Tag: JFK »

Not being from a large urban area with subway lines intermingled with rail lines, I have always trusted the Maps app to get me safely from point A to point B. Typically it finds the fastest route between two locations without a hitch. After spending the week in NY though, I have learned that Google does not have my back. No sir.

On this particular day, which just happened to be yesterday, my desired route was from Brooklyn to JFK Airport. Being one of the most trafficked airports in the country, I figured that this wouldn't be an issue. I popped right into the app, hit directions, and went from my current location to JFK Airport. Having a mass transit option in maps led me to believe that the route that was given to me would be the route that all the locals take. "No problem" I thought to myself. I jumped on the 3 to head to New Lots, and then I'd jump on the bus to JFK. By bus I figured that Google meant airport tram, and by New Lots I was hoping for some sort of airport shuttle hub.

I was wrong. Google put me... suitcase, laptop, iPhone carrying Chris... on a city bus driving by the Louis H. Pink Houses on Linden Blvd with people certainly wondering what I was doing. After I made it to JFK, I realized that there is this great light rail hub that I could've transferred to, and all that I would have to do is walk a street over from my starting location.

The moral of the story is that the Maps app really needs to show alternate routes like its computer based Google Maps counterpart. Lesson 2 is that if you are ever in E. Brooklyn and Maps tells you that you are getting on a bus... it is a city bus. Lesson 3 is that you should never take the route I took from Brooklyn to JFK. Find your way to the Jamaica station, it's much more pleasant.