It looks like I’m not the only one avoiding the el. The Chicago Tribune reports today that commuters are shifting their travel patterns to avoid “three-tracking,” which is cutting back service on the Red, Brown and Purple lines.
My radical plan for a CTA-free summer has already hit the wall – the weather, as you may have noticed, has been anything but summery. Fearful of riding my bike in snow, I’ve taken two CTA bus trips in the last week, both of them frustrating. One bus could barely make headway along Clark Street because three other CTA buses were jamming up the road. On my second trip, an odd gassy smell – like my oven on the fritz – filled the bus. The driver tried heroically to open some windows, but not many of them would budge. Eventually she ended up pulling over. I took a cab the rest of the way.