Due to needing to work up my stamina for a secret work-related project, and I’ll explain the reason I feel free to resume biking in a later post perhaps, today I used my son’s bike and the 801 to get to my job in the horrible suburban cube factory.1 Attached are minimally edited notes I took along the way, with a couple of photographic bits of evidence.
7:00 get on son’s bike, ride about 5 blocks to the Hyde Park Station. Easy and comfortable despite massive humidity.
7:03 arrive at stop. An 801 is pulled over at the gas station 100 feet north of me while the driver gets coffee. Next arrival is in 7 mins according to sign.
7:06 changes from 3 mins to DUE immediately.
7:08 bus here. 1 got off. 1 other bike on front. When I got on total of 8 pax left on bus. Paid with 5 quarters like a BOSS. Stopped here to debunch apparently. (waits 2 minutes).
7:10 pulls away. Wonder if debunching is required only because of previous drivers coffee break
Triangle at 7:13 1 on 0 off.
7:15 stopped at light at Houston. No station yet!
7:16 Brentwood 1 off 1 on
7:18 oh god it’s so bumpy approaching Justin Ln
7:20 Justin 1 on 0 off
7:22 unfortunate diversion up above mainlanes to hit transfer stop. Looking longingly at freeway below.
Very awkward diversion into NLTC. Bus loops through and goes back southbound on frontage to make stop. Wonder how people many times people waiting here have boarded the bus going the wrong way. (just says Tech Ridge or Southpark).
7:25: 4 or 5 got off here and nobody boarded. Now bus struggling to change lanes to turn back around for NB. Weird route through NLTC and indirect cost of turns probably adds up to almost 5 minutes.
7:28 at new stop without branding (Fairfield?). 1 got on.
7:30 rundberg. 2 got off 2 got on.
I think I’m the only one to have paid cash so far.
7:32 light stops us briefly short of Masterson station. 733 we stop. 1 off.
7:35 Chinatown. Annoying lady passenger yelling into phone. She gets off and 1 other. 0 board. Short wait for red light.
Now in very long stretch with no stops.
7:38 slow and stop for queue behind light at Yager. Lots of cars turning right here. Transit priority note. Probably much worse 15 mins ago.
7:40-7:43 Wait to turn right on Parmer and slog through I35 ramp traffic. Bus turning left on i35 (I swear they used to go to McCallen).
7:43 crossing bridge. Must be a fun turn for driver. Mention this is the way I go too.
Driving fast on frontage and shaking. 7:44 turn on Center Ridge. Didn’t take special bus entrance (exit?) instead went up Center Line. Did go in special bus entrance off Center Line. Sooo bumpy.
7:46 pull up and deboard. I think there’s 3 passengers left including me.
7:54 bike up to my horrible office building (much more difficult and sweaty than the first ride on the other end), sweaty and triumphant.
Friend of the crackplog Caleb asked about time and here’s the scoop. Wait time is the average based on headway (I waited a little less this morning). I used actuals for the other components.
Good news, though! According to this minimalist but correct commute calculator, the trip in the morning saved a whopping 36 cents!2
since there is no shower in our new facility I’m taking the 801 up most of the way and riding all the way home this evening; hopefully not through pouring rain ↩
bad news: I have a company car so I wouldn’t be paying the gas or the tire cost, so actually this trip cost me $1.25 more but an average person driving my current car would have saved the entire 36 cents ↩
