Challenge accepted: Riding bus on FM 1960 proves nothing to fear
A man holding a little boy’s hand stands at the corner of Ella and FM 1960, waving to indicate he wants to board the approaching Metro bus. The driver shakes his head and points toward the bus stop on the other side of the busy intersection, perhaps 50 yards away.
The man wheels around, checks for traffic and sprints across, still clutching the boy’s hand. Perhaps the driver will wait for him; perhaps not. Evidently he doesn’t want to take that chance.
Other passengers are still boarding when the man and the child, their chests heaving, reach the bus stop. They get on through one door as I get off through another.
This kind of uncertainty is a daily reality for people who rely on public transportation. Buses don’t always arrive on time, the weather can be treacherous, and boarding a bus is not like hailing a cab.
The people I met on Metro’s 86-FM 1960 route Wednesday morning were retail workers, health care providers, students, retirees. They were not looking for trouble. The bus was simply how they got around.
I was riding in response to a challenge from one of the dozen or so readers who emailed me about my July 21 column. The piece questioned the premise that introducing public transportation into a community leads to increased crime and general deterioration.
Several of my correspondents said this was precisely what had happened in neighborhoods along FM 1960 (recently rebranded as Cypress Creek Parkway), where the Metropolitan Transit Authority started bus service in 1990.
“I challenge you to drop off your mother, wife or daughter at the bus stop on the corner of Ella and FM 1960 and take the bus for a ride,” wrote one reader, who said he had lived in the area for 41 years. “If you tell me they would like the experience, then I would apologize to you ...”
I didn’t have any female relatives handy, so I decided to conduct the experiment myself, obediently starting my journey at the specified location. I parked my car at a nearby shopping center and sat down at
the bus shelter, where two other passengers soon joined me.
The bus pulled up, we climbed aboard and the vehicle lumbered eastward on 1960. The 15 or so passengers chatted quietly, scrolled through their phones or listened to music through headsets.
I took a seat at the rear next to James Howard, 52, who told me he rode the No. 86 bus frequently to get to medical appointments and to run other errands. Howard said he owns a car but prefers the bus for certain trips — particularly when he goes downtown.
“I save money on gas and I don’t have to pay for parking,” Howard said.
Howard said the service was generally reliable, and he hadn’t seen any misbehavior more serious than the occasional drunken passenger.
“There’s definitely some foolishness,” he said.
One problem? Hot sun
I spent several hours riding this bus line in both directions, and the biggest problem I expe- rienced was the absence of a bench or any shade at the Richey Road stop, where I waited in the hot sun for about 20 minutes. I’m not sure what horrors the man who emailed me expected my mother, wife or daughter to encounter; he didn’t reply to my email asking this question, and I’m withholding his name since I didn’t get his permission to use it.
People choose public transportation for all sorts of reasons: Maybe they can’t afford a car, or prefer to spend their money on other things, or believe (correctly) that using transit is more environmentally friendly.
Be open to change
In a car-centric place like Houston, many residents may live their entire lives without setting foot on a bus or train. This contributes to a sense that people who ride buses are people who are Not Like Us.
“People now are afraid of change,” another longtime FM 1960-area resident wrote in an email to me. “On my street alone we have African-Americans, Hispanics, and families from Guam and India. We need to celebrate diversity and teach tolerance and support a transportation system that gets people to work easier.”
I don’t know if the reader who issued the “ride the bus” challenge would consider it met, since I substituted myself for a female relative. In any event, I waive the apology. Instead, I suggest he try riding the bus himself.