's all near on and off-ramp locations so traffic isn't traveling at 60+ mph.

[siderea]

I was just handed an iPad. Wifi, by any luck?

[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]

Well. I have a friend who likes to say, "Ah, Massachusetts. Land where you have to look both ways crossing a one-way street." But I take your point. :)

[siderea]

...!!! How recently was that?

[balsamicdragon.livejournal.com]

yeah, there is no real way to get there by public transport without risking life and limb. But taking the bus to Bed, Bath and then walking across the street near the Christmas Tree store is probably the best way. You'll want to enter around the back I believe.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

:-)

Ah, Massachusetts. Land where you have to look both ways crossing a one-way street.

There is 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.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

And actually, the road just behind the Assembly Square Mall is two-way. I'd forgotten that because it has been very light traffic every time I've crossed.