Accidental Tri-modal Trip to Work
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October 3, 2007:
Today started out like any other. It's Wednesday, so I didn't have to run. The weather forecast showed clear skies all day, so I decided to ride my bike the 4.1 miles to work.
I mostly ride my bike because it's faster than waiting for the bus, so I'm not ashamed to strap my bike to a bus and ride it the rest of the way if one should happen to be conveniently right there. Today I did just that (see map to follow along). I crossed under the freeway and saw a bus pulling up to its stop just ahead. I accelerated hard to catch it and, huffing and puffing, I threw my bike on the front of the bus and jumped inside. I pulled out my book, A Walk in the Woods, and started to relax.
The first thing that was different was that the bus started to turn around and go the other way. There was a train ahead that had been going for a while, so I just assumed that it was turning around to avoid it, which it was. It was a little strange because I had been on buses on this route before and they just sat there and waited the train out. I just dismissed it as "driver's prerogative," and went back to reading my book.
Then at Washington, the bus kept going straight. Here is where my mind started racing: "Perhaps he's really behind schedule and is taking a shortcut to catch up?" Once the bus passed Memorial (which would of been the turn for the shortcut), I remembered that there were two buses on Heights once you get south of White Oak, and I must of gotten on the wrong one.
I remembered that there was a marked bike lane on Dallas St., so I got off there. Luckily, I had remembered to put the Houston Bikeways map in my backpack, so I opened it up and found a route into downtown. I took Dallas all the way in and turned on Clay (slightly longer distance, but a marked bike route). Then when I got to Main, I saw the train coming up, so I jumped on that the rest of the way up.
So the moral of the story is: always check to see what bus you're boarding! It wasn't completely a bad experience; I think it ended up being about the same amount of time as if I were to ride my bike in, because I would of been stuck at that train that the bus went around.
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