Double Checking Your Trips

I've seen a lot of people take some pretty silly routes at the suggestion of the CTA Trip Planner. You need to really make sure that your route makes the most sense of all your options. You also need to give ample consideration to whether or not the subway alone is your best option. Buses can be pretty useful in Chicago. One of the easiest and often most overlooked solutions to your route is the very intuitive GRID system in Chicago.

You need to first understand how Chicago's addressing and grid system is laid out. When most of Chicago burned down in 1871, it was a planner's dream and as a result, Chicago today is a very well laid out grid. In fact, it is better planned an laid out than most people realize. The addressing system is based on there being 8 standard city blocks per mile (or a range of 800 addresses). The center point of the addressing system can be found at State St (N/S street demarking 0 E/W) and Madison Ave (E/W Street demarking 0 N/S).

There are major streets spaced apart on the half-mile are going to be the crux of what I'm about to lay out here. For a listing of these streets, go to: Major Chicago Streets

Typically, the CTA Trip Planner will give you some pretty weird combinations to take and for some reason it overlooks the fact that just about every major street in Chicago has its own bus line. In most circumstances, this means you will have under a 1/2 mile walk to or from the stop on either end if you simply jump on the nearest north/south bus on one of these major streets and take it to the next east/west bus that will land you closest to your destination. Basically, you should be able to arrive almost anywhere in the city using just 2 buses.