Ted Oberg at KTRK has done some wise prying into the METRO bus service from downtown Houston to Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Seems the first-class bus service, at $15 one-way, is a decent deal compared to  $17 a day for terminal parking or a  cab fare of $37.50, which is also subject to other fees. But as Oberg points out, it operates with a hefty taxpayer-funded subsidy, given the fact that only an average of two riders take the service each day.

"No matter how many people ride the bus, it costs METRO $1.5 million a year to run it. Divide the cost by the current number of passengers and it makes the real cost of the one-way trip $74 per person. The rider pays $15, and you, the taxpayer, chip in the other $59."

I have a better -- and cheaper -- idea.

Coming back to Houston recently, I searched for a nattily-dressed professional driver holding a card with my name on it. With no luck, I turned to the information desk at the foot of a bank of elevators, asking where I could catch a fairly priced ride to downtown.

“The METRO bus takes you right there from Terminal C,” a woman told me. “And it only costs you $1.25.”

There it was, the number 102, arriving on time at the terminal. An hour and some minutes later, I was dropped at the corner of Pierce and Main.

So the trade-off is about 45 minutes, the difference in the time it took to take the 102 and the time it would have taken on the pricier METRO direct line. I wonder, why does METRO not trumpet this great $1.25 deal to and from the city’s largest airport? Because most people don't have the time, said Raequel Roberts, a METRO spokeswoman.

“We do promote the 102, but the thing with that is that it makes multiple, multiple, multiple stops,” Roberts said. "It’s there, though. People know it exists.”