It’s possible if you know the old routes
June 29, 2010 (Tuesday)
Houston is so different today from the city in which I grew up that it’s difficult sometimes to remember what it was like. Yesterday, however, being an old hometown boy paid off when I was seeking a route to avoid traffic during rush hour.
It was 5:30 p.m. and I was planning on being at a restaurant downtown near the Toyota Center by 6:15 p.m. It was the peak time for heavy traffic, but I took some streets that I used to travel a lot when I was a boy, and the trip was “easy as pie.” I left the church here on W. 17th and drove a block or so to Durham. No traffic at all there. There was traffic on Durham (one-way south), but it runs in packs and I happened to enter it between packs, so no cars there either. I turned left on W. 11th, and followed it to North Main. On the way it becomes Pecore and there was not much traffic on that street either. Right on North Main to downtown, over very familiar territory. I did notice that a building on North Main and Quitman, in which I had my first job at age 11, had recently been torn down. It had been one of the last remaining landmarks of my youth. No traffic at all, all the way to the I10 highway at the north edge of downtown. I drove under it, turned left to San Jacinto, turned right and it became Fannin. Still no traffic to speak of. Down Fannin I drove to Leeland, turned left to an empty street and arrived at my destination at 5:40, only 25 minutes for the whole trip. Had I taken the freeway, I might still be parked somewhere in a long line of cars.
At the top of this blog, it says some articles are trivial. They don’t get much more trivial than this one. Thanks for reading.