I’m a native Californian. Until two months ago when I arrived in Chicago with no car I have never ridden a bus or train except as a rare lark. Now public transportation is my only means of getting from here to there. Fortunately, the Chicago Transit Authority is rightly celebrated as being one of the best transit systems in the world. You can get anywhere, from here to there… and then from there to there further, on to there elsely and, eventually, your destination… if you just have a map, a transit schedule, a compass, an Eagle Scout badge and a the patience of Job. Through a simple yet sometimes confusing series of transfers and queries for direction you will eventually arrive for just $2.25, total plus a quarter for unlimited transfers.
You just have think of it as an adventure.
On the CTA you can set out for a Sunday farmers market and return home nine hours later with two fully ripened avocados.
You can haul a package to the post office and have it arrive at grandma’s house in Des Moines before you reach your front porch.
One day I didn’t feel like walking the two blocks to the train station so I took another train to get there even though it took half an hour and I had to stand the entire way, crushingly, intimately close to a bunch of people to whom I had not been introduced.
I’m sure this all sounds terrible to my California friends and family but I am saving several hundred dollars a month by not buying gas. And frankly, being alone in the big city I have nothing but time on my hands. I’ve read two full books while riding trains and buses. Plus, I’ve met some — shall we say interesting? — people.
More on that later. I have to be at work in three hours and it’s twelve miles away. I must run to catch my rides!
Copyright 2011, David L. Williams
Eventually Dave you won’t need those “tools of travel” (you’ll have it all memorized) but then the price will go up to say a staggering $2.30, though the transfer will still be 0.25. Of course they will once again expand the coverage of the CTA, and you’ll need to dig out that compass. There are positives to the crowded stand room only thing.
I just came in from a 7-plus hour stint on the West’s storied Interstate 5, and much as I apprecate the fact that I can get from Northern to Southern California – what I wouldn’t give to be able to take a train! Someday. We hope.
Well, while it’s not even close to the semi-stresses of navigating the CTA from point to place … on a smaller scale, I deal with my own kinds of commuter issues just trying to get to the bathroom at night for another of my multiple visits. (It’s one of them an old guy things.) For me, though, the good news is twofold: (a) I don’t bump elbows with anyone during the commute and (b) usually never end up standing next to anyone once I get there. But then, I’m occasionally prone to leaving the garage door open, so I don’t rule anything out.
Anyway, “how ’bout them Bears?”
I wish LA had a good public transportation system. I wouldn’t mind taking trains to work, and I could, except that from my house I’d have to take a train to Union Station first, 10 miles in the opposite direction of work. So enjoy it! Just keep plenty of extra change should the fares increase while you’re on board. Remember what happened to poor ol’ Charlie…