Chicago: The Struggle of the Poor to Get to Work and Public Transit (Atlanta: rental car, rental)

[Charlestondata]

Maybe they were being really liberal with what they were calling the South Side and the North Chicago. Maybe she's in the boondocks and her job, too. What some people refer to as the edge of a city or metro I call the jungle. The point of the report was that many jobs have moved to the "edge" while our society continues to assume they're all in the center, at least as far as the perceived need for public transit is concerned.

[pvande55]

Chicago is blessed with better transit than 95% of metro areas in the nation. You may have to transfer downtown or some other place but it is amazing how many places you can reach.

[glass_of_merlot]

Commuting on the cta for a long time every morning sucks but you do what you have to do to get to work. She lives fairly close to several transit options..at least she has a plan A, B and C!. Not everybody does.
". Hairston, a 25-year-old graduate student, begins her trek at 4 a.m. by walking to a nearby bus stop, in the hopes of catching a bus to the L train. But if Hairston misses the bus to that train or if the bus is late, she'll turn to plan B — walking a few more blocks to a different train station where she'll have to wait 20 to 30 minutes for the next train. Or she defaults to plan C: walking to a different bus stop to take her to yet another train line."

She is a graduate student. Exactly how are we suppose to feel sorry for this highly educated person. Please.

[Atlanta_BD]

Has CTA been so drastically cut that the buses run like very 30 mins to an hour? If you miss a bus do you have to wait an hour? The red lime repairs finished in Oct. Are they single tracking on the red line, running trains every 20-30 mins? When I look at current schedules the trains run every 10 mins max starting at 3 am. I'm just not getting it somewhere.

[Kamms]

Well maybe next, since we have Obama phones, we'll see Obama cars.

[ChicagoMeO]

What i'd like to know is approx where her trip begins. I can believe she has a bus that runs every 30 minutes at 4:00 a.m.

I was putting in some possible street intersections from the southwest side to the north side, and i put in start now, and the CTA Trip planner gave it a 5 hour trip.. (leaving sunday evening at 7:30 pm)

[MoItaly]

I don't live in Chicago, just take my vacation there whenever I can. On my Samsung galaxy I have a Chicago folder, that besides guides, contains: fastCta, Ride Chicago and Transit Tracks. 3 Free apps to check buses and trains schedule. And this woman living in Chicago can't do the same??

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

What i'd like to know is approx where her trip begins. I can believe she has a bus that runs every 30 minutes at 4:00 a.m.

I was putting in some possible street intersections from the southwest side to the north side, and i put in start now, and the CTA Trip planner gave it a 5 hour trip.. (leaving sunday evening at 7:30 pm)

I traveled from the southwest side north only a daily basis on CTA for years. None of my trips ever took that long. Was never late to any place I had to be because of CTA--and I never timed a thing.

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

They should now write an article about the 100s of 1,000s that have a short and simple commute on the CTA.

Great point. For all the hell the CTA catches, it's one of the better mass transit systems in the country. Not only is it cheap ($2.50 and you can get anywhere), but it branches far and wide.

One of the things I miss since leaving Chicago is the ability to take the train, ride a bike, cab or walk to just about anywhere for anything I need in the city.

In addition, consider the source...NPR.

[chet everett]

This continues to provide endless amusement -- what now NPR is guilty of not being adequately supportive of the gloriousness of Urban Mass Transit? Get real. They did one of their predictable "oh how hard the poor have it" sob stories and it no doubt shows a lot about the gaps there are when trying to live someplace cheap, work someplace far away without a car, try to also have a schedule that allows one to take night classes, and otherwise live the quasi-academic liberal "dream" that no doubt appeals to many of their listeners...

Don't get me wrong I know there are tens of thousand of people that do rely on mass transit in the region and don't merit any sob stories but to assume that every media outlet has to be a happy joyful source of urban life propaganda is an awfully narrow view of things, don't you think?