Field Guide to Public Transportation

Vol. 222

Connecting people and places together, public transportation is often the heartbeat of many cities, getting people where they need to go. It’s also a great way to understand a city and get a feel for its character. From jam packed train cars in Tokyo to unique taxi experiences in Mexico City, this week’s Field Guide is dedicated to the buses, subways, boats and trains that take people around cities all over the world. We begin with Carlo Rotella’s “Crossing Chicago” from our latest guide on Chicago.

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Crossing Chicago

By Carlo Rotella

The city of Chicago is roughly 25 miles long and 15 wide. The Chicago Transit Authority, the nation’s second-largest public transportation system, operates 1,864 buses on 129 routes and 1,492 railcars on 224 miles of track, including 35 miles of elevated—El—structures. The regional Metra network operates another 840 railcars on 1,155 miles of track, having absorbed remnants of storied railroads such as the Union Pacific and Illinois Central. A record 919,704 flights arrived at or departed from O’Hare Airport in 2019, when it was the world’s busiest; another 232,084 passed through Midway. Driving a car, cozy in your own sovereign mobile microstate, you can pass through the city shielded and buffered from other lives and their consequences. On public transportation, it’s a different story.