Who commutes from the City to the suburbs ?

I don't commute but what I would do if I were you, is watch the google map of Chicago using the Traffic button. Red is bad. Looks like they also have road construction info. Just check the map on the times that you're considering.

 

amenasce i have lived in the city for almost 20 years and have commuted to the northern suburbs, namely Wheeling, Lincolnshire and Lake Forest. Wheeling and Lincolnshire neighbor Buffalo Grove. anyhow, as expected as time has gone by the commute has become progressively worse. there are no convenient short cuts and anyway you cut it, it takes 45 minutes to an hour. you are correct in your assumption that leaving at 10 is the best solution but would highly recommend leaving by 3:30 for your return. i know it leaves a short window but its the most efficient use of your time.

right now there is construction on 94 (Edens Expy) which is the main route to head north, with one or two lanes shut down at any given time and a reduced, photo enforced speed limit of 45 mph!

feel free to pm me or ask any questions that i haven't answered.

 

Years ago I did the reversed commute from the city to Naperville. I got out early enough for both drives, wasn't too horrible. A lot easier than doing the regular commute.

 

Two questions: Where in downtown are you looking to live? And is taking a train(Metra) to the office an option? I think this would make your life much easier. You can do work on the train, save a ton of money, and is much less stressful than dealing with the traffic each day.

I live and work in the city, but Friday I had to commute out to Schaumberg for a user group meeting and I would off myself if I had to do that commute everyday. Big pain.

 

I was in Chicago with my wife last week, and we were horrified by the traffic going in and out of town, in any direction at any time. If there is anything that would put me off living in downtown is the massive traffic (I will be working in Burr Ridge).

People told me that the "reverse commute" is ok, but I found that very optimistic thinking.

Here goes:

From O'Hare to hotel in downtown (two blocks from Michigan Avenue), 16:30 on a wednesday: 45 minutes.
From downtown to Naperville, 11:00AM on thursday: 1 hour (!!!!)
From Naperville to Burr Ridge, 13:00 on thursday: 45 minutes
From Burr Ridge to downtown Chicago, 17:30 on thursday: 1 hour 20 minutes
From downtown to Naperville, 9:00AM on friday: 1.5 hours (!!!)
From Downers Grove to downtown, 16:00 on friday: 1.5 hours.

I have come to the conclusion that wherever, at whatever time, on whatever day Chicago is a guaranteed massive traffic jam.

I'll use the train to go downtown when I move out there in August

 

Andrew, those times are about right, although even at 3:30 it's a pain to get downtown, it's taken me 1.5hr from northbrook to the loop leaving at that time. 94 is under construction, as is 294 currently.

 

Please tell me - why are you so fed up with the 'burbs? As I am about to make this move I want to make sure I am not making a mistake... do you have family/kids?

PS - Lucky man if you can go to work at 11AM. I'll have to be in the office at 8:30AM or else my people will think I'm just an "European slacker" and I won't get any respect (not to mention any work done from them...)

 

Depends where you're going. The reverse commute up the Edens (with or without construction) is much worse than the regular commute.

 

What part of the city are you looking to move to? You will love it compared to the suburbs, a lot of culture in walking distance of nearly whereever you are. Suburbs are too spread out to walk anywhere.

 

Couldn't agree more. Short of kids and a wife that absolutely has to raise her kids in the suburbs...I'll never live outside of the city. Too much fun, too much to do, especially at my age. I am a social creature and I have the opportunity to be out with various groups of friends 5 nights a week if I wanted. I typically only attend half of that stuff, but it's nice as a lonely single male to have all of the options - especially coming from a small town where most weeknights were spent alone watching tv and even weekends were a struggle once most of my friends started marrying off.

And I'm no Don Juan by any means but the frequency that I have dates and meet women in this city is better than I ever imagined for myself.