Click on the map for a larger, printable version with bus schedule.Starting Monday, Clear Lake residents will be able to catch a bus to more places than downtown Houston and the Space Center.
Among three Harris County bus routes starting up on Jan. 4 is one linking Clear Lake to La Porte, which in turn gives riders access to a new route through Pasadena and South Houston.
Stops on the No. 5 Clear Lake - La Porte loop include:
• UH-Clear Lake on Bay Area Boulevard at University Drive.
• Harris County Recovers Housing Assistance Center, 16602 Diana Lane, which serves residents who still have homes damaged by Hurricane Ike.
• Christus St. John's Hospital on the NASA Parkway.
• Numerous locations in Seabrook, including 2nd Street at Bayport Avenue, 2nd Street at Meyer Avenue, El Mar Lane at Meyer Avenue, and El Mar Lane at Bayport Boulevard.
• Frequent stops in La Porte along Old Highway 146 as well as one at Fairmont Parkway and 6th Street and another at Fairmont Parkway and South Broadway.
From La Porte, riders can pick up buses on the county's No. 4 route, which follows a Spencer Highway - Fairmont Parkway loop through Pasadena and South Houston.
Operated by the fledgling Harris County Transit Services Division, the bus does not connect to Metro's Bay Area Park & Ride, which whisks commuters to downtown Houston and an occasional tourist to the Space Center.
Ken Fickes, the county's transit service director, told the Houston Chronicle that "very little" consultation was done with Metro, since the intent was not to deliver people to work downtown but to help people trying to get to school, the doctor's office or stores.
The county bus costs $1 a ride, 50 cents for senior and disabled passengers, and nothing for students with an ID.
The buses operate only Monday through Friday, and they're anywhere from 30 minutes to 70 minutes apart.
Print out a No. 5 Clear Lake - La Porte bus schedule and route map here.
Print out a No. 4 La Porte - Pasadena bus schedule and route map here.
The Harris County Transit Services Division is opening 89 miles of new routes on Jan. 4. Click on the map to see the county's other routes.
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Comments
Seems impractical
I am always one to cheer more transit options in our city but this one seems a bit impractical. We need a comprehensive approach to transit, not competing agencies who have routes that don't even link. Omitting the Bay Area Park and Ride from this route means that I have to drive somewhere in order to use this route. Therefore it is of no use to me. Further, it seems that a round trip on this route is going to take a long time. Impractical if you want to go to the doctor and back (unless you live in La Porte and need to go to St. John Hospital). I think it would have been better to have a Clear Lake route and a La Porte route that intersect each other. This way, round trips in Clear Lake would be a lot shorter. Likewise for the La Porte riders. Also it needs to intersect with the Metro 246 route which is otherwise a dead-end route. We will never get out of our cars with a fragmented approach, and transit options should not be designed solely with low-income riders in mind.
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