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When I was younger, I'd always be looking for ways to do things cheap. The CTA Blue Line: $2.25 to the airport and $5.00 back to the loop? What a deal! But now

by wenc 8y ago

When I was younger, I'd always be looking for ways to do things cheap. The CTA Blue Line: $2.25 to the airport and $5.00 back to the loop? What a deal! But now that I'm older, I'd rather pay more to reduce the agony if I could. It's just me. The CTA Blue Line to O'Hare for me is an uncomfortable 40 minutes. Uncomfortable because there's no room for a suitcase and you feel like a douche if you put on the seat next to you. It's a boring 40 minutes. You can't sleep because it's never a good idea to nap on the CTA. I guess you can do stuff on your phone (cell signals are good) but I'm not big on that. That said, I still take the Blue Line to the airport. Because during rush hour, it's the only game in town.

tcbawo 8y ago
From their project page, the trip will take about 12 minutes and cost half that of a tax. So, that probably means ~$20.
- cozzyd 8y ago
  The Tribune article claims $20-25: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-ohare-high-speed-transit-elon-musk-boring-company-20180613-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-oha...
nwatson 8y ago
A tale about "saving money" on transportation (and parking) ... I used to live in San Mateo, CA near 92 / Hillsdale (up in the hills between US-101 and I-280). My wife, daughter, and I would fly out of SFO Airport to Arizona or North Carolina frequently. Rather than paying for a taxi or for on- or near-airport parking (Uber/Lyft wasn't a thing yet) we'd opt to take the SamTrans bus from Belmont -- the service was good, on-time per schedule, and cost $2 per adult each way, meaning we could be away for a week or two and pay just $8 round-trip to/from airport. The minor catch was where to park our car in Belmont while we were away. There was plenty of parking about two or three blocks away from the bus stop (Belmont Caltrain) in places not directly in front of any houses or condos. We took seven or eight such trips ... no problem! ... till it was a problem. After one almost-three-week trip we got back to the airport and then went on to Belmont -- CAR WAS MISSING. So we figured the car had been stolen or towed. I called the police to see which, and they confirmed the car had been reported as "abandoned" and impounded. Apparently Belmont (and perhaps other municipalities) have a 72-hour law for cars parked on public roads. You must "move your car" every 72 hours, or else risk somebody reporting your vehicle as abandoned. We must have taken somebody's favorite parking spot. Total monetary damage, with city fees, towing fees, storage fees, our cut of the towing-and-storage-company's side-kickback to a city government official ... all came out to about $800. I figure across all our trips we probably ended up with a net loss compared to taxi-or-airport-parking.
- cozzyd 8y ago
  Many municipalities have such rules (the public streets are not meant for "storage" of vehicles). In some places they are even enforced!
- mmt 8y ago
  > perhaps other municipalities) have a 72-hour law This is harmonized by state law, CVC 22651(k). It's probably safe to assume every city and county (which therefore means the whole state, excepting federal reservations) has such a local law.
overcast 8y ago
40 minutes is a perfect amount of time to catch up on a tv series episode

by wenc 8y ago

tcbawo 8y ago

From their project page, the trip will take about 12 minutes and cost half that of a tax. So, that probably means ~$20.

cozzyd 8y ago
The Tribune article claims $20-25: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-ohare-high-speed-transit-elon-musk-boring-company-20180613-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-oha...

nwatson 8y ago

A tale about "saving money" on transportation (and parking) ... I used to live in San Mateo, CA near 92 / Hillsdale (up in the hills between US-101 and I-280). My wife, daughter, and I would fly out of SFO Airport to Arizona or North Carolina frequently. Rather than paying for a taxi or for on- or near-airport parking (Uber/Lyft wasn't a thing yet) we'd opt to take the SamTrans bus from Belmont -- the service was good, on-time per schedule, and cost $2 per adult each way, meaning we could be away for a week or two and pay just $8 round-trip to/from airport. The minor catch was where to park our car in Belmont while we were away. There was plenty of parking about two or three blocks away from the bus stop (Belmont Caltrain) in places not directly in front of any houses or condos. We took seven or eight such trips ... no problem! ... till it was a problem. After one almost-three-week trip we got back to the airport and then went on to Belmont -- CAR WAS MISSING. So we figured the car had been stolen or towed. I called the police to see which, and they confirmed the car had been reported as "abandoned" and impounded. Apparently Belmont (and perhaps other municipalities) have a 72-hour law for cars parked on public roads. You must "move your car" every 72 hours, or else risk somebody reporting your vehicle as abandoned. We must have taken somebody's favorite parking spot. Total monetary damage, with city fees, towing fees, storage fees, our cut of the towing-and-storage-company's side-kickback to a city government official ... all came out to about $800. I figure across all our trips we probably ended up with a net loss compared to taxi-or-airport-parking.

cozzyd 8y ago
Many municipalities have such rules (the public streets are not meant for "storage" of vehicles). In some places they are even enforced!
mmt 8y ago
> perhaps other municipalities) have a 72-hour law This is harmonized by state law, CVC 22651(k). It's probably safe to assume every city and county (which therefore means the whole state, excepting federal reservations) has such a local law.

overcast 8y ago

40 minutes is a perfect amount of time to catch up on a tv series episode