another reason to be disappointed with Houston's public transit
Marc and I have an interesting transportation situation. Marc does not own a vehicle, nor does he drive. Given our increasingly environmentally-conscious decision-making, both of us have been considering the idea of taking Metro to school. Marc's headed to HCC-Central this fall, and I'll be headed to UH. We even found great bus routes (in Houston -- which is a miracle) that would involve us riding together to HCC-Central and then me taking a quick route to UH.
Trust us, we found 'em. We even stayed up all night to drive along all the routes, eat breakfast at Katz's (for which we were overcharged), and came back way ass early the next morning. (We were bored last night.)
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Here's how we would do it:
Park my truck at Hillcroft Transit Center (it would take a grand total of 3 minutes to drive there from our new apartment)
Take Fondren Express to Downtown-HCC Station. (It goes DIRECTLY from Hillcroft TC to HCC. No stops. HOV lane all the way. Woo!)
Marc gets off. Bye Marc!
I take 42 to basically the front door of my department building. A few residential stops, but it's still a straight shot.
Rinse and repeat in reverse to go home.
The time to get from our place to HCC? 20, 30 minutes tops. And all the way to UH? 45 minutes TOPS! If even that long.
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What is the problem with this? (HTC - Fondren Express - 42)
Well, the 30-day pass is 50 dollars. This would cost Marc and I a combined 100 dollars a month.
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Yes. I know gas is expensive. And realistically, it would cost over 100 dollars a month to drive there and back. But, the savings difference is not incentive enough in this case. It seems ridiculous for both of us to shell out 50 dollars a month to take advantage of this option. Because we are not high/middle school students, discount options do not seem to be available. And 50 dollars a month? That IS the discounted rate.
We can carpool together and use the HOV lane to school and back. This means that we sidestep all traffic in my truck just as we would on the bus.
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I'm disappointed. I really think 50 dollars a month (100 for both of us) is a little high for the inconvenience. (I would save a marginal amount by not needing to pay for parking on campus, but not much... and I would want to have a parking pass for other times, as well.)
Trust us, we found 'em. We even stayed up all night to drive along all the routes, eat breakfast at Katz's (for which we were overcharged), and came back way ass early the next morning. (We were bored last night.)
-------------------------
Here's how we would do it:
Park my truck at Hillcroft Transit Center (it would take a grand total of 3 minutes to drive there from our new apartment)
Take Fondren Express to Downtown-HCC Station. (It goes DIRECTLY from Hillcroft TC to HCC. No stops. HOV lane all the way. Woo!)
Marc gets off. Bye Marc!
I take 42 to basically the front door of my department building. A few residential stops, but it's still a straight shot.
Rinse and repeat in reverse to go home.
The time to get from our place to HCC? 20, 30 minutes tops. And all the way to UH? 45 minutes TOPS! If even that long.
-------------------------
What is the problem with this? (HTC - Fondren Express - 42)
Well, the 30-day pass is 50 dollars. This would cost Marc and I a combined 100 dollars a month.
-------------------------
Yes. I know gas is expensive. And realistically, it would cost over 100 dollars a month to drive there and back. But, the savings difference is not incentive enough in this case. It seems ridiculous for both of us to shell out 50 dollars a month to take advantage of this option. Because we are not high/middle school students, discount options do not seem to be available. And 50 dollars a month? That IS the discounted rate.
We can carpool together and use the HOV lane to school and back. This means that we sidestep all traffic in my truck just as we would on the bus.
-------------------------
I'm disappointed. I really think 50 dollars a month (100 for both of us) is a little high for the inconvenience. (I would save a marginal amount by not needing to pay for parking on campus, but not much... and I would want to have a parking pass for other times, as well.)