<p>to CMU - that is, an airport with planes to chicago?</p>
<p>and , how would a student get to the airport? a related question: does a student need a car to get around greater CMU ?</p>
<p>The nearest airport is Pittsburgh International Airport, which services all of the Pittsburgh area. It is about 30 minutes outside the city by car or taxi. There is a free bus which leaves from CMU to the airport called the “Airport Flyer,” and it takes around 45-55 minutes to get to and from the airport. It can also take you from the airport back to CMU.</p>
<p>A car isn’t needed to get around Pittsburgh since we have free bus passes with our IDs and the buses are fairly good. In fact, freshmen aren’t allowed (or, in the school’s words, are ‘heavily discouraged’) from owning cars. You will not be able to get a parking pass as a freshman.</p>
<p>And the nice thing about going to Chicago is that there are several direct flights on Southwest going to Midway every day, in addition to the United and American direct flights to O’Hare.</p>
<p>Also there’s an late evening Amtrak that goes to Union Station; leaves about 11:30 pm and gets in about 8:30 am. Our son took that home for winter break each year instead of flying; it was somewhat cheaper. The train back got into Pittsburgh something like 4:30 am so he never took that. There’s also Megabus if you want really cheap, but he never did that either.</p>
<p>Last time I was in Pittsburgh the number for the airport flier was 28X, if you’re trying to find info on it. I’d recommend against taking a taxi as it’ll be about $40 more expensive (at least) and you’ll save 20 minutes (at most).</p>
<p>Zipcar is a membership-based “car share” rental program where you pay about $35 per year, and then you can rent a car that sits on campus for about $7 her hour. According to [Zipcar](<a href=“http://www.zipcar.com/”>http://www.zipcar.com/</a>) CMU has a Prius and a Mazda 3 available at the campus parking garage. Great for trips to Costco or IKEA where you need to carry something bigger than you’d want to have on a bus. :-)</p>
<p>when taking the 28x it really is best to get on at the Forbes / Morewood stop. That is where the route begins, so a lot of people tend to congregate there… it’s not uncommon after finals to see the entire 28x fill up at the very first stop. It’s then sad, but still not uncommon, to see the bus drive right past students with their luggage at subsequent stops in oakland.</p>