Last year, I learned an obscure but well known (to other people) fact of living in the Katy suburbs and working in downtown Houston. What I learned is the practice of trolling either the Kingsland Park & Ride or the bus stops downtown.
Bus Stop Trollers come in two flavors. Troll Flavor Number One is a car driver (male or female - both practice car trolling). Troll Flavor Number Two are Metro bus riders (again - male or female) looking for a Car Troller to ride with instead of riding the bus.
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Trolling Implements
$8.00
Fine art prints
Merchant: Imagekind
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Hellboy Volume 7: The Troll Witch and Others TPB
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With a new Hellboy series on the stands, fans of the world’s greatest paranormal detective can find older favorites collected for the first time in the seventh volume of the Hellboy Saga. Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Others collects short stories from The Dark Horse Book of the Dead , Witchcraft , Hauntings , and Monsters , the 2004 Hellboy: Wizard 1/2, as well as the critically acclaimed 2006 miniseries, Hellboy: Makoma by Mignola and comics legend Richard Corben, and a previously unpublished Hellboy story by P. Craig Russell and Mike Mignola, along with sketches and story notes. Contains new Hellboy story by Mike Mignola & P. Craig Russell!
Merchant: Things From Another World
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The Troll Car Driver wants to use the HOV Lane on the I-10 Freeway so they can get downtown much quicker and not be stuck in the congested, backed up traffic on I-10 every morning during rush hour. This Troll Driver does not want to leave early either. The HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lane has restrictions and penalties attached to it. There must be two (three I believe during peak rush hour) people in the car to drive in the HOV Lane. It is illegal and subject to high fines to be caught driving in the HOV Lane without meeting the requirements for being in it. Driving in the HOV Lane generally means about a 35 to 45 minute drive to downtown Houston instead of 1 - 2 hours in general traffic, depending on what time you are trying to drive down I-10 from Katy to downtown Houston - traffic at 5 AM is heavy and congested already.
Riding the Metro bus to downtown Houston from the Katy Park & Ride is about a 35 minute ride - straight through - no stops - it uses the HOV Lane. Case in point - one morning last week, the I-10 Freeway was closed at 5:15 AM due to a rollover freeway accident. Traffic was stopped, the freeway looked like a parking lot and the police closed the freeway completely. The HOV Lane was open - I got to work in downtown Houston in 35 minutes riding the bus.
The Troll Car Driver looks for passengers in the morning at the Kingsland Park & Ride. In the evening, the Troll Car Driver drives around downtown Houston bus stops with a sign advertising they are going to the Kingsland Park & Ride.
Mornings last week at the Kingsland Park & Ride, I saw several people lined up across from where we get on the bus - not getting in the bus line, just standing over there. Turns out, according to the informative lady who was explaining the trolling to me was that those are the morning “Trollee(s)” waiting for Troll Car Drivers to swoop in to the Park & Ride to pick them up for the morning ride downtown.
Afternoons, I saw the cars / drivers with their signs and people jumping into their cars.
Most of the people getting in these cars do not know the drivers and do not work with these people. The drivers do not know the people getting into their cars generally either. It is “assumed” that everyone is friendly, safe and everyone will get to their intended destination safely as well as quickly.
Is this practice safe for anyone? Not hardly. Ted Bundy would have loved to be one of the Troll Car Drivers or one of the Trollee’s - as a Troll Car Driver, victims would jump right in his vehicle with no hesitation or second thought or as the Trollee, he could easily silence and take over from being a passenger - front or back seat.
It is not safe for the driver or the passengers - any one of them could easily be a robber, rapist or killer masquerading as someone on their way to or from work.
This is a way to play Russian Roulette with your life - these suburban commuters just do not seem to comprehend just how dangerous this is while teaching their children not to talk to strangers. Perhaps they should have a long talk with themselves about dangerous situations and how not to deliberately put yourself into them.
The reason I thought of it this morning was because I was casually doing a search and happened to think how trolling is also a fishing term - my son in law fishes a lot - as well as a fantasy art term or used as I have here as a person who might be up to mischief.
Technorati Tags: Houston Texas, Bus Stop, Trolling, Danger
Posted under Texas
