Reply #17: American's are addicted to their cars, that's why. [View All]

[WillowTree]

Back when I was in high school, we still even had reasonably decent bus service in the Chicago suburbs. I could get off the school bus right at a regular bus stop and take that to my after-school job at the mall and catch another one to come back afterwards that dropped me off just a matter of blocks from home.

Later on, when I lived in the Western burbs and worked downtown, I didn't mind commuting by train at all. I had 30-40 minutes to just relax and let my brain wake-up on the ride down in the morning, would pick-up an abandoned newspaper as I got off the train, and then I could again relax and read that paper on the ride home and just kind of recharge. The best part was when I worked in a building that was built directly atop the underground part of Union Station. On days when the weather was really crummy, I could get on the train in the AM and never have to set foot outside again until I got back to DuPage County after work. It was a lousy job, but that was a nice perk, anyway.

Of course, back then, a monthly train pass from DuPage downtown was well under $50. I haven't checked the fares in years, but last time I did it was almost three times that much. Probably closer to $200 now. That would be a major bite for clerical and entry-level types and the more affordable El trains don't run out very far from the City, nor does the bus service. And I think the reason, as I said, is that we, as a society, have gotten too used to having our cars only a matter of feet away from us at all times. It doesn't seem to be a matter of governmental agencies not being willing to provide more generalized mass transportation service but the fact that when we had it, we didn't use it enough to make it worthwhile. And I really don't know how we would go about selling mass transit to Americans anymore. Sorry situation.