On December 23, I had to work late because the end of the year was busy. Like a good urbanite, I took the bus and expected to take the bus home again. Normally, there were two buses which traveled to my neighborhood, but I saw roughly 11 Trail of Lights buses before I finally caught a bus. I was basically stranded downtown with no way home for about an hour and I was at 11th and Lavaca, which has no businesses to patronize and no regular foot traffic.
Many people argue that because there is no "effective" public transit system, people are forced to drive. My counter is this: if no one takes the bus after hours, then there will be inefficient and ineffective buses after hours. There are students, but these days, more workers come early and stay late, and people need to feel that they can get home safely and quickly without having to factor an extra hour of waiting.
Being stranded downtown should never happen in one of the fastest growing cities in America. Please talk to Capitol Metro (yes, I do the same) and tell them if you ever ride the bus after 6pm. There are many activities that happen in the later hours, and not having to park would be a boon on the city. We need to work with our transit system to make it more effective so that the buses and trains do not give us a curfew.
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