Resolution #3 Update: Train vs. Car

Let's get this out there. I love driving. I started drawing cars on dot matrix printing paper that my dad brought home when I was probably three years old. Speed Racer was my favorite show as a kid. I study new cars and their specifications, performance, pricing and features every year. I read Automobile Magazine cover-to-cover each month, and I take my wife to the Chicago Auto Show every Valentine's Day (yes, romance is not dead). I love cars. I really do.

So, my recent decision to take the Metra to work has been somewhat emasculating. I don't get to row through the gears, punch the gas or hit an apex on a turn, anymore. I hop on the train with the other four hundred lemmings on the 7:20 each morning with my coffee, my iPod and my Evo 4G. It's disheartening, but oddly quite convenient. It takes me probably 45 minutes door-to-door and driving takes about as long. But with the insane construction on Lower Wacker these days, which probably adds another 15 minutes, along with the risk of blowing a flat tire and getting yelled at (again) by a construction worker for driving 17 mph instead of 15, it no longer seems worth it. Plus, you can't exactly exhibit road rage while on a train ("Go faster, dammit!), so it helps me with my resolution. I have time to read, time to think about life, time to figure out how to be a better man. Frankly, it calms my nerves. So, I guess we both benefit--me, and the general public, I mean. We'll see how this train thing goes over the next several weeks. Just don't let me turn into one of those people who has to have my seat and has to be the first one out the door. Road rage in the car is fairly anonymous. Train rage can be somewhat public.