An interesting juxtaposition of The Urbanophile's entry with this Tribune article. I highly encourage everyone to read them together.
Chicago needs a transit constituency that's more than a bunch of CTA-dependent poor folks and idealists who know way more than they should about transit issues.
I place some of the blame on ridiculous and insane RTA infighting, which has directly or indirectly greatly reduced the usefulness and visibility of the transit system in Chicago.
There's also a severe marketing problem. Metra's website design is juniorized and outdated, and they continue to cling to this small-town, exclusive commuter mentality. Just look at their newsletter - the most recent one contains a complaint about a specific Metra passenger who chews her nails, and then a
rebuttal complaint from that passenger.
Meanwhile, Pace seems to occupy no significant place in the lives of all but the poorest suburbanites. I've met many people who weren't even aware that it existed. They, too, need to do a better job of marketing themselves. Maybe if they introduced a few express routes along high-traffic corridors, and then launched an ad blitz?
To this date, I have never seen a TV commercial advertising Metra. Both Metra and Pace run radio ads, but Pace's ads focus exclusively on their Wrigley Field-Schaumburg bus.
