Road meet question

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

Is Christmas break/Thanksgiving break a bad time for a Public Transit road meet?

[Rothman]

Schedule one and find out.

[Max Rockatansky]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

[Beltway]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

Underground should be ok. Of course if you want to see the Loop that will be aboveground.

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

I should have thought of that, I was thinking of my school and personal schedule as well as Chicago's non-peak tourism season.

[Max Rockatansky]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

I should have thought of that, I was thinking of my school and personal schedule as well as Chicago's non-peak tourism season.

Being real for a second.  Have you really thought this through? 

We once had a younger forum member in high school try to organize a meet in Jacksonville.  He got pretty far into plotting everything and several people even committed to going.  Thing was he didn't even talk to his parents and they nixed his participation once they caught wind of what was planned.  The sudden cancellation was really received poorly and the kid never was able to recover his credibility from it.

The above aside, I'm a former Chicago resident.  Late fall edging into the winter pretty unappealing for visiting the area.  You're also tempting an unexpected lake effect snow storm.

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

I should have thought of that, I was thinking of my school and personal schedule as well as Chicago's non-peak tourism season.

Being real for a second.  Have you really thought this through? 

We once had a younger forum member in high school try to organize a meet in Jacksonville.  He got pretty far into plotting everything and several people even committed to going.  Thing was he didn't even talk to his parents and they nixed his participation once they caught wind of what was planned. 

Well, Chicago is busy in the Summer, Christmas and Thanksgiving are bad days for a road meet, especially one centered around public transit, I have school on Columbus Day, Labor Day is too soon, is King Day or President's Day good enough for a road meet?

[Max Rockatansky]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

I should have thought of that, I was thinking of my school and personal schedule as well as Chicago's non-peak tourism season.

Being real for a second.  Have you really thought this through? 

We once had a younger forum member in high school try to organize a meet in Jacksonville.  He got pretty far into plotting everything and several people even committed to going.  Thing was he didn't even talk to his parents and they nixed his participation once they caught wind of what was planned. 

Well, Chicago is busy in the Summer, Christmas and Thanksgiving are bad days for a road meet, especially one centered around public transit, I have school on Columbus Day, Labor Day is too soon, is King Day or President's Day good enough for a road meet?

I'll take that as a "no" regarding what I just asked you. 

I'm not trying to be mean, but you aren't ready to host a meet.  You've barely even been on this forum and from what I can tell you have some growing up to do.  It probably would be a good idea to take a step back and learn how the hobby operates before you set yourself up for failure. 

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

I should have thought of that, I was thinking of my school and personal schedule as well as Chicago's non-peak tourism season.

Being real for a second.  Have you really thought this through? 

We once had a younger forum member in high school try to organize a meet in Jacksonville.  He got pretty far into plotting everything and several people even committed to going.  Thing was he didn't even talk to his parents and they nixed his participation once they caught wind of what was planned. 

Well, Chicago is busy in the Summer, Christmas and Thanksgiving are bad days for a road meet, especially one centered around public transit, I have school on Columbus Day, Labor Day is too soon, is King Day or President's Day good enough for a road meet?

I'll take that as a "no" regarding what I just asked you. 

I'm not trying to be mean, but you aren't ready to host a meet.  You've barely even been on this forum and from what I can tell you have some growing up to do.  It probably would be a good idea to take a step back and learn how the hobby operates before you set yourself up for failure. 

OK, but someone should one up.

[NE2]

Mario does enough of that.

[jeffandnicole]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

I should have thought of that, I was thinking of my school and personal schedule as well as Chicago's non-peak tourism season.

Being real for a second.  Have you really thought this through? 

We once had a younger forum member in high school try to organize a meet in Jacksonville.  He got pretty far into plotting everything and several people even committed to going.  Thing was he didn't even talk to his parents and they nixed his participation once they caught wind of what was planned. 

Well, Chicago is busy in the Summer, Christmas and Thanksgiving are bad days for a road meet, especially one centered around public transit, I have school on Columbus Day, Labor Day is too soon, is King Day or President's Day good enough for a road meet?

The weather should be divine on Kings Day or President's Day.

What's your beef against doing a meet in Chicago the summer? Expensive hotels?

