Lifetecture

Thinking a lot about wheels lately. Yesterday I needed to go to Hyde Park and when I looked at the Public Transit directions on Google Maps, the estimated time to take two buses was 1.25 hours. I thought about taking the Pink Line to the Green Line, so at least I could go through the Rem Koolhaus tunnel at IIT…so I rode my two wheels over to the station at 18th Street. It was steamy outside. I was a sweaty mess from my five-minute cycle. There was a four-wheeled option parked right at the station: the I-Go car. It’s an extravagance for me in my current position as part-time consultant, but I decided to splurge knowing that I was running late and the four wheels would would shave a huge amount off my travel time.

I booked the Civic Hybrid car through the phone and used the swipe card to gain access to the gloriously air-conditioned interior. Phew – it was a relief to have my own autonomous wheels, even if they were borrowed. I drove South heading down Ashland to find my way onto the Dan Ryan Expressway. Because I’m so used to the bike routes through town I realized I didn’t know how to get onto to the spaghetti junctions spiralling above me. I took Halsted down to 31st Street where I hoped I could access the freeway on-ramp. Once on that road it was less than 10 minutes to get all the way down to 63rd Street. Even with my roundabout route I made it down in less than half an hour.

I live in Chicago as a proud non-car-owner…usually. Looks like I didn’t even know what I was missing. Even with the cost of gas skyrocketing, what bus or train can compete with the cut in time my car journey afforded me? The good thing about I-Go is that you pay hourly for everything, including gas. Works out about $10 an hour and gosh was it worth it. On the way back, after a leisurely drive past the mansions of Kenwood, including a glimpse at the Obama’s with the requisite black security vehicle outside, I found the correct combination of freeways and made it back to Pilsen in 20 minutes flat.

What did Mayor Richard J. Daley do when he laid in those infrastructural lines? In addition to parceling out the neighborhoods in Chicago according to ethnic variety, he made it impossible to walk or travel easily from one to another except by car. Every other permutation of journey involves a trip through the Loop. Something will really have to change before folks will want to get out of their cars. Riding the bus here involves a practice of active meditation and no hurry. I wonder if the street cars that used to ring the city will ever come back? No one in Dublin ever thought they would, but now the Luas, or light rail trams are the most used form of transit in town. If cell-phones and texting are anything to go by, Chicago may follow that European example next.