I was excited to play. And then I lost. Twice. by Nathalie Graham People who take the bus are superior to exclusive light railers, who are only cosplaying as serious transit riders. That measly track can be the gateway drug into the vastness of Seattle’s public transportation network. It can only take you two directions today—and a third and fourth when the Cross Lake Connection unites the 2 Line with Seattle proper on March 28. On the bus, you can go anywhere.  At least, this is what I thought of myself. I take the bus frequently and have since I moved here almost 12 years ago. But a new game has humbled me.  Routle is a new daily iteration in the vein of Wordle (for the logophiles) and Worldle (for the geophiles), except it puts transit route knowledge to the test. Made by software engineer and self-described “mysterious train-loving hacker” one-time San Francisco resident River Honer, Routle shows one unlabeled King County Metro (or Sound Transit light rail) route each day. Players only see the route’s shape—there’s no map of Seattle—and have five guesses at which route it is (wrong guesses will appear on the screen). As transit nerds will note, it’s missing a few ferries, doesn’t include rapid ride routes and is limited to the Seattle area. Honer says she didn’t include everything because “Seattle’s bus network is very far reaching.” She’s open to feedback if people think she should expand the routes, but doesn’t want to make the game too hard.  Honer started with San Francisco’s transit routes and recently released versions of the game for us, Portland, and AC Transit in Alameda County, California. Honer made the Seattle version because she used to spend summers here. She figured it would be a good option for Routle because of our “good number of iconic routes” and we have a population of transit enthusiasts. I was excited to play. And then I lost. Twice. It turns out I only know the buses I know, from the four Seattle neighborhoods I’ve lived in. My husband, a lifelong Seattleite, got yesterday’s Routle (Route 3) in two guesses. Last night, we talked about how many routes in Seattle we knew. We attempted to name where each bus traveled from Route 2 through Route 79. This is hard to do. He paused to complain about the neutering of the 43, which used to run all the way to Ballard, and the 48, which used to reach Rainier Beach.  I sent the game to my mother-in-law, also a lifelong Seattleite. She mused about it. She grew up taking one set of routes, then used another set in young adulthood, and a whole different set as parents. The transit routes we know are extensions of our lives at any point in time. It’s the same for Routle’s creator, Honer. She used to visit Seattle in the summers. “I remember when the link tunnel was the ‘bus tunnel,’” she reminisced. “I used the 12 and 10 buses to get to my summer job at Pike’s Place Market [sic]. I was also there when the South Lake Union streetcar was opened.”  For me, I knew the University District routes well, but they changed when the light rail came. I remember taking the 45 to Ballard for a first date at the end of freshman year. I learned the 65 when I graduated and had to commute to my first job. Then, it was all Capitol Hill routes. (And others, but I will not be doxing myself, you freaks). ...read more read less