NavList:

Paul, you wrote:
"by way of background, I got this one strait from an interview with Scott Kelly, so that’s my source. He has spent a lot of time in both Houston and Moscow. I can’t claim to have been to the latter, but the last time I was at JSC (admittedly in the 80’s) there wasn’t anything resembling a subway running anywhere near the place, so I know the JSC folks drive. "

Heh. No, no subway in Houston. No subway in Korolyov either. But your account here helps to make sense of the story. It is perhaps understandable as a "face-saving" internal urban legend. The plain fact is that the Russians are running the show. Much less embarassing to imagine that the other partners are just accomodating the poor Russian commuters suffering under the yoke of the Moscow Metro system's limitations (actually it's frequently listed as one of the world's best). That's a far better story than "they tell us what to do, and we can't complain because we have no man-rated spacecraft". But that's the fact. 

You wrote:
"As for the Russian parking lots, there’s always the possibility that they are filled with Trabants, which means that it’s anybody’s guess as to whether or not they are actually drivable."

I prowled around the vicinity there in Korolyov in Google Streetview, and 95% of the cars are new and foreign-made. Of course, these are probably the cars of the high-end team at Mission Control. The hoi polloi may park three blocks away.

While in Streetview, I wasn't 100% sure I had the right building until I spotted a key clue, which you can see in the attached screen cap. It took me a moment to realize this "clue" was "out of place", and I was suddenly reminded of an episode of the original "Star Trek" and the words "Ee plebnista"...

Frank Reed