My son traveled to Chicago this past week.

Of course, he flew. He was scheduled to leave LaGuardia at 2:30 p.m. ET and get to O’Hare at 3:30 p.m. If all went well, he would reach his accommodations just south of the Loop by 5 p.m., 6 at the latest.

Yeah, right.

The travel gods aligned perfectly against him. There was bad weather in both New York and Chicago – and probably somewhere in the 800 miles along the way.

Also, would it shock to learn that during our peak travel season there is a shortage of air traffic controllers? I didn’t think so. 

Chalk another one up for the kakistocracy that holds this nation’s highest offices. The only thing they’re good at concerning airports is loading their scaredy cat leader into a catering truck when there’s a threat against Air Force One. 

There was a delay boarding my son’s plane. Then it taxied from the gate. Then it waited on the tarmac. After about three hours, it returned to the gate. Then it deboarded. Then the passengers got back aboard. 

Eventually, at about 9 p.m. ET, the flight took off. He arrived at his accommodation shortly after 11 p.m. CT.

This long-winded story points to a problem we’ve discussed before. The lack of imagination when it comes to transportation in the United States.

On paper, flying to Chicago takes two hours. LaGuardia or Newark or JFK to O’Hare or Midway.

But that does not include the following: Up to two hours of commuting to the airports; baggage delays; weather delays, congestion at each airport.

Flying is usually an all-day thing unless you fly really early in the morning – and even then there’s no guarantee.

But what’s the option? 

It takes, without stopping, 12-1/2 hours to drive to Chicago. You’re going to need gas. You’re going to need food and drink. You’re going to need the bathroom at least once, if not 10 times. And it’s not particularly good to drive unless one or more other people grab turns behind the wheel.

So that would leave a train. 

Amtrak does, in fact, run trains behind Penn Station in New York and Union Station in Chicago. But here’s the weird part: It takes longer to get to Chicago by train than it does to get there by car. In fact, it almost twice as long – about 23 hours.

And it’s not cheaper than flying. Something between $300 and $400 to sit in a coach for 23 hours. It’s about $2,000 to get a sleeper.

I did it once in college. I swore I’d never do it again. I’ve kept my word.

Now, if we were in western Europe or eastern Asia, the train would be more than a viable option – it would be the preferred route.

With the kind of high-speed trains that can be found in those portions of the world, it would take about four hours from downtown NYC to downtown Chicagoland. Which is about what it takes to fly right now.

Then, there are things we haven’t thought of or researched. There have been no new ways to travel on this planet since the Wright Brothers flew 17 feet at Kitty Hawk. By contrast, I can make a free video call to Beijing without more than a few seconds of effort.

This country has just never had the will or, as I said before, imagination to conjure alternatives to the entrenched existing modes of transportation. 

The arguments are always it costs too much to build and no one would use it.

I think that’s crap. Give people something different that’s better than what they have and they’ll do it. Monorails, magnetic levitation, vacuum technology. Use some imagination. Also some ideas that combat a warming world.

Otherwise, it’s only going to get worse. We can’t build or rebuild airports at a fast-enough rate to accommodate a population with wanderlust – or just a desire to get the kids to Disneyland.

I’m afraid to fly – and not for the reason most people would give. I just can’t take the hassle. It’s exhausting. I know that once I’m through with a flight or flights, I’m going to need a couple of days to recuperate.

So stop it. Find better ways to get people from here to there. I don’t hold out much hope that the current administration will do anything that doesn’t benefit themselves or their donors. But at least let’s think about it.

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