By Dave Millhouser

I love flying.

I HATE airports and airlines.

So, when I had to make a trip from Boston to New York, it seemed wise to try the new curbside bus lines. (In addition, if you hadnt figured it out, Im cheap).

Even better, I conned the senior editor of this newspaper into letting me write an article about the experience, and hed pay for the trip. Id travel incognito (Latin for "I dont know who I am").

The only hard part was figuring out how to buy tickets. Many of the curbside carriers have gone to Internet-based ticketing. In addition to saving money, it tends to eliminate some of the riff-raff. If thats their strategy, theyll have to do better because even an aging riff-raff (like me) can figure out the web pages.

Cleverly disguised as a chubby old guy, I waddled to the gate at Bostons South Station, clutching the printout of my $8.50 ticket and began the adventure. Tickets in the Northeast vary in price from $1 to $18 depending on when you book.

A couple of things became apparent immediately. There are LOTS of folks riding the curbsides. On this Monday morning, four different carriers left from the same spot and each was at least 75 percent full.

It seemed just like an airport gate until a young woman turned up with some sort of ticket problem. A dispatcher jokingly told her hed have to slap her hand, then sorted out her ticket, and made sure she was on the right bus. You had the feeling that, in an airport, the slap might have been harder, and on the face.

Curbside, there were a few differences between companies, minor in nature. One carrier provided a dispatcher, while the others seemed to depend on passengers informing each other, with a little help from drivers.

There was a bit of confusion but we all worked things out as a team, and had a good time doing it. Here we were, strangers on a Manhattan street corner actually talking to each other.

The buses were new, and clean. The seat spacing was far better than an airplane, and the computer WiFi worked perfectly. Youre allowed to use your cell phone, and the few conversations that I noticed were quiet and civilized.

Once the coach reached the interstate, you forgot you were on a bus. On two different carriers, riding three routes, the experience was virtually the same -- smooth drivers, reasonable speed.

In a later conversation, the executive of one curbside operator said his company had been pleasantly surprised by the number of young women traveling on their coaches. He believes that carefully chosen curbside locations and targeted marketing have created a "safe" atmosphere that women appreciate.

If he was pleasantly surprised, imagine how the young men on the buses feel. Since a substantial portion of the curbsides marketing is word-of-mouth this ratio may change.

The demographics were interesting. Many of the passengers were college-aged kids, with a substantial number of older folks. That makes sense, in that these groups have less money, and more time, than business people.

Ironically, once you sort out ground transportation, waiting time in the airport, and security delays, its not certain that air travel would have been faster on any of the three legs.

There was a liberal sprinkling of all sorts of folks. You could make the case that our multicultural gang looked like the cast of a disaster film ... but we had no disaster.

On each of the three legs I rode there was at least one elderly couple, formally dressed, looking like they were riding a 1940s passenger train. Nice.

Forty-year-old Derek Hackett told the New York Daily News that he liked the curbside buses because "They dont stink."

If my experience is representative, theyre doing a whole lot better than that. For trips of 400 miles or less, its a civilized way to go.

And, in case you were wondering, no one saw through my crafty disguise, everyone on all three buses thought I was a chubby old man.

Dave Millhouser is a bus industry marketing consultant and freelance writer. Contact him at: dave_millhouser@hotmail.com.