Subject:
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Re: Fun with Sacajewea [kind of long]
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Fri, 4 Feb 2000 14:51:49 GMT
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Reply-To:
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[lpieniazek@novera]Spamless[.com]
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Viewed:
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337 times
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Frank Filz wrote:
>
> Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> > However, I'll stack my CTA card against coins any day if I'm riding the
> > Chicago subways, ditto for my BART card, ditto for my Washington Metro
> > card, all of which I have in my computer bag at all times, just in case.
> > I wish Boston used cards too... those T tokens rattle around in my bag
> > and weigh it down a lot more than a card does.
>
> Of course the T does use cards for monthly passes. It is also possible
> to get a "visitor's" pass which is for a shorter timeframe (may just be
> a week, not sure what the options are). When our church youth group
> visited Boston last year (our denomination headquarters is in Boston so
> it's sort of a pilgrimage for the kids), they got the passes (usefull in
> that situation also because we didn't have to worry about the kids
> spending their transportation money, in addition to the fact that it
> saved money).
Yes but... I don't want a pass. A pass is a fixed time all you can eat
thing. My schedule is too irregular to make a pass a good idea for me.
(well, maybe a LIFETIME pass??) What I want is a stored value mechanism
that's lighter to carry than tokens. The CTA card is a faster way to get
on the CTA than feeding bills into the machine and getting a token. If
the CTA didn't have the CTA card, I'd carry tokens. Why am I interested
in speed? Because sometimes seconds count.
If some client has been sharing his or her views in a very productive
meeting, I am going to shave my return time if I can rather than leaving
and missing out on good stuff, and sometimes those seconds I save at the
turnstiles mean the difference between making and missing a particular
train, which, at the O'Hare end, can mean the difference between making
and missing a particular flight.
When time is very very tight, I will get on the last car at the down
town end, and work my way up the cars, one car at a time, at station
stops. (timed right, even the shortest stop will allow you to duck out
of the end door of one car and into the closest end door at the other,
but it requires planning... be up and in front of the door FIRST if the
car is crowded)
That means that when we roll into OHare, I am the FIRST person off the
train and can sprint up the escalator and be on the slideway before some
people have even collected their thoughts, much less their luggage. That
can be a 10 minute difference during rush hour, and that 10 minutes can
mean the difference between making it into first class or having to ride
in back with the unwashed if I was waitlisted (if you're waitlisted they
won't clear it over the phone, you have to go to the gate, although you
can call NWA gold to get the gate assignment, which saves a few seconds
of hunting for your city on the monitors when you get to the NW gate
area).
I don't usually cut it that close on the T but I have sometimes blown 5
min because I ran out of tokens and wasn't prepared to buy them when I
got to the station.
--
Larry Pieniazek - larryp@novera.com - http://my.voyager.net/lar
http://www.mercator.com. Mercator, the e-business transformation company
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to lugnet.
Note: this is a family forum!
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Fun with Sacajewea [kind of long]
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| (...) Of course the T does use cards for monthly passes. It is also possible to get a "visitor's" pass which is for a shorter timeframe (may just be a week, not sure what the options are). When our church youth group visited Boston last year (our (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-00, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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