In general, I am pro Public Transit. Except when it is as unreliable, or more accurately, reliably crappy, as the CTA has been lately. I spent most of my "free time" yesterday in transit. And the majority of that time waiting. Because the only thing worse than being stuck on the CTA forever is waiting for it. Also crappy - their customer "help line". About the most helpful thing they could offer me was, "Get a car." No, seriously. That's what the operator told me when I told her that none of the buses she had quoted me were showing up.
After work, I had a couple of errands to run in the Loop. Then I waited 25 minutes for the 151. Which is ridiculous during rush-hour. I mean, if it was 5AM in the Loop instead of 5PM, I might understand the dearth of buses. I watched 3 of all the other buses slide by. And my iPod battery was dead. And I was hungry and dehydrated.
Got off the bus because I desperately needed water. So I had to drive up town to pick up a prescription. In traffic. Because it was the only chance I had to do this.
Drove home to park (because I really can't afford another damn ticket because I don't have the right permit) and get on another damn bus. This was also the 151. But contrary to what tripsweb said, neither of the 151s that passed at the appointed times were going all the way north. Grr. In case just dealing with CTA wasn't enough, it was making me late for a show. And they really shouldn't hold a house because I am late because the CTA sucks. And I also had the ticket for someone else. Not cool.
All in all, I spent 6 minutes at home between 4.30 (when I got off work) and 8PM (the show). All the rest was in transit. Mostly bus, some walking, some driving. And then I was surprised at how wiped out I was when I finally got home after 11. And just to be thorough, the 11 was 15 minutes late today (you can always tell because it fills up before you get off Lincoln).
It's never good news when the Cosmic Muffin teams up with the CTA. A match made in my personal hell.
on the iPod: "I'm So Excited" - Le Tigre
1 comment:
Hey, I was feeling particularly pissed after waiting half an hour for a bus (wanted 22, ended up taking a 36 since not a single 22 showed up between 5:40 and 6:10) to get home tonight, so I did a blog search on "CTA sucks". I can totally relate. It's taken me an hour or more to get from the loop to Lincoln Park the last two nights. I could have walked home faster! I almost called customer service while waiting tonight, but it sounds like it would have only pissed me off even more.
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