All the cool kids at the back of the bus

Dear Al Gore,

Today marked the first time that I used the Houston METRO mass transit system. I rode the bus from my house to my downtown office. It kicked ass despite taking three times as long as driving my car.

The trip was cheap and easy. For a dollar, I was transported from my departure stop, two blocks from my front door, to my arrival stop, three blocks from the office. The walks were short and slightly invigorating and will probably be tolerable even in bad weather.

People watching was pretty cool as well. The bus wasn't filled with vagrants and scalawags like that bus to the south side of Chicago. It seems that folks have bus friends like back in elementary school. Speaking of which, school kids were on the bus which surprised me. I guess the cheesewagons don't go to their neighborhoods. Two old lady HISD crossing guards rode next to each other after boarding in The Heights; that was cute.

The route from my hood to downtown was interesting. We were on the main streets you'd expect for most of the trip with a few interesting side streets mixed in. For example, we took the Sawyer overpass on to Memorial once we'd reached the Sixth Ward. It was nice to see that area during the day instead of speeding through it at night. I also learned that I can bus over to The Loft or El Boliviano's as well.

Mr. Gore, I can't promise that I will be bussing into downtown everyday from here on out. Driving my car is still a passion because I like the challenge of cell phoning, surfing the InterWeb (thanks for inventing that by the way) and slurping my coffee all while weaving in and out of buses at 85 mph. But, I am glad to know that the mass transit option is available and so easy to use, which will be great for hangover days.

Sincerely,

JB el JB