Settle a debate

Ok all you zombie watchers out there, settle an argument for me. Would a hot air balloon be an effective escape vehicle? I claim no because (a) the learning curve on figuring the thing out would cause too much of a delay; (b) even if you had it figured out, it takes awhile to heat up and send the damn thing off anyway; (c) it's freakin open air--open air on a motorcycle is fine but in a slow moving basket, I don't think so. My friends disagree saying that you would store it on a roof or high building and send it off from there, thus zombies would not be able to immediately climb in. I say that I'm gonna be escaping in a much faster vehicle, and they can enjoy hanging around holding hands in a balloon singing Kum ba yah while zombies suck out their brains with a crazy straw.