Saturday, September 6, 2008

Getting to Kimmage Road

Last Thursday Maura and I were once more exploring how to get to Kimmage Road. this time we wanted to find a bus which started in the centre of the city, near Connolly Station, where our DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) trains leave us off. Our reason for doing this was because Dublin public transportation is geocentric: it starts with the premise that everything has to go through the centre of the city, so if you can't beat them you must join them.
I had various data. Bus maps from Dublin Bus' office in O'Connell Street, printed routes, and timetables for various bus routes which I had downloaded from the Internet. I wasn't making much progress, because the route information on the timetables was quite cryptic. I decided to access Google's maps, and I started out with the map of the United States, and moved my pointer across the Atlantic to Ireland, and then kept focusing on Dublin, getting a more detailed map all the time, until I had Kimmage Road. It didn't really help, because the route information on the timetables did not mention Kimmage road. I kept studying the Google map, for no apparent reason, because it did not address bus routes. I noticed cyphers by a large intersection, and wondered what they signified. I focused the poimter, and clicked, and, what do you know, it was the number of a bus. I tracked along Kimmage road to the cypher nearest 105, the address I wanted, and pointed again, number 15a. I was more alert by now, and noticed in the margin some notes, including "To" and "From". I clicked "To", and I got a response,"Where do you want to go?" I responded "105 Kimmage Road" The response this time was a line on the map which started at the nearest cypher, representing the nearest bus stop, and finished at 105 Kimmage Road, adding that it was a distance of half a kilometre.

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