I found most of my questions answered here: http://www.ridemetro.org/services/howtoride.asp But I'm still wondering...are they clean? How many of you ride them?
NOT fun, but it will, eventually, get you there. It takes roughly three times the amount of time a car will, and it's filled with a lot of dregs of society. I'll pass, unless there's an emergency. The cost now, I believe, is a dollar. Park and Ride is not bad, though.
It's great if you use it for Park and Ride..when i used to have to be at work in downtown in the mornings early i loved parking and just riding the bus. Not only do you get there faster thanks to the HOV lane..i saved a lot of gas and i got to sleep an extra 30 minutes on bus since im a lazy ass. I did miss my stop a few times and had to walk extra since i was sleeping but still well worth it. Factor in the gas, parking fees, and the benefits of being able to rest on the way there it's great.
1 dollar to ride, or 1.50 for an express bus. 2 bucks for a day pass {unlimited rides both directions). I don't find it unclean, but some of your fellow riders aren't hygene mavens. Worst part is you have to go downtown to get anywhere. If you want to go from one part of Hou to another, chances are you have to go DT and change busses.
I used to ride buses in college, I haven't since then, so my info might be dated. But when I was riding the buses were pretty clean, as were most (but not all) of the passengers. Taking a park-and-ride or a main line bus (2, 4, etc) was relatively quick, maybe twice the commute time of a bus, but other trips that required more than one bus could take an inordinant amount of time.
I do Park and Ride from the NW side downtown for $3.00. Buses are clean and I get to read, rest, do make up, no traffic...I love it! I think the commuter buses from the Park and Ride locations are probably alot nicer than the regular route ones though. Oh and yes you have to have exact change. But I use a monthly pass.
The busses are clean-ish... I'm sure if you're the first person to ride on the initial run, it would be clean, but get on the same bus at 7pm and I'm sure it will be a little messy... When I ride the bus, I get a day pass, $2 and I can ride to and from and anywhere else (including rail) for 24 hours. I don't take the bus much, but when I do, I don't mind.
Everyone should ride the 44 (Acres) once in their life. On the way to the Seton Lake Park and Ride (from Downtown), you get to travel through one of the most neglected parts of NW Houston. I wish that there was some way to re-vitalize the area.
They've got signs with the number and name of the route on the front of the bus and over the doors. Once you've planned your route on the website, you should write it down just incase. I think the only thing you need to worry about is that the bus doesn't stop at every stop. Only if there are people waiting or if you pull the chord or press the tape to alert the driver that your stop is coming up. If you know location of your stop pretty well, you should have no problem, but if not, you should probably sit near the driver and when you get close, let them know that your not sure of the area and tell them which stop you need to get off of. The drivers are usually helpful, even though they wear Mad Max fingerless driving gloves, dark shades, and permanent scowls.
