Commuting: Western Suburbs to Chicago Northside (Oak Park, Elmhurst: condo, transfer to, to buy)

[quadrokeith]

Does anyone have any experience commuting from the further western suburbs (thinking Lombard, Villa Park, Elmhurst, etc.) to the northside of Chicago?

My fiancee and I are looking to buy in the near future and we are kicking around the idea of moving out to the suburbs (as opposed to getting a condo in the city). I work in Oak Brook and we both have friends, family and strong roots in this area. The only issue is that she works in Lincoln Square. She enjoys her job, so it's definitely out of the question to have her get a new job at this point.

So does anyone have any experience driving I-294 N to I-90 E during regular rush hour times? She would be able to exit before the 90/94 merge if that makes a difference. We're looking for things like: average travel time... also, she may be able to do something like a 7:30-4:30 workday if that helps.

[Venom]

It's a long time.

[quadrokeith]

Anything more specific than that?

I mean... a long time can mean a lot of different things in Chicagoland. Being that I work in Oak Brook and she works on the northside, one of us is going to have to commute. Currently, my commute is roughly 40 minutes going to work and 50 minutes coming back... although that is with fairly flexible work hours and me being able to "time" traffic a bit. If we're talking an average of an hour and a half roundtrip commute, then that's not so bad. Now, if we're talking more like two and a half hours... then that's obviously a lot less attractive (probably a deal-breaker no less).

[Venom]

Hmmm.
On a bad day, it could probably take close to two hours, give or take.

But I doubt it will ever take more then 2.5 hrs
The few time I've taken the expressway from Maywood(Which is kind of close to VP) to Albany park(Which is kind of close to LS) it takes about 40 minutes. I don't know about rush hours and bad weather though.

[Drover]

Count on 90 minutes minimum. Any chance you can afford a place in Oak Park? That's going to be your best hope of both of you having a reasonable commute.

Also, "the north side" is a big place with highly varying traffic patterns and degrees of transit access. It would help to be more specific.

[Venom]

He said Lincoln Square

[Avengerfire]

The commute is going to be hell on earth a decent amount of time and at the very least draining most of the time.

[Drover]

Lincoln Square.... then I reiterate Oak Park. She can take the Green Line to the loop and transfer to the Brown Line without ever having to leave the station, and you can drive out to Oak Brook because the worst part of the backup would be east of you. Her commute would probably be an hour or so, but at least she could read or something while on the train instead of pulling her hair out in traffic. Plus her total commute cost would be under $100/mo.

[sgresident]

It would be a long drive. definitely more than an hour. plus, if the weather sucks...who knows. that day when it snowed, it was a 4 hour drive!

[oakparkdude]

Drover's got a good point. Lincoln Square is accessible via Brown line to the Loop. Your fiance could conceivably take the Metra to the loop then transfer to the el. This would open up your geographic possibilities immensely. I rarely take the el so I don't know how long it'd be from the Loop to Lincoln Square, but if you allocate 30 minutes to get to the Loop via Metra, that opens up lots of suburban possibilities. Much better to take advantage of public transit (if available) than try to drive in from the burbs.