To Ride Every Local Bus in Houston
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May 22, 2007:
I've had this idea for months now, but I really started putting it all down on paper now. I maintain that it's possible to ride every single one of the 61 local buses in Houston in a 24-hour period. Last night, I finished my plan that shows that it is indeed possible.
The biggest hurdle was Bus 39. The planning would of been a whole lot easier without it. It's a small bus that runs from a halfway house to various banks, grocery stores, and pharmacies on the freeway. It only runs from 6-8am and 5-7pm. That means in my 20 hour day of riding buses, I had to hit this one exact.
The next two biggest hurdles were Buses 86 and 98. Both of these buses are out of the way and would take a 90 minute round trip to get (beacuse they are out on the outskirkts of town and there was no way to "pick them up on the way").
With that in mind, I thought I would start out of the way at Greenspoint Transit Center. That way I can start with Bus 86, then spend an hour working my way to the dreaded Bus 39. Bus 98 will have to wait until later.
Unfortunately my plan is pretty tight. It does not leave much room for error. I could probably spend another 10 hours refining it, but that may only shave off an hour or two. Some of my transfers are as little as 4 minutes. I tried to keep transfers at 10 minutes, so that even if one bus was 5 minutes late and one bus was 5 minutes early (yeah, it happens... usually when the driver has a bathroom break coming up), I could still make the transfer. I would say there are about 10 spots where I would really worry about making the connecting bus.
I've determined the best day of the week to do this is a non-holiday Friday. I would have to take off work... there's no denying that. There are many buses that don't run on the weekend, and the rest have less frequent schedules. I chose Friday beacuse I'm sure riding buses for 20 hours would wipe me out the next day. No point in taking two days off of work!
My last concern is safety. When you ride every bus, you're inevitably going to have to ride through some less desireable parts of Houston. I did manage to plan my route so that I'm in the nicer area of Houston when the sun goes down, but I still have to finish up downtown (where all the late buses are very close together and easy to get quickly), which can be a little suspicious at places. For that reason, I really think I would like someone to go with me. I don't think I would want to try this alone. Not unless I had a concealed handgun. Too bad I'm a liberal, eh?
More on this to come...
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