The
concept of mass transit in Chicago is a wonderful way to get around the city.
It makes it possible to avoid owning an automobile (and dealing with the
expense) without being reduced to the life of a shut-in.
BUT
WE ALL know how unreliable those Chicago Transit Authority buses and elevated
trains are when it comes to showing up on time. The great uncertain is figuring
out how much time to allot for the actual commute because you don’t know how
long it will take to complete – particularly if a bus or train transfer is
involved.
I
know I have read those alleged schedules that claim buses on many lines run
every 15 minutes, and that there are times of the day when ‘el’ trains are
supposed to come along every seven minutes.
It’s
supposed to be the endless system where one can just show up at the street
corner or ‘el’ station whenever and catch the next train or bus. It is the
reason many city residents claim they could never live in the Chicago suburbs,
where the trains and buses run on set schedules once an hour (or sometimes even
more infrequently).
Yet
those suburban Pace buses and Metra trains at least have set schedules, and
people know when the train or bus is late. City residents are expected to just
cope with the delays, and hope they don’t work for the kind of boss who looks
for reasons to rant against his employees.
WHICH
IS WHY I found it amusing to learn of a new survey by a mass transit app called
Moovit that says the amount of time people spend waiting for their bus or train
is less in Chicago than it is in other cities.
Thirty-one
minutes is supposedly the amount of time we spend each day waiting at the street
corner or train platform, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
By
comparison, New Yorkers wait an average of 38 minutes a day, 39 minutes a day
in Boston and 36 minutes in San Francisco.
Supposedly,
Los Angeles residents wait an average of 41 minutes per day. Although my
understanding of LA mass transit is that it isn’t as extensive as what other
cities try to do, which means many people avoid it and turn to the freeways
where they cause those daily traffic backups that can be just as frustrating as
getting drenched by rain while waiting for a bus.
I’M
SURE CHICAGOANS don’t feel comforted in the least by learning their average commute
is less than other U.S. cities – particularly since we all have memories of
incidents where we waited at least an hour for the bus to show up.
And
whenever there’s a mechanical problem or a heavy weather-related storm, all
bets are off in terms of getting to work on time – or even at all if things get
particularly bad.
If
anything, it is memories like this that make me remember fondly the summer some
30 years ago when I lived in an apartment on Damen Avenue just three doors
south of the Brown Line ‘el’ station, which also was a bus stop.
Living
in such proximity (I could see the ‘el’ platform out my bedroom window), I
developed an inner sense of knowing when the trains and buses would arrive so I
could avoid the waits – a sense I haven’t had at any other point in my life and
one that I (along with many other Chicagoans) wish I could get back.
-30-
