After spending this past weekend in Chicago, I was intrigued to read in this weeks Friday Interview that
North Carolina?s traffic congestion could double
in the next couple of decades, with Charlotte drivers facing the same
types of delays Chicago drivers face now.
I’ve been in Charlotte many times throughout my life, and I’ve been to Chicago four times. In Charlotte I have experienced their traffic as I have in Chicago. And only this past time in Chicago did I use their train system.
It’s a mistake I don’t plan on repeating.
It took me the same amount of time to flying from Raleigh to Chicago as it did for me to get from the O’Hare station to Loyola University once I arrived in Chicago. About two hours.
This could easily be no surprise if these two destinations were separated by some distance, but they are not. In fact, they are both in Chicago.
I took the train to Loyola. When I left to return to the airport I decided to take a taxi instead. Following the speed limit, and running into a little bit of slow traffic, we made the drive in half an hour. Not two hours — half an hour. Thirty minutes.
A friend took a taxi another day from the airport to Loyola and in rush hour traffic traveled the distance in 45 minutes.
And trains are supposed to be the sensible option?
The train system was supposed to solve Chicago’s problems. Maybe people will argue that many take the train instead of driving. This may be true, but I’m more inclined to think that a number of fellow traveler’s didn’t know what they were getting into — people like me.
To tell the truth, the recurring thought on my (hopefully only) experience with Chicago’s trains was a sarcastic: “Man, I can’t wait ’till NC gets our own [train] system [like this]. It’ll save so much time!”
