Commuter Pain

By Andrew Hayward

Few things in life are more widely reviled than the daily commute. An eight-hour workday is bad enough, but when bookended by sitting in endless traffic or squeezing into ancient train cars, it can seem like a recurring nightmare. But how many people can see their exact daily commute—that soul-sucking source of repeated misery—turned into a videogame?

My wife can, along with the many thousands of other Chicago residents who rely on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown Line. Twenty-eight stations spanning some 11.4 miles make up the Brown Line route, which begins in Albany Park on the far north side of the city and circles through the downtown Loop before returning north. Nearly 100,000 passengers take the CTA Brown Line every weekday, following the winding path back and forth for upwards of an hour each way.