As is, I stand outside in my neighborhood at to catch a 7 am bus to take me to the Metra train station in suburbia, which takes me to Union Station, where I wait for another bus (when it's cold) that gets me nearer to the office. When it's not terrible, I'll make the 25-minute walk.
After the cuts, the bus from my subdivision to the station as well as Union Station to my office area will be gone. That means I either have to wake up (and make others get out of bed) at the crack of dawn to get a ride and walk the rest. I'll have to leave later, too, so someone will be able to pick me up when I finally get home. So my door-to-door time will go from 10 hours to something closer to 13.
This is the kind of stuff that kills the buzz I had over being a non-car commuter.
Wow! I admire you for making such a commute everyday. That's CRAZY!
ReplyDeleteI imagine (if I had a job that required going to ONE building instead of multiple houses) that if I attempted to use the mass-transit system in Richmond (VA) I would have much the same problem.
Maybe we should ask Europe for some advice - they seem to have the transit thing down.
Yikes!
ReplyDeleteI have a 7 minute drive to a place where I pay $0 for parking. And yet I still complain because I have to walk roughly a quarter mile to get from my car to my desk.
Yuck. At least here they don't cut the train lines. Infrequent service is a problem, but the routes themselves stay in use. Somehow, though, the MTA manages to steadily increase fares so that perhaps I'll soon be paying $22 to ride the train.
ReplyDeleteOUCH!!! My commute once added up to a 12hr day, cycle and train and I don't think I could do it again.
ReplyDeleteThat's just madness, we need to put out thinking caps on and make some kind of either hover board or teleporter thing!!! I'll get on that for you! Good luck.. winter is going to seem so much longer now.
Ah, leave it to the Illinois legislature. Why fund mass transportation? I mean, it was, like, 10 degrees in Illinois last week, so clearly this whole global warming thing IS A TOTAL SHAM. What we really need is an enforced "moment of silence" for our public schoolchildren to start their days on the right foot!
ReplyDeleteI heart Illinois.
yeah, and we're supposed to be a blue state.
ReplyDeletei'm totally putting in a preorder for that hoverboard/teleporter thing, aimless wanderer.
well, as long as it has heat.
That's a whole lotta commute. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteMy commute is 5 min by car to the train station, an hour of riding/sleeping on the train, then a 3 min walk across the street to work. If pressed, I can do the whole thing on foot, but that runs my day to 12.75 hours round-trip from 12.
ReplyDeleteI see people with bicycles and there is a place to store them on our train. Would that work for you?
Suddenly, I feel a lot better about the snow days when my commute doubles - to, like, an hour. (Still, an hour is a helluva long time to got 14.6 miles.)
ReplyDeletei would absolutely do the bicycle if they were permitted on the train during rush hours here. there just isn't room on the trains; they're packed and often people stake out seats on the steps or stand in the aisle. also, the weather would kind of be a factor.
ReplyDeleteyesterday the house passed the plan and the senate came one vote short. unfortunately, it calls for raising the sales tax and real estate transfer tax, so many people are against it. some other people are proposing tying the funding to gambling.
i just hope they come up with some kind of solution.