Just moved to Naperville and need some commuting advice... PLEASE! (Chicago: school, university)

[dizzyfromsalsa]

Hi all. I just moved from St. Louis, MO to Naperville, IL. I will be commuting from Naperville to Rush University (located on 600 S. Ashland). My first day is thursday and after some investigation I noticed taking the train will be a huge time investment. I think the trip to Rush would be train, two or three buses or two buses and then the blue line. I'm thinking about driving.

What is the traffic situation like? How long will it take me to get to Rush from Naperville if I have to get to school by 8 am? If I leave at 7 will it take 2 hours to drive? Also... how long does it usually take to get out of Chicago at around 4-5 pm? If you have any help please let me know. Is there any way to look up these type of driving statistics so I can plan my trips better?

Many Thanks!
Deb

[ahava]

You can do it in a train, two buses, and a little over an hour. Take the 6:05 train from Naperville and then the #20 bus and then the #9. That's not a huge time investment compared to driving, which I would not recommend at all. It's going to take at least an hour to drive, and you'll be fighting traffic when you could be relaxing on the train.

[dizzyfromsalsa]

Thanks... I was thinking two buses and a train plus driving to the train station might be a little long. You still think that will be shorter than commuting by car?

[mdz]

I usually don't say this, but in your situation I think you are better off driving than taking public transportation. It will definitely be shorter. You're probably looking at an hour-75 minute drive depending where you are in naperville.

Without traffic it would be shorter, but it'll be backed up at 7 am on 290.

good luck

[DonkeyTeeth]

Unfortunately, when you mention the train in Naperville you can't forget the parking situation. There is a limited amount of fee daily parking which fills up most of the time by 6:30 AM. I don't commute to downtown anymore, but when I did there were plenty of mornings where I planned my train trip perfectly only to miss out on one of the last few spots and ended up driving downtown after all. The Route 59 Metra station has more parking, but that could add time to your trip depending on where you live in Naperville.

The train could definitely be a nice break from driving, but in terms of pure time it was usually a wash.

[NSH]

Have you thought about driving to forest park and boarding the blue line here. I do not know what the parking situation is around the station but it may be something to look into

[mdz]

they have pay as you go spots at Forest Park, but honestly, by the time you get there you may as well just drive the extra few miles to Rush.

[dizzyfromsalsa]

I tried both the train and driving... turns out that taking the train is not so bad afterall. You can relax instead of worrying about traffic jams and such. Thanks for your advice.