Safe and fast areas for scooter drivers (help) (Houston, Richmond: transfer to, neighborhood)

[JcleodX]

Hi im a fellow houstonian getting ready to start college art institute of Houston in the galleria area i live around the hobby airport area and my transportation from getting to possibly work and college is a scooter a buddy international 150cc which runs around 60+mph i dont feel really comfotable driving on I-45 with this thing considering some of the bad drivers who hell-ride I-45, my question is, is it ok for me to drive my scooter on I-45 and 610 or just go threw the backroads my safty is utmost priority

[westres1]

I would seriosly reconsider this option of transport driving that far. The only way I could come up with is to take long drive to the 610 feeder then cut thru the med center down Fannin and take Richmond into the Galleria. I am not sure what the 610 feeder does at 288 ...you may have to get around that by cutting thru a really rough neighborhood.

[EM1956]

wouldn't Metro be a better choice for you? and safer???

[BBall Coach]

I have to agree with the above posters in saying that I would seriously reconsider this method of transportation if I were you. That is a long distance to travel daily (especially if it's during peak traffic times) on a mopad. If taking the Metro just isn't an option for you and you decide to stay with the scooter thing, I would definitely stay off of the freeway. Riding a scooter on the freeway during peak traffic times on a day to day basis would definitely be dangerous in my opinion with the way people drive here.

[tstone]

60 mph will be fine for the feeder road as the speed limits are usually 45 around there. Along certain stretches of 45 and 610 you can avoid the traffic lights by entering & exiting the freeway over & over. (In the more modern spots the entrance lane is also the exit lane.) However it doesn't really matter if your bike can do 60 or 160. I think the real issue here is if you can simply muster up the ballz to actually ride in freeway traffic.

[bamba_boy]

I've got a slightly more powerful scooter (200cc) that has a rated top speed of 85 mph (will only go 80 with my fat a*s on it) and I take it 2-3 days a week into downtown past the galleria about 15-20 miles on the SW-FWY (Rt 59). During normal work rush hours you can use it on the diamond lane (multi-person/bus/motorbike) so you have nobody potentially cutting in and out on you. I feel a lot more nervous if I stay at work late and have to ride back on the main lanes.

One thing to keep in mind is that nobody drives the posted limits (usually 60 close in) in either the main freeway lanes or the diamond lane. When there isn't rush hour traffic it's 80 in the fast lane, 70 in the middle lane, and maybe actually 55-60 in the far right slow lane but only if there is a slow delivery truck or two nearby to gum it up. I can put the hammer down and keep up but if your bike really only goes 60 you'd have to keep it in the right lane and then you have to really watch people entering from the ramps and not seeing you.

My advice would be to get a slightly more powerful bike (then you won't have people honking at you from behind on the one-lane diamond into downtown on the 45 and can really fly outbound against traffic on the mainlane 59 west) or as others have said stay on the frontage roads and surface streets. It's really limiting to get around Houston without having availability of the freeways. It's so big and sprawling and surface streets have so many lights that you don't want to have to make a 20 minute freeway trip into a 2 hour surface street trip.

My little red Italian fillie Aprilia is pictured below:

[sevfiv]

Sounds long and grueling on roads, but you could do the whole Telephone-Long-Griggs-OST-Holcombe then something northbound route if you aren't in the market for a new ride. Otherwise, I'd look in to Metro, depending on where your closest stops are and when you need to be in the Galleria area (maybe the 73 and transfer to 81, the 88 and transfer to 53 or 35, or 50 to 53)..