photo courtesy of notmyown via stock.xchng
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and KHOU 11 teamed up to offer four Sundays of free rides on Houston’s METRORail. The first Sunday has already passed (sorry, I missed the ball on that one), but there are three more free Sundays to come! The partnership aims to encourage Houstonians to take advantage of public transit as a fast, convenient and environmentally friendly transportation option.
The free rides are still available on the following Sundays – September 23, October 7 and October 28, from 5:30 a.m. to 11:40 p.m. each day.
In other public transport news, more and more Houstonians are taking advantage of METRO’s bike racks – this article gives the stunning statistics. METRO said, ”Bike boardings are now up 50 percent over this time last year and Metro’s Margaret O’Brien-Molina says over 15,000 riders used the service last month alone.” Bike-friendly commuting has never really been on my radar, but a good friend of mine is an avid biker and my friends’ passions often inspire me and make me wonder what I’m missing out on. Over the past couple months I’ve slowly started to use my bike more and more – for trips to the grocery store, Walgreens, the corner store, out and about with my daughter – and I so greatly wish that I could ride my bike to work each day. Unfortunately, going from Katy to Greenway Plaza each morning and afternoon would be not only time-prohibitive, but possibly dangerous to my person since there are no direct or bike-friendly routes. It’s nice to know that while I’m stuck in my car listening to Sherlock Holmes’ adventures, my fellow Houstonians are out making a difference; who knows, one day we might have bike superhighways like Copenhagen!
