I thought this most recent accident involving the beloved light rail (number forty-nine!) was timely and hit awfully close to home. Has the Atomizer been in Houston lately?
A MetroRail train struck a pedestrian downtown this evening, sending him to the hospital with serious injuries and stranding hundreds of commuters trying to get home from work.
Witnesses said the man appeared to be intoxicated as he crossed Main Street between Rusk and Walker, stepped onto the landscaped esplanade in the center of the street and then into the path of the northbound train about 5:15 p.m.
The article mentions no name, but the description - appeared to be intoxicated - sounded an awful lot like one of your crew, perhaps on a scouting mission pertaining to light rail.
I also thought you would be delighted to learn that there are some upsides to the enormous boondoggle AKA "light rail." In the fair city of Houston, my birthplace, the not-even-six-month-old rail has managed to be involved in enough accidents with pedestrians and moron drivers to become comic relief for an entire city of nearly four million inhabitants. I have neither the time nor the inclination, but a Google search regarding the nightmare of our light rail project will reveal quite an interesting case to be made against such horrendous government expenditures and the ensuing dearth of riders willing to trade in their personal vehicles so they can ride back and forth between the Med. Center and downtown.
There must be at least seventy five tourists a day that need to make that trip, not to mention all of the businessmen downtown that have doctor's appointments five miles away in the Med Center. That alone probably adds another twenty-five to the tally.
However, I fear that it may be too late in the Twin Cities. Nevertheless, imagine the great fun it will be in reading the local fish wrap trying to spin the inevitable accidents and poor ridership in a positive light. Good times await.
Good times indeed. David's e-mail also leads to the inevitable question:
"Why don't they look?"
Meanwhile an anonymous employee at a local newspaper that shall go nameless offers his own light rail tale:
...from my window I can see the Metrodome light rail station. I also sit next to a network printer. This printer attracts reporters who have to print every goddamn e-mail, web page and PowerPoint item they find and then complain about how slow the printer is. Additionally, the machine must also emit a powerful stupid-ray because it causes them to spew opinions while they wait for their waste paper.
Normally, impulse control is my strong point. It has to be, I mean look where I work. But late last week, when a gaggle of babblers hovered at the printer first thing in the morning, I decided to lay some pre-emptive stink on them. I got up and loudly announced that with light rail costing about $100 million a mile, the next person to tell me a Lincoln Navigator is a wasteful vehicle now will know why I'm laughing so hard.
I had a wonderfully quiet Friday.
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