Without your U-Pass, you might feel like you’re stranded in your apartment this summer. Hopefully with a few tools we can remedy that situation.
1. Use the CTA’s many resources.
The website itself, http://www.transitchicago.com/, is completely full of helpful advice including information on closures/reroutes and links to their apps. Two things I use regularly on my smartphone- train tracker, I just have it bookmarked on my phone, (http://www.transitchicago.com/traintracker/) but you could use an app instead, and bus tracker, which I use both the web and text versions (http://www.ctabustracker.com/bustime/home.jsp.)
2.Car sharing: i-Go/Zip cars
i-go (http://www.igocars.org/) cars are parked throughout the city and great if you just need to make a few random day trips. Columbia even participates in their University and College program, when you sign up you can get a discount: http://www.igocars.org/!
Zipcar (http://www.zipcar.com/) is a similar car sharing business and they also have a University discount program: http://www.zipcar.com/universities/.
3. Bike!
Chicago is a very bike friendly city, get you wheels tuned up, grab a helmet and check out some of these resources. Google will map the best route for you to take on your bike if you need some help with directions. For example, I mapped a route from Columbia College to Wrigley field, and here is a link to the suggested route: http://g.co/maps/nuwwe. The CTA is also very bike friendly and if you need to you can bring you bike on a train during certain hours, or on a bus at any time (http://www.transitchicago.com/bikeandride/). The chainlink is a Chicago-specific bike community with tons of info about biking in Chicago, if you sign up, their weekly email updates are great to keep an eye out for Chicagoland bike tours and events (http://www.thechainlink.org/). And last but not least, Chicago’s Bike to Work Week takes place June 11-15, but the event is kicked off on June 9th. Here are two sites to get your fill of information about Bike to Work Week: http://www.activetrans.org/bikepitstops and http://ow.ly/aV9cr.
