Trip Planner - the Long Way Around

Today is Friday; tomorrow I am to meet my friend Fred at Finch Station. (See! I already know not to call it “Finch SUBWAY station”).

I live at 4340 Bloor Street West, on the corner of Bloor and Mill Road. There is a bus stop on the diagonally-opposite corner.

TTC Trip Planner understands my request as:

From: 4340 BLOOR ST W, ETOBICOKE

To: FINCH STATION, YONGE ST

TTC Trip Planner suggests:

Leaving at 7:19am from MARKLAND DRIVE AT BLOOR STREET WEST FARSIDE 

Using these routes 49 BLOOR WEST towards KIPLING STATION

BLOOR-DANFORTH SUBWAY

YONGE-UNIVERSITY-SPADINA SUBWAY

Arriving at 8:24am at FINCH STATION - SUBWAY PLATFORM

Which seems to jive with my memory - I’ve caught the 7:20 a.m. bus on a Saturday before.

But Wait!!

What’s this bit about “Markland Drive”?

Markland Drive is a circle that surrounds me. I live dead-centre of the clock-dial, and why would I walk to the circumference when the bus travels right through the centre of the dial, right past where I live?

The TTC Trip Planner suggests that I:

Walk to the first stop:
Depart and head Southwest on BLOOR ST W (245 metres),
turn right at MARKLAND DR (50 metres).
Total walking distance: 296 metres.
Total walking time: 4 minutes.

That’s right!

I should walk AWAY from my closest stop out westwards to the 9 o’clock position, and catch a bus that will, a few minutes later, drive right past my building and stop at my closest stop, just across the intersection!

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! TripPlanner_001.png

Trip Planner would send me off on a wild goose chase.

I’ll have to leave that much earlier to account for the walking distance.

I’ll have to leave that much earlier to account for the bus’s extra travel around the houses.

Or I could just walk across the street and ignore Trip Planner!

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