Pyke: Public transit round trip took 5 hours
Progress! The last time I rode public transit from Downers Grove to the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights it was 2011 and the round trip took 6 hours.
Fast forward to 2016 and this mission was accomplished in a mere 5 hours, 10 minutes.
Of course, given that the same commute typically takes 30 to 45 minutes one way by car, it may not be such a quantum leap.
My odyssey, which involved two Metra trains, two CTA trains and two Pace buses, was triggered by last week's Dump the Pump Day. The annual rite encourages people to leave their cars in the driveway and embrace transit.
That's great if you're traveling from the collar counties to Chicago thanks to myriad Metra lines. It's a different story if you're trying to get from suburb to suburb.
“Good luck,” said Metra BNSF Line commuter Terry Eby as we waited for the train to the city.
Back in 2011, I took multiple Pace buses, traveling in a north-south direction between DuPage and Cook counties.
The morning of June 8, I used a counterintuitive route by going east to downtown with Metra, west by CTA out to the suburbs, grabbing a Pace bus north to work, and reversing the process in the afternoon. The result — a 14 percent reduction in time!
Despite this victory, why would any sane person take transit from suburb to suburb when driving is so much easier and faster?
As luck would have it, one man who could explain the conundrum boarded the train in Hinsdale, proving his claim he's a Metra regular.
“Historically, the way Chicagoland was laid out, especially in the western suburbs, north-south has been a problem in terms of transit,” Regional Transportation Authority Chairman Kirk Dillard said, as our train bounced along.
That problem is exacerbated these days with funding as scarce as TSA screeners, but progress is happening, transit boosters say.
In the absence of big money, the RTA is focusing on linking workers with jobs where transit gaps, known as the “last mile,” exist, Dillard and Executive Director Leanne Redden said.
Currently, the RTA is collaborating with DuPage County to improve transit to business centers along the Warrenville Road corridor in Lisle and Naperville and manufacturing and industrial centers in the Addison/Itasca/Wood Dale area.
“We're looking to be very targeted and data-driven,” Redden said, pointing to successful programs such as Lake County's popular Shuttle Bug bus service that transports people between Metra stations and corporate campuses.
There's also an opportunity to partner more with ride providers such as Uber and Lyft, Dillard thinks.
Meanwhile, Pace will debut new bus routes and three park-and-rides along the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) with connections to Randall Road, the Northwest Transportation Center in Schaumburg, the Rosemont CTA station and other destinations this year.
The agency also is adding service in DuPage, including a route linking downtown Naperville with Yorktown Center in Lombard that has started and a new Route 59 bus to be introduced by the end of the year.
“Pace works hard to meet the changing needs of our regional commuters with the resources we're given,” Chairman Richard Kwasneski said.
You should know
In the interest of full disclosure, my morning trip to work took 2 hours and 57 minutes taking Metra from Downers Grove to Union Station, the CTA's Blue Line from the Clark/Lake station to the Rosemont stop, and the Pace Route 606 bus to the newsroom.
Coming home was 2 hours and 13 minutes.
Why the difference? I saved about 30 minutes in the afternoon by catching an express train and wasted time in the morning buying coffee and fighting with the Ventra machine.
Got a commuting story? Drop me an email at mpyke@dailyherald.com.
Prevent heat deaths
Twelve children have died this year after being left in hot cars, the organization KidsAndCars.org has warned. It's a significant increase from 2015 when five fatalities had occurred as of June 13. The advocacy organization advises parents to put possessions such as a phone in the back seat as a reminder to check before leaving the car and to keep vehicles locked at all times so children cannot climb in unnoticed.
Gridlock alert
• Watch out for overnight closures on the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) starting this week as the Illinois tollway installs gantries for its new “smart corridor” that will offer digital updates on traffic conditions, construction, detours and crashes along with lane-specific information.
• If at all possible, avoid Highland Avenue at I-88/Butterfield Road in Lombard until September. Expect lane reductions as Highland is repaired for the next few weeks and a full closure of Highland later this summer. Work wraps up in the fall.