Heading to the first-floor vending machines helpless to resist the need for a Cheetos fix during lunch I took a turn for the curious into a room nearby and was surprised to find a bank of MTA bus and train timetable porn in a wall-mounted display case.
Looking them over in all their numerically ordered glory, sure enough I soon found a pamphlet for the No. 439 bus otherwise unknown to me that departs weekday mornings about every 40 minutes from Union Station and arrives at the Aviation Boulevard station where I normally would exit the Green Line about 90 minutes later — pretty much the same amount of time that’s involved with my bus-to-train-to-train adventures, but with only a third the hassle. The difference is I could bike it down to Union Station, load the bike up on the bus bike rack, grab a seat for a 7:30 a.m. departure and not have to get up until 8:50 a.m. wherein the bike and I would exit the Aviation Station for the half-mile roll to work. And instead of a $3 all-day pass I could make that roundtrip for just two $1.10 tokens. And get several miles of biking in. Dang. Sweet!
Yes, I am a mass-transpo geek.
I’m still committed to cycling the entire there-and-back tomorrow, but I just love having alternatives.