I’ve never had my own car. Even when I was a high school senior, I had to wait out front with all the little freshman for my mom to pick me up. She was always late. (I’m not bitter.)

I didn’t actually want a car, though. To some, a car was a symbol of freedom, but to me it stood for depleted bank accounts and speeding tickets. When I was 17, I made a vow that I would avoid cars altogether and live only in cities with stellar public transportation.

I thought I’d be safe in Chicago. The El would be my symbol of freedom and take me wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted, for a mere $1.50.

I realized I was wrong about the El freshman year when I found myself waiting on the platform at Howard Street station late one night for a train bearing the Linden sign. It never came. Finally, I checked the schedule: The last train left the station at 12:58 a.m.

12:58 a.m. Who knew the Chicago Transit Authority had the right to set our curfew?

Because that’s what it is. The El schedule is an imaginary curfew that we obey without questioning it. It’s probably one of the main reasons Northwestern kids don’t take advantage of Chicago. They know that if they head into the city, they have to make it back to Howard before 1 a.m. on weeknights and 2 a.m. on Saturdays. If they don’t make it back for the E-town Express, they’re stuck waiting for the 201 or footing the bill for a cab.

I don’t know about y’all, but I hate the bus and I don’t like paying $12 for a cab ride back to my apartment either. But more than that, I hate cutting my evenings short.

So I did a little research to find out why the purple line doesn’t run 24 hours like the red and blue lines. Surprise, surprise: Money was the answer. In 1997 and 1998, the CTA restructured its schedules to save $35 million, and the purple line’s “owl service” got the boot. There simply weren’t enough late-night riders to justify keeping the train rolling.

No one seems to be complaining, though. Or at least that’s what the CTA’s planning department tells me. In the past year it hasn’t received any complaints about the purple line’s abbreviated hours.

Let me be the first to lament. I could rattle off plenty of reasons as to why the purple line should run 24 hours, the most important being safety. Howard station is sketchy. Have you ever waited there for the bus at 3 a.m.? The people look like they’re straight out of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

A 24-hour purple line could solve all of our problems: We could stay in the city much later, stop pouring our paychecks into Norshore Cab Co., score higher on our statistics quizzes, learn to speak Italian – you name it.

So let’s raise our voices in protest. Let’s make signs and picket along the tracks. Or we could just send the CTA a friendly e-mail offering our small suggestion. I’ll probably do the latter.

But hey, if you’re happy staying in Evanston drinking MGD from a plastic cup at some random apartment, then I suppose my attempt to make your life better is completely useless.

Because you know, I’m not doing this for me. I’ll be out of this second-rate city in two months. And where I’m going, the train never stops running.