Being wheelchair-bound, from time to time I ride the wheelchair lift equipped Metro-Access vans, a service that Seattle Transit provides if you can't ride public transportation (the nearest bus stops to where I live are either up or down a grade that's far too steep for me to try to negotiate in my manual chair).

Recently, the Metro-Access vans have been equipped with GPS. I give the driver the address I'm going to, he or she plugs it into the gizmo, and off we go.

I've notice, however, that the GPS picks the shortest route, which is not necessarily the most efficient route. For example, my most recent adventure involving GPS consisted of going to a doctors' appointment. On the way back, the GPS tells the driver to "Go west to 13th Avenue East and turn north," or words to that effect. Knowing the territory, I told the driver that it would be much more efficient to go to 15th Avenue East and then turn north. The reason? 15th East was a sort of main drag and there were traffic lights. 13th East was a residential street, and one had to cross a couple of busy thoroughfares where there were stop signs but no lights, and you had to sit there and wait for a let-up in traffic to get across them. The 15th East route was a couple of blocks longer, but it was a whole lot faster and less frustrating.

But no. He insisted on following the instructions of the GPS, and the trip took quite a bit longer than if he had made use of the traffic lights instead of sitting and pounding the steering wheel while waiting for a break in the stream of rush-hour traffic.

Methinks GPS is a boon to the barefoot pilgrim or the "Stranger in a Strange Land," but if you know the territory, it's tendency to pick the shortest route instead of the quickest and most efficient route can lead one to frustration.

I heard tell of one person who was following the GPS instructions and it led her to a dead-end street with a river a few yards away. The street she was on picked up on the other side of the river, but the GPS gadget miss one small essential:   no bridge.

Don Firth