Oct 9, 2012

Chicago has good mass transportation +2

Assumptions:
  • Good means low cost, and high quality. Transportation includes parking. Not all transportation facilities are "public". For instance privately owned parking garages are part of the equation.
Reasons to agree:
  1. If you are lucky you can find parallel parking for free around Lincoln Park Zoo.
  2. Parking is $1.00 an hour, if you can find any, near Northerly Island. I drove there with 2 bikes in  my car, and my 7 year old son, and we rode to Millennium Park and back. 
  3. Kids ride the Metra free on the weekends. 
  4. The Water Tower Place Mall does parking validation. 
  5. It costs $7 per adult to ride to Chicago Union Station (week-end passes, kids ride free). From there you can walk to a number of places:
    1. Millennium Park. 
      1. In the summer, kids can play in the fountain. Bring towels, and a change of clothes. It is sort of white trash, but they can change in the bathrooms. 
      2. Each time you go down the kids will probably want to look at the bean, and get their photo taken.
      3. I should probably walk the whole park once. Their are some statues on the south end I have never seen. 
    2. Winter
      1. Kris Kringle Market Chicago 
    3. We walked, with 3 kids, and 2 strollers, all the way to the Hancock Building. It was a pretty long walk. When we got back to Navy Pear we took a water taxi bat to Union Station, to save our legs, and to make a train.
    Reasons to disagree:
    1. Sales tax is high in Chicago.
    2. It costs $20 at a minimum to park in Chicago. 
    3. It cost $7 for a weekend pass. So if you want to go in as a couple it costs $14 just to get there. 
    Score
    • Reasons to agree: +5
    • Reasons to agree: -3
    • Total: +2

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