Chicago Myth #2: Public Transportation

"You can throw your car away and live in Chicago and live happily ever after."-- Not the case. Seeing that I did this throughout my high school and lived in the city without a car for the last year, I know, believe me. I would like to believe that for a city the size of Chicago this was case. The fact is Chicago transportation, in short, does not move.


Let's say you want to take the train, it moves slow. Let's say you want to drive, you are stuck in traffic. Let's say you want to take the bus, you are again stuck in traffic. The Metra system is decent but like the CTA, it is really meant to get you downtown and thats it. The CTA is stuck in the 1920s, it moves ridiculously slow, goes to downtown and back to you neighborhood. If you want to get to another neighborhood you have to transfer somewhere then transfer somewhere else. Do you want to transfer train lines? Too bad, you have to go all the way downtown wait and then transfer again to go all the way back out to the neighborhoods. If you live in the suburbs, and don't live off a Metra stop, its like having to drive out to the cornfields everyday, while stuck in traffic.



Logic would tell you that people would stop expanding or demand better public transportation. But this is Chicago and everyone is an idiot. Everyone is happy commuting 45 minutes or more everyday. This is the new Chicago culture: being stuck in traffic. I'll tell you right now, if you build your house way out in the suburbs without a Metra line and work in the city: you are probably a miserable person or an idiot.


On top of this the problem isn't going to go away. The Federal Government doesn't care about Chicago. You aren't going to get any help from Senator Obama; he is busy trying to get in the White House. Not from Durbin he is an idiot. From Governor Blagoevich? Not a chance. He worked under someone I know, under, when he was just getting his law degree. The person called him, and I quote, "A dildo."


Every month the CTA spends millions on a PR campaign to get its rates raised to tells its riders of "dooms day" for the CTA. And Chicago wants to be on the international scene with NY or London?


The fact is this is America. And Americans love their GD cars. Chicago will never be "European." Chicago will never be a pleasant place to live--it will always be a pain in the ass full of miserable people and weather.