Dollar van from the Orange Line got me to my Uptown lease signing in 9 minutes flat

Missed my 2pm appointment on Clark St when the Brown Line stalled, hopped on that unmarked van at Fullerton and the driver knew every shortcut, has anyone else found those dollar vans more reliable than the CTA for east-west moves?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_robin22d ago

That unmarked van at Fullerton" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, but honestly, the real hack might be that those drivers know which streets flood or get blocked before the city even updates the app.

the_thomas21d ago

Guy across the street from me drives for one of those apps and he says the same thing, they have a group chat that flags trouble spots way faster than any alert system. But the city's app does update pretty quick, usually within 15 minutes of the first report. So it's less about beating the app and more about knowing which side streets to avoid even when the map looks clear, which is a real thing but maybe not as mysterious as it sounds.