I get around

Well, sort of. I've noticed that getting from place to place in this city can at times be incredibly easy and at other times be incredibly difficult. There are just too many options - walking, L train, cab, driving, biking, etc. In Detroit you only had one choice to get somewhere. You drove. Detroit doesn't have a very well developed public transportation infrastructure. This was mostly the result of a cultural phenomenon stemming from the fact that it's the "Motor City".

So, now I need change the whole way that I think about traveling. Here are a few of the options available and my take on them:

"L" Train and Buses

Inside the city, I'm fond of taking the "L". The tracks and stations are pretty easy to locate, and they (mostly) all have system maps posted, so its easy to figure out where you're going and where you need to transfer.

I find this to be in rather sharp contrast to the bus system. I can't ever find a stop. When I do, I don't ever know what route the bus that I'm waiting for runs and there isn't ever any clear way to find out while I'm riding. However, the bus will take you nearly anywhere in the city whereas the L will not. The farther away you get from "the loop" of the L (the middle part of downtown, where the trains go in a loop) the more likely it is that you're going to end up needing a bus ride to get where you're going.

The buses and the "L" are both run by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). A ride on either will cost you approximately $2 - although this is another thing that I have yet to figure out completely. I think bus rides might cost $1.75 and a ride on the L costs $2. I believe I've read something about transfers available for $0.25, but I think that might only be if you're going from the "L" to the bus, not the other way around. The point is that I have no idea how this works, or how to figure it out.

Knowing when the bus is going to arrive is extremely helpful. The CTA Bustracker is useful for figuring out how long you have to stand on the corner. One nice aspect is that there is a text-only feature that can be used with a web enabled phone. I've got a Blackjack II and I find it works pretty well.

One of my major gripes with the whole thing is that there are not any portable system maps available anywhere that I can find. They're not on the trains, the buses, or the stations. This results in me spending a lot of time staring at the maps on the train and station walls, which may or may not make me look more "tourist-y" than if I was walking around with a system map anyway. Another problem that I have is that even when I do know what train or bus I want to take, I don't know what the optimal stop to get off is. The best solution that I've found to this is Google Maps Mobile for my phone, which shows bus and train stops on the map, but not the system itself.

To complicate things even further, not all buses and trains run all the time, and not always on the same schedule. Make sure to check the bus schedule or train schedule before using them.

Other Trains

Speaking of complicating things, there are three different companies that run passenger trains in the greater Chicago area. The CTA runs the "L", which I've already talked about. Amrak handles long-haul travel (which I have yet to use but it seems to me that it costs roughly the same as a plane ticket and takes three times as long) and Metra manages (and I use that term loosely) short distance trains to and from the suburbs.

I take the Metra train to Naperville every day for work. The trains are often delayed, particularly in the evening when I want to get home as quickly as possible. It's extremely irritating. Passes are priced based on origin and destination and can be purchased in one-way, 10 ride, and monthly unlimited packs, which each carry a slightly larger discount over the previous. The train arrives and departs downtown at Union Station in the West Loop.

Driving

I've found that if you have a car, driving places is only beneficial if you know where you're going and that they have their own dedicated parking available. For example, I would drive to Target because I know there is an attached, free, parking structure. I wouldn't drive to the Art Institute because there isn't anywhere to park, so I'd end up paying $15 or $20 just to park the car somewhere. Also, when shopping, it's nice to just be able to load the groceries in the the trunk then unload them at home.

Cab

I've only taken a couple of cabs so far. They're usually easy to catch, they get you where you're going relatively quick, and you don't often have to wait long for one. On the downside, they can be expensive. It pains me to pay $12 for a ride that I know I could have gotten for $2 on the bus.

Walking

I have to admit that walking is my favorite option of them all. I get exercise, fresh air, and I get to explore the city more. Plus it's free. I've found a ton of great restaurants and stores that I want to visit while walking places too. So far I've been fortunate enough to really only have nice weather to walk in, if not a little bit hot. I may change my tune once I have to walk in the snow and rain.

Other Stuff (mostly for hippies or yuppies)

There are other ways to get around the city like biking (I don't really ride my bike) or Segway (seriously, I saw a guy riding a Segway to work one day) but I don't know much about them so I can't really tell you about the ins and outs or ups and downs. If I find out more, I'll post it. Also, if you have a Segway, let me ride it. I've always wanted to try one of those things.

An Introduction

My name is Doug and I'm a new guy in Chicago. For my whole life (save for a 6 year stint spent in East Lansing, MI while in school) I had lived in the metro Detroit area. Recently I finished my MBA at the University of Michigan and with that set out to find myself a new job.

The job that I found ended up being at a large company with an office in Naperville, IL. As my wife and I are not exactly part of the Naperville set, we decided to find a place in the city and I would make the daily commute.

My new job has me working in interactive marketing. I've never been a "digital marketing guy" so a lot of this is new to me. I recently attended ad:tech in Chicago and came to the realization that I was pretty disconnected from the whole social media scene. I'm not on MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter, I don't read blogs, and I certainly don't write one. I figured I'd better make a change and get involved and the best way that I could think to do that was to start this thing. So here it is.

I asked myself "self, what do you have to say that people would want to read?" The answer was easy - "nothing at all". So, instead I've decided to use this as a space to chronicle all of the things that I've learned and will no doubt continue to learn as I adjust to living in Chicago. My hope is that someday, somebody, somewhere, somehow might glean a little bit of useful information out of this to make their own transition a bit easier. Also, any pertinent Chicago-related information that people might have would be appreciated. Like I said, I'm new here.

So, with this post, I've entered a digital age that I've been fighting for some time now. I'm "that guy that blogs about stuff". Great.