I think you get more community in the bus when you ride the same route every day; there’s a batch of folks on the #5 who I can count on being on the 5:18 or the 5:33 from downtown.

As to the signage on the Link signs, yes, they are inscrutable. The map that I redid is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edward-vielmetti/2800095421/in/pool-aata

which replaces letters with numbers. Your “Y” stop is nominally there at about 11 minutes after the quarter hour, and you get to “J” at 7 after the quarter hour, so it’s an 11 minute ride. Plus or minus.

A few weeks ago, this could have been a shared observation that might have relieved some of the frustration with the sideways oriented online schedule: “Hey, honey, let’s observe the [numbered push pins] that I made for Ed Vielmetti’s Link map!”