One of the least enjoyable aspects of my job is the commute.  I have a 30+ mile drive everyday, and the direction I have to travel on the expressway that I would normally take is notoriously one of the worst routes in the Chicago area. 

Through some experimentation, I've been able to sidestreet my way to a "manageable" drive of about an hour in normal driving conditions.  Unfortunately, there is no way for me to take public transit and at least reclaim those 2 hours a day into reading, sleeping, or portable video game playing.

However, this article is a nice little reminder that it could be worse.  WHO does this?  Unbelievable.

Check out this artist's incredibly cool Photoshopped recreation of the Damen blue line stop.  Looks amazingly life-like! (Warning: Site may be VERY slow)

Found a map of all the urban rapid transit systems in North America.  Very cool, although a similar map of Europe would simply blow this one away.  Supposedly the systems are drawn to scale.  The map is posted at RadicalCartography.  Click it to view the full pdf.

[via Gothamist]

Just ran across Chicago Bloggers, a blog directory that organizes blogs according to their writer's proximity to CTA/Metra rail stations.  Looks like I'm one of 30 people living near the Loyola Red Line stop.  Kind of a cool experiment in social networking. 

While we're on the topic of transit, check out Chicago-L.org.  It's an excellent site dedicated to the history of public transportation in Chicago.  The transit nerd in me loves the fact that this site provide everything I ever wanted (and couldn't possibly care) to know about Chicago's beloved (and often despised) El system.

[via CTA Tattler]

Can hardly wait for the commute home tonight:

Cedar Rapids, Iowa (my parent's current town of residence) may have the coolest feature on any transit system in the country.  Looks like the Five Seasons Transportation system has recently added WiFi service to all their bus routes!  It would be pretty sweet to spend your morning commute reading the latest blogs and doing so without using a GPRS connected mobile phone.  Granted, my dad's 5 minute drive to the office wouldn't make it very worthwhile, but something like this could be very useful in a city like Chicago.  However, big props to CR for taking the initiative - I'm sure many will find it useful.

Could we be one step closer to eliminating the daily newspaper? 

[via Live From the Third Rail]