[hotdogPi]

I actually like off-season trips myself. I know all of these were solo, but I went to Burlington VT on April 8, 2024 (eclipse day), Hartford CT on December 26, 2024 (luckily the temperature was in the 40s), and Toronto from February 4-10, 2026 (it was really cold even for Toronto, but no more than very light snow the entire time I was there; I was comfortable walking in 15°F/-10°C weather although some portions were colder than that).

That said, if it's a public transit meet, doing it on a holiday means reduced public transit service.

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

This is the Chicago area?  Not exactly the prime part of the year to do anything with the blustery weather.

I should have thought of that, I was thinking of my school and personal schedule as well as Chicago's non-peak tourism season.

Being real for a second.  Have you really thought this through? 

We once had a younger forum member in high school try to organize a meet in Jacksonville.  He got pretty far into plotting everything and several people even committed to going.  Thing was he didn't even talk to his parents and they nixed his participation once they caught wind of what was planned. 

Well, Chicago is busy in the Summer, Christmas and Thanksgiving are bad days for a road meet, especially one centered around public transit, I have school on Columbus Day, Labor Day is too soon, is King Day or President's Day good enough for a road meet?

The weather should be divine on Kings Day or President's Day.

What's your beef against doing a meet in Chicago the summer? Expensive hotels?

In Summer, Chicago public transit, especially the Blue Line (which will play an important role in the meet) is busier with all that O'Hare traffic during peak tourism season.

[kphoger]

Is Christmas break/Thanksgiving break a bad time for a Public Transit road meet?

Having personally lived in the Chicago area without a car, using public transportation extensively, my personal recommendation would be to not schedule anything later than October.  September and October are, in my opinion, the prime months for visiting the area, but anything after that is just too cold to expect people to be waiting at bus stops.

I'm not trying to be mean, but you aren't ready to host a meet.  You've barely even been on this forum and from what I can tell you have some growing up to do.

I agree.  However, it might work to partner up with a Chicago-area veteran and co-plan a meet, if someone were willing to help out.

OK, but someone should one up.

Wasn't there just recently a Chicago meet?  I'm not sure there'd be enough interest for another one so soon, even if the focus were different.

[Max Rockatansky]

Sometimes I ponder whether or not a road meet in San Francisco would be a good idea.  The city really empties out on the weekend which makes getting around (even by car) fairly easy.  It wouldn't be super difficult to arrange a meet up spot at Marin Headlands, take a car or two into the city via the Golden Gate Bridge and loop back.

What kind of held me back on San Francisco or rather knocks it down my priority list is public transit.  I'm not really a big transit enthusiast but I know there are people in the hobby that are.  I don't want to leave transit stuff out if there are people want see it.  Weather wouldn't be much of an issue given it is pretty consistently pleasant the entire year.  Certainly seems more of a prime winter meet location versus the Midwest (especially for one involving transit items).

[Rothman]

Sometimes I ponder whether or not a road meet in San Francisco would be a good idea.  The city really empties out on the weekend which makes getting around (even by car) fairly easy.  It wouldn't be super difficult to arrange a meet up spot at Marin Headlands, take a car or two into the city via the Golden Gate Bridge and loop back.

What kind of held me back on San Francisco or rather knocks it down my priority list is public transit.  I'm not really a big transit enthusiast but I know there are people in the hobby that are.  I don't want to leave transit stuff out if there are people want see it.  Weather wouldn't be much of an issue given it is pretty consistently pleasant the entire year.  Certainly seems more of a prime winter meet location versus the Midwest (especially for one involving transit items).

Meh.  As someone who lived in three different areas of the City itself (Richmond, Sunset and right near the Fillmore), caravanning around the City proper even with a couple of cars would be an absolute nightmare, even on weekends, if only because of the lack of parking (anyone with patience can handle traffic).

With enough patience, a MUNI day pass is serviceable, but I know a lot of people on here balk at tolls, so perhaps that would be out of the question as well.

[Max Rockatansky]

Sometimes I ponder whether or not a road meet in San Francisco would be a good idea.  The city really empties out on the weekend which makes getting around (even by car) fairly easy.  It wouldn't be super difficult to arrange a meet up spot at Marin Headlands, take a car or two into the city via the Golden Gate Bridge and loop back.

