According to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey "Chicago ranks second in the country for cities with 250,00 people or more with an average one-way commute time of 33.2 minutes. New York City clocks in first with 38.3 minutes."
This is not surprising to me considering Metra and CTA inefficiencies;
I live in Glen Ellyn which is in western suburb of the Chicago. My commute is about an hour each way. My daily commute is really time consuming but the most annoying thing is the delay time of the Metra trains. Sometimes if find myself at the station waiting for train which is 35 minutes late. Thank God I never missed class or test due to that delay. Last winter was my first winter and it was terrible, but commuting made it worse. I will never forget one Sunday in January when I was going to church early in the morning. It was around −5 °F, and train was 30 minutes late!!!I was freezing outside the station!
It said that some of the causes of such delay are heavy traffic, equipments not supplied on time, police activities etc...
Whatever the reasons are, I think our trains systems should be improved in terms of operations and infrastructure.
An average of commute time of 33.2 minutes is too high for us and actions should be taken to reduce it.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=15968&seenIt=1
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2 comments:
I'm not surprised we have one of the highest commuting times in the country. For those who drive, it's understandable. What I can't understand is why the public transit system also poses this problem? I often travel by bus, and certain stops have a CTA employee standing there, apparently marking the times buses pass by. I don't understand how this helps the system. The buses still bunch up, then create a very long wait for the next one. Why aren't these workers posted at the start of the line to ensure buses don't leave at the same time? This seems like it would be more effective at eliminating problems.
the funny thing is, metra usually sticks to its schedule with surgical precision. but last winter was particularly rough in terms of snowfall and cold snaps, neither of which are agreeable to 20-year-old diesel locomotives. though they ought to be replaced, i still give metra props. i rode the CTA Purple Line for 10 years and i know from unreliability. with this perspective i never complain.
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