An open letter to the Houston Metro system

The BBQ Pit
1

Dear Metro:

I am writing to congratulate you on thinking so advanced, it defies logic.

I specifically refer to your brilliant re-routing of route 65 (Bissonnet). I understand that there is construction on Bissonnet just past the railroad tracks that extends halfway to Mulberry, about a block or so past.

Saturday afternoon, on my way to visit a friend, I boarded bus 65. It goes directly past his house. Imagine my surprise when the bus did not continue down Bissonnet (I was not aware of the construction until we got down there), but cut across on Academy to Bellaire Blvd. and on to the transit center on Bellaire. Imagine my further surprise (and increasing dismay) when the driver of said bus did not know how I was supposed to get back down Bissonnet to where I actually needed to be. So, using my knowledge of Houston and Metro, I boarded a bus and got off at a stop that was within reasonable walking distance. I finally got to my friend’s house, but not before being rained on and generally inconvenienced.

Did it ever occur to you idiotic fucks that some people need to go to addresses that are on/near Bissonnet??? Did you ever think that maybe the fact that you were bypassing a significant portion of your route MIGHT be information that some people need to know? Did it further cross your tiny minds that maybe you needed to have a better backup plan than the one you had? If a better re-route wasn’t possible, did it ever dawn on you that you could have made sure your drivers communicated this with us riders? Did you consider that a bus that says “65 Bissonnet” should actually go near Bissonnet?!

The answer to these above questions is: Of course not. I have yet to see anything coming from you that resembles common sense or good judgment. I can further only pray that you aren’t bypass surgeons in your spare time; your patients wouldn’t be doing too well, what with the coronary arteries being re-routed to the liver and what-not.

Sincerely,

Robin

2

cough

3

Umm, Fly, honey…

These re-routes cover the downtown area because there is a lot of heavy road construction going on downtown. This doesn’t include the patch of construction I’m bitching about.

Robin

4

Personally, I’d like to know why Nashville MTA route #8 has trips to downtown in the evening every hour until 10:44pm, but the return trips from downtown only go until 5:45pm. Don’t you think people going to downtown might want to return home at some point later on?

And then there’s the #5 bus to Opry Mills Mall. Sure, that’s the evil giganto-mall they replaced the Opryland Theme park with, thereby killing off a good portion of the tourist trade, but once in a while I might want to go anyway.

Possible times to arrive at the mall by bus:
6:26 am
8:13 am
10:06 am
4:09 pm
6:11 pm
7:01 pm

Possible times to leave the mall by bus:
6:26 am
8:13 am
2:14 pm
4:09 pm

So in other words, the latest I could arrive at the mall with any hope of returning is 10 in the morning. And I’d be stuck there until 2 in the afternoon.

And now I hear you’re ditching the route all together. What, was nobody riding it? Wonder why…

5

And that’s why I’ve got a car.

Mother nature can bend over and take it up the poop shoot, I’ve got a schedule to keep.

6

Damn…see what I get for being so smug? :smiley: Carry on then, and keep fighting the good fight against incompetent public transportation!