What kind of held me back on San Francisco or rather knocks it down my priority list is public transit.  I'm not really a big transit enthusiast but I know there are people in the hobby that are.  I don't want to leave transit stuff out if there are people want see it.  Weather wouldn't be much of an issue given it is pretty consistently pleasant the entire year.  Certainly seems more of a prime winter meet location versus the Midwest (especially for one involving transit items).

Meh.  As someone who lived in three different areas of the City itself (Richmond, Sunset and right near the Fillmore), caravanning around the City proper even with a couple of cars would be an absolute nightmare, even on weekends, if only because of the lack of parking (anyone with patience can handle traffic).

With enough patience, a MUNI day pass is serviceable, but I know a lot of people on here balk at tolls, so perhaps that would be out of the question as well.

The bolded has been a consistent theme I've noticed in pretty much every meet I have been part of.  Maybe it is better to say if someone is in Central California and wants to head up the Bay Area for the day to hit me up?  There crap ton of epic back roads that I could chain to make it way less of a freeway slog day trip.

[cl94]

Honestly, the parking/traffic thing is a lot of why I've consistently enjoyed small town and mid-sized city meets more than large city ones. Most of these large cities also have *too much* to realistically do in a day or two with a large group and many hosts make the mistake of trying to do *everything*.

I've always thought that somewhere like the Bay Area would work best as 4 or so meets due to the quantity of stuff and distances involved: Peninsula, East Bay, North Bay, and Marin/Sonoma. A massive citywide meet doesn't really interest me, but a focused one could definitely be fun without spending all day fighting traffic to get between big highlights.

[Max Rockatansky]

The irony is that Oakland hits a lot of those marks across the bay.  There is a lot of weird and quirky road things in the city that are worth seeing (the Kennedy Tunnel portal, CA 77 and the Posey Tubes come to mind).  Parking isn't too difficult and the city streets aren't all that tough to navigate. 

[Alps]

You can always say "I plan to go do ____ on ___ day, who wants to join me?"
or
"on either ____ or ____, if you might want to join use this poll to vote for the day or days you can."

And look, if no one shows up, you can either cancel it or go do it anyway. But if you want to go take public transit during your school break, don't let us talk you out of it.

[M3100]

Is Christmas break/Thanksgiving break a bad time for a Public Transit road meet?

For local fans, it might work, but for people out of the area, not so much. People often have family or other commitments around holidays, so the attendance could be limited.

fyi a few years ago I went on a LA-area transit trip called DATG (Day-After-Thanksgiving). This was arranged and attended by transit fans; including bus mechanics.  This date was chosen because most services ran a normal weekday schedule, however attendees had the day off.  And, LA generally has mild weather in the fall. We were all 'locals' who just needed to get to the meet point; no one traveled from out of the area to get there.

  If you haven't already, see if you can attend a meetup by a transit group where you live to see what could work.

[Scott5114]

I suppose since nobody has yet, someone should also point out that this isn't necessarily the best place to gauge interest in a public transit meet, given that this is a road forum. There is some crossover appeal to some people, but I'm not sure if there's enough to organize it here, you know?

Back in February, I went to San Diego and clinched the Blue Line trolley just to see what it was like. While I enjoyed the experience of riding the train, and would certainly do it again to get somewhere, I decided riding the train just to ride the train isn't really for me. I would imagine most roadgeeks would feel the same way.

A number of road meets I've been to have had an "afterparty" of sorts where after the main tour ended and many of the participants headed out, a few people stuck together to do something extra (at the OKC meet in 2008, it was venturing out to visit some old truss bridges that were a ways off the main tour; after the Reno meet, a few of us went the rest of the way up to Virginia City, things like that). I feel like that might be a good way to incorporate a public transit element into a road meet.

[Max Rockatansky]

I kind of eluded to that in Reply #14.  Speaking for myself transit doesn't really interest me.  I've taken BART trains the Bay Are because they were practical versus something I thought would be fun.

Now we are talking about a heritage railroad line like Railtown 1897 sign me up for that.  Sierra Railway #3 is worth riding just alone due to have many movies it has been in.