Can Mittens Solve Chicago Card's Cold Weather Woes?
By Olivia Leigh in Miscellaneous on Jan 25, 2007 8:50PM
Despite a preponderance of stories lately, we swear we’re not trying to become Chicago’s next knitting blog. We swear. However, when we caught sight of these handy mittens on CTA Tattler today, we just had to mention them.
Colleen Meagher, a Bostonian who runs the blog, Subway Knitter, developed some knitted mittens with a perfectly sized pocket to hold her Charlie Card (Boston’s equivalent of the Chicago Card/Chicago Card Plus). Ms. Meagher’s mittens are sadly not for sale; however, with a donation to the non-profit, Rosie’s Place, through her blog, you can enter yourself in a raffle to win a pair of custom-made mittens. If you're desperate for a mitten or glove to tote your card in, a quick search of Etsy led us to these promising fingerless pocket gloves, a nice choice for photographers or a certain breed of hipster.
After first hearing about the gloves this morning, we were quite excited, as we thought it might be an excellent way to keep both our cards and ourselves warm. Why keep the card warm, you ask? We’ve been having infinitely more trouble using our Chicago Card Plus on the bus ever since the weather took a turn for the worse, often having to try to re-scan the card for several stops. A discussion in the Chicagoist offices suggested that no one else had experienced such problems, and that RFID chips in the cards are built to withstand very cold temperatures.
However, a discussion on the Tattler suggests that many other people have had difficulty in the snowy, chilly weather we’ve been having, often blowing on the card or rubbing it in their hands to get it to warm up, as we’ve been instructed to do by passengers and drivers alike.
We’re glad to know we’re not the only ones having trouble with our card in cold temperatures, as standing at the front of the bus, holding up a line of rush hour commuters isn’t exactly the most ideal position to be in. What about you? Any trouble with the card in the cold? If so, are “card mittens” the solution?