Check out the beginning of this Bill Murphy story in the Chronicle:
In New Orleans, Earl Kellup lived in Uptown and never had to wait too long to catch a bus.
After about three weeks in Houston, he said he has learned that buses don’t run all that frequently on some routes and that he may have to walk a ways to get to bus lines.
“It ain’t like in New Orleans. You could get on a bus in 20 minutes,” he said.
Mr. Kellup should live downtown so he could use the 7.5 miles of light rail.
More than 100 senior citizens driven from their homes by Katrina have been set up in apartments at the Primrose Casa Bella senior complex on Airline.
A bus runs along Airline, but evacuees are still trying to figure out where it goes.
[snip]
Kellup, 27, who worked at Wal-Mart in New Orleans, was placed in an apartment in the Longboat Key complex in southeast Houston. He said he can walk to a bus stop, but it’s a bit of a hike.
How much better would these new Houstonians have been served if Metro hadn’t gone on a wild bus route-cutting spree over the past year?
And then we get another example of why Metro counts boardings and not paid ridership:
Metro has provided evacuees at no cost more than 10,000 seven-day bus passes, said the agency’s spokesman Ken Connaughton. Another 10,000 passes are available.
Evacuees who ride the light-rail train haven’t been charged, he said.
If the buses are inconvenient and slow, people aren’t going to want to ride them, especially when the free passes expire.
RELATED: Hello? Anyone home at Metro? (bH), Rad Sallee exposes how Metro ill-serves those who depend on it (bH), Metro’s new budget available for viewing; public hearing Sept. 21 (bH)
