When Noel Harvey moved from Roscoe Village to Avalon Park during the holidays, he had an extra jingle in his step.
Harvey, 23, had been riding the CTA No. 50-Damen bus to commute to his sales job in North Center on the North Side, but he traded his $100, 30-day CTA pass for a set of car keys when he moved from the North Side to the South Side to live with his parents.
Though Harvey said he is saving rent money, he spends about $600 each month paying for his Volkswagen Jetta and its insurance and gas. The alternative would be a train and bus ride to get to work each day, he said, adding that he has safety concerns about the CTA 87th Street Red Line stop near his South Side home.
"For me, it's a lot easier for me to just drive than to wait for buses or trains. Sometimes the CTA is a little unreliable," Harvey said.
By many measures, Millennials are driving less than older generations, but Census figures show the commuting habits of Chicago-area 20-somethings haven't that changed much in 20 years: Driving is still the most popular way Millennials get to work.
A recent Census analysis found that 75.9 percent of residents in the Chicago area ages 18-34 said they drove or carpooled to work from 2009-2013, down from 78.3 percent in 2000 and 76.9 percent in 1990.
Millennials, loosely defined as people born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, who drive to work are one of the groups that the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the finances of CTA, Metra and the suburban Pace bus system, is targeting with a new $5 million ad campaign that uses humor to encourage transit riding.
Yet despite the cost of maintaining a car, high parking rates, notoriously bad Chicago traffic and expansion in transit services, some Chicago Millennials told RedEye they won't give up their wheels because public transportation is not convenient for them and they don't want to rely on someone else to get them from point A to point B.
Many studies show that while driving is a top choice for Millennials to get around, it is becoming less trendy each year.
Between 2001 and 2009, the average number of miles driven by Americans between the ages of 16 to 34 dropped by 23 percent from 10,300 miles to 7,900 miles per capita, according to research cited in an October report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer group, and Frontier Group, a research firm.
The groups found that Millennials increasingly prefer living in walkable communities, they're using new technology such as Uber and Lyft ride-hailing services to get around and they're getting married and having kids later than previous generations so there's less need for a car.
But the lack of access to rail routes and infrequent, inconvenient bus service still makes driving an attractive option to some Millennials, said Tony Dutzik, a Frontier Group senior policy analyst who co-authored the report.
The RTA is hoping to change that attitude with last month's launch of its $5 million print and TV marketing campaign to reach Chicago-area residents who drive to work.
One RTA ad has a picture of a young person holding a hot dog with mustard with the phrase "Try the Chicago-style dogs. Skip the Chicago-style traffic." Chicago ranks eighth in the country in an annual study of most traffic-congested cities by Texas A&M University's Transportation Institute.
Stefanie Korzyniewski, 30, said she doesn't mind Chicago traffic.
Korzyniewski, who lives in Garfield Ridge on the Southwest Side, said she pretty much drives everywhere despite living near the No. 62-Archer bus route and the Orange Line. Her 32-year-old husband also has a car that he drives to work in the south suburbs.
On weekdays, Korzyniewski avoids the No. 62 bus and instead drives to the Pulaski Orange Line stop on the Southwest Side and pays $5 to park there. She then rides the train to the South Loop for work. The only reason she rides the train, she said, is because the family she nannies for pays for her Ventra card.
"I think if I moved into the city more, I would probably be more likely to start using public transportation more," Korzyniewski said. "I think the area where I'm at, it's just easier to drive everywhere."
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