[yapc] CTA travel this weekend

[Walt Mankowski]

On Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 02:03:59PM -0700, David E. Wheeler wrote:
> On Jun 14, 2008, at 13:58, Walt Mankowski wrote:
>
>> One other comment on the CTA at O'Hare.  There are two types of
>> farecard machines there -- one dispenses visitor passes, the other
>> type the normal pay-as-you-go cards.  The visitor card machines (which
>> probably most folks will be getting, if they haven't preordered them)
>> take credit cards.  However, the other ones (which I wanted to get)
>> only take cash.
>
> Any recommendations on what card to buy? What would I be likely to use  
> it for?

Well, the nice thing about the visitor card is that you pay one price
and use it for n days (where n is 1, 2, 3 or 5).  Alternatively you
can get a normal fare card, put some money on it, and have it deduct
from the card every time you ride.

Places you might want to use it are:

a) back and forth from the airport
b) to the pre-conference dinner Sunday night
c) to dinner Monday or Wednesday night
d) any touristy things you might want to do

A 5 day card is $18.  Otherwise it's a base fare of $2/ride, with a
complex system of discounts described at
http://www.transitchicago.com/maps/fares.html

If you're going to be here 5 days or less (say, Sunday to Thursday)
it's probably easiest to just get a visitor pass.  The main reason I
didn't get one is that I'm going to be here 6 days, so I'd have had to
get another card anyway.

Walt