[bonestamp2]

> This is only benefitting people for whom 25 minutes is worth $20/$22.50.

This is not true for everyone though. Business travelers take cabs between the loop and o'hare. So, $25 is actually faster and cheaper -- so it's a great use of their money! Even if it was more expensive than a cab, most business travelers would happily spend a little more of someone else's (company) money to get there faster.

[ma2rten]

It would also benefit everyone else because there would be less congestion.

[dsfyu404ed]

The severity of congestion at peak demand is governed by what people will tolerate. The duration of congestion is what changes when you change capacity. Even if you doubled the amount of every form of transit overnight the severity of congestion at peak would quickly reach equilibrium at about the same level as before.

Peak demand for transit (road, rail, etc) will always exceed available supply as long as the population of people moving at peak is larger than the instantaneous capacity of your transit system. Adding more capacity will always help the overall situation because it shortens the length of the time the that demand is higher than supply.

It's like how course registration at universities tends to saturate the systems involved. Peak demands will always slow things to a crawl but additional capacity is beneficial because it shortens the time the service is degraded. Adding transit of any type doesn't make rush "hour" suck less, it makes rush hour shorter.

edit:rearranged to more clearly make my point

[gowld]

Your comment is more correct if you remove the "No."

"Less congestion" can mean either "shorter span of time" as you further explained, or "less congested at some time point".

The former should be what readers jump to, because "congestion" is nearly binary at a moment in time -- either traffic is flowing smoothly (1-2x optimal travel time) or it is clogged (>2x travel time). "Slightly clogged" isn't really an important case for travelers.

[neaden]

Cabs get you right to the address you want to go though. This will still have the last mile problem.

[bonestamp2]

That is a good point, but they're less reliable during rush hour. I could see people taking this to the loop and then walking to their address if they're close, otherwise grabbing a short cab or uber from there.

[RobLach]

For business travelers in Chicago the last mile problem from the middle of the loop is at worst a 10 minute walk.

[paulie_a]

Cabs in Chicago also are incredibly terrible with rude drivers. Uber is definitely a better option.

[selectodude]

That's substantially less of an issue in a dense urban environment like Chicago.

[gowld]

How is walking half a mile with luggage less of an issue?

[Turing_Machine]

If that's a problem, you just grab a relatively* cheap cab or Uber/Lyft from where you are to the Boring station.

* "Relatively cheap" compared to taking the cab all the way to O'Hare.

[selectodude]

I don't know, I do it all the time.

[martinald]

Easy to get a quick cab from the station though.