A recent survey by urban planning website CityLab revealed what Chicagoans have always known: our city boasts delicious tacos AND great public transit. CityLab created the survey after Carter Rubin, a mobility and climate advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, tweeted a crude graph with tacos and transit as the variables.
To conduct the survey (which wasn't exactly scientific), CityLab built a Google form and asked readers to supply their zip code and rank their city's tacos and transit on a scale of 1 to 10. For tacos, Chicago earned an average rating of 8.2, the highest of any city north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Chicago received an average rating of 8.1 for its transit system, the best of any U.S. city, beating out the likes of New York City and Washington, D.C.
While the results may be a bit biased, CityLab has made Chicagoans' passion tacos and public transit known to the world. Chicago Reader went so far as to assemble a map of taquerias within walking distance CTA train stations (more than 100 of them!), suggesting that wherever there are commuters there is probably also some al pastor roasting on a spit.
Naturally, we've also got some transit-adjacent taco suggestions for you, taken from our list of the best tacos in Chicago.
Birrieria Zarazoga
CTA stop: Pulaski (Orange Line)
You must try: The Birria taco
La Casa de Samuel
CTA stop: California (Pink Line)
You must try: The Cecina taco
Rojo Gusano
CTA stop: Montrose (Brown Line)
You must try: The mixed mushroom taco
BIG & little's
CTA Stop: Two locations, Chicago (Brown/Purple Line) and Division (Blue Line)
You must try: The soft shell crab taco
Cemitas Puebla
CTA stop: Morgan (Pink/Green Line)
You must try: The taco arabe
Big Star
CTA stop: Damen (Blue Line)
You must try: The taco de papas con rajas