Category: Info

Last May, I went back to Jakarta, the capital city of my home country Indonesia for the first time in eleven years. I was surprised to see the amazing development of the newly integrated system of Jakarta’s public transportation. I don’t know how to drive. Therefore, I always depend on public transportation wherever I go.

Compared to Chicago, I can say, I definitely choose public transportation over driving a private car in Jakarta. The integrated Busway and the commuter rail system can beat the traffic jam. That is the most important reason. Additionally, there are many options of public transportation there. We can choose two wheels (motorcyle taxi), three wheels (Bajaj), four wheels, small and big size of buses.

Another reason is, I enjoyed all the public facilities offered at many developed train stations. In a majority Muslims country, two public facilities that are needed the most are a clean bathroom and Mushalla, or small mosque for praying five times a day. It was great that we can find them easily at many Busway and train stations.

Beyond that, we can also find cell phone charging stations, Nursery Room, and restrooms for disabled. In some stations, they even equipped with a small free library and a green space.

Back to Chicago, I am happy to know that the City is working on revitalizing public transportation under CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) as part of the 2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan (CAP). One of the actions to improve air quality is to increase CTA ridership 20% by 2030. Will that be possible?

Understandably, Chicago has more challenges than Jakarta in order to motivate people to use public transportation. One major challenge for me is the extreme weather in summer and winter.

Another challenge is how slow the buses are running because there are too many stops. In Chicago, with limited options of public transportation, it takes longer time to reach the destination by CTA than by a car.

However, there are of course many advantages of using public transportation. We don’t have to worry about parking, insurance, permits, tax, etc. I also learn more about a place when I travel with public transportation.

For example, I recently took Metra to take me to Bemis Wood North, in Westchester, IL to attend Hiking Leadership Training. I fell in love with Western Spring village because the Metra station there is so clean, neat, and beautiful. In front of the station, there is a museum that becomes my goal of destination to visit one day. It also inspires me to create a plan of weekend gateway to visit all Metra stations in Illinois.

When I shared my experience on CMGT’s WhatsApp group, one of our community members, Amina Rahman also shared her experience without driving in the City. She wrote, “Where we lived in the city, we chose to have one car as a family. Alhamdulillah, I feel it was really great because it forced me to be more organized about food and other shopping. We mostly did that on the weekend except for occasional milk runs on the weekdays.”

As a mother, she would take the kids to activities, museums, millennium park, jumaa, and other places by stroller/walking and bus and trains. “It was great to get to know the layout of the city, get to know the neighborhoods/shops/people in different areas as you slow down instead of zooming past everything without paying attention. It also allowed us to explore things and stop along the way which we may not have done otherwise,” she said.

Her kids love riding the bus and train and even just looking around while they walk and ride the stroller. “As they got older, the bigger kids would bring scooters so they don’t get tired and the little ones rode in the double stroller. Having the double stroller helped to carry all the snacks, supplies and even the scooters when we went indoors. One of the best bonuses is the little ones would fall asleep at nap time and I could just when them into the house with the stroller without waking them to take them out of the car seat!” she added.

It’s a great story to share. I love to hear it!

Sometimes, it’s true that private car offers more comfort than public transportation, especially if you are not the driver. In a hot and humid Jakarta, many people prefer to be inside an Air Conditioned car all the time. It’s the same reason I prefer to be inside a warm car in a snow day, rather than waiting outside for the bus or train.

However, in the name of comfort we often sacrifice an opportunity to challenge ourselves, to learn new things about a place, to keep our options open to explore the world, and to contribute to a better air quality for the benefits of all .