Who needs Astroworld? We have the Danger Train!
Thanks to folks who came out today to participate in the Danger Train field trip.
We toured the entire length of the line and got some good photos of some of the more dangerous intersections, did a bunch of walking about, and thoroughly enjoyed the Cabo margaritas.
We'll resume our usual posting tomorrow. It just seemed like a good idea to put a quick note up lest anybody think the Danger Train took us out. We're pleased to report that no cars, wheelchairs, pedestrians, bloggers, or blind people were struck by the Danger Train on this field trip.
ANNE ADDS: That was fun! My family had a great time.
Several things struck me: When we were driving to the designated meet-up place, my husband said "turn right on Main Street" and I almost had a heart attack. I begged him to find a different street. Nothing doing. So, I turned right on Main Street and was amazed at how little room for error there was in turning. The light rail tracks are RIGHT THERE! It wouldn't have taken much for the bumper of my car to have been ripped off if a train had been going along there at the same time as I was turning!
Development along the Danger Train line is mediocre in the downtown, and already established around the Medical Center, but in between is this wasteland of abandoned buildings, trash, broken glass, etc. Blech. There was one building on the corner of Main and Berry that really caught my eye: a burned out/boarded up/graffiti-covered hacienda-looking thing. Nasty.
We stopped at the Dryden station in the TMC and saw where the cars and trains share a lane. SHARE A LANE! In each direction! And Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert runs around screaming at Houston drivers for being stupid??? Who the hell came up with THAT design??!! The signing is terrible, too. If someone is unfamiliar with downtown or the TMC area and that person is suddenly forced to comprehend driving lanes with tracks on them, crazy signs that do not make sense when you have a split second to figure them out, AND keep an eye on the traffic lights, well, that's just a recipe for disaster. As we have seen.
On a brighter note, Cabo's was very fun and the food was good. Then Callie graciously agreed to try to find the President George Bush statue that I have been wanting to see. It's in Sesquicentennial Park which is a lovely place (except for the lack of playground equipment, as my youngest noticed. How can a park be called a park if there aren't any swings or slides? Just kidding.) I don't understand why the Chronicle editors decided to compare it to the Riverwalk, because it is completely different. It IS very nice, but it should stand on its own merit.
After that, we walked down to the waterfall area behind the Wortham Theater, which my kids (and Matt Bramanti!) had fun exploring. And then we wanted ice cream. Do you know there's not an ice cream shop anywhere around the downtown area that we could see? That seemed odd. So, we called it a day.
(Thanks also to Isiah Carey for patiently trying to find us to say hello. The Insite is everywhere!)
UPDATE: Check out the photo Ubu Roi snapped. Ubu was sitting in the front of the train as it entered an intersection. The traffic light for the cross street was GREEN! Which means the train had to have run a red light! Unless Metro's special engineering design allows intersections to have green lights all the way around. =)
BLOGVERSATION: Isiah Carey's Insite, Houblog, Kevin Whited's Flickr page, Writeacher, Isolated Desolation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/15/06 10:54 PM | Announcements | Print | Comments (44)
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