Ohare airport (Chicago, Washington, Union: transferring to, school, university)

[facebookdigg123]

What is the best way to go from O'hare airport to uchicago med school and back?

What is the traffic like during rush hour? My interview day ends around 5pm and my flight is at 8:30pm.

Thanks!

[soulful]

That is rush hour and it could be bumper to bumper all the way out I-90 from the city to the Airport. Regardless, you certainly have time to take a taxi or there may be a shuttle from the university that you could ask them about. It's just that you might be sitting in the back of the taxi for 1 1/2 hours if traffic is crawling.

You could take public transportation. Check out transitchicago for all the options.

You would be taking a bus and transferring to the "el/subway" which goes right into O'Hare.

Another option would be to take a cab from the university to a blue line station in downtown Chicago (the Loop) and then the subway/el. You would miss the worst part of the traffic at least.

[pvande55]

Blue line to Washington St, walk over to Randolph St station, ride Metra Electric to 57th St.

[666northstate]

Yes, as mentioned, public transit is the way to go.

[Golden Camel]

I am a great fan of public transportation, but I also need to be realistic.

This person has an interview at the hospital that ends "about" 5:00 pm and a flight that leaves at 8:30.

The hospitals are near Cottage Grove. Metra is near Stony Island. That's over a mile. He can't just leave the interview at 5:00 and board the 5:02 train. If you are hoping to impress a prospective employer, you don't set an alarm for 5:00 and then jump out of your seat and sprint for the exit. Even if the interview concludes promptly at 5:00 pm, you get up, shake hands with everyone, exchange a few pleasantries, then walk with your host to the elevator who escorts you to the security desk where you sign out and return your visitor's badge. You exchange a few more pleasantries and leave.

This person has obviously never been there before, so they need to figure out which way to go and then head toward Metra. Walking a mile takes about 20 minutes. And he's going in the non-rush direction. Trains don't run every 5 minutes. Under the most optimistic assumptions, the first train he can catch is at 5:41, which gets to Millennium station at 5:58. If he misses that train, he has to wait at least 30 minutes for the next train.

The train pulls into the station at 5:58. By the time the doors open, the crowd ahead of him gets off, he walks down to the end of the platform, he goes up the escalators, figures out which way to go (this is his first trip), walks over to Dearborn Street, buys a Transit Card, walks down the escalator and is on the subway platform, it is 6:15. Google maps tells me a train arrives at 6:19 and gets to O'Hare at 7:01. (And we all know how precisely CTA trains stick to schedule.) He still needs to get from the train station to one of the terminals, so allowing 10 minutes, that gets him to the terminal at 7:11. Assuming he checks in on his iPhone or can use one of the elite check in lines, that gets him into the security line by 7:15 for his 8:30 flight. Very likely, he makes it. Of course, this assumes everything has gone ideally.

But what if at 4:55 pm, the H.R. guy at the hospital says, "you know, Dr. Kelso went to the same school as you did, I'm sure he'd like to meet you. It will only take a few minutes, do you mind?" This is what you call an offer you cannot refuse. So he misses the 5:41 Metra train and has to take the 6:12 train. This gets him to the security line at 7:45. An 8:30 plane starts boarding at 8:00 and everyone has to be on board by 8:20. He has to hope the security line is short and that the gate is at the close end of the terminal.

Don't get me wrong, I love public transit and encourage people to use it for their routine commuting. But it has its shortcomings. Call a cab as soon as you are out of the meeting. You will be going against rush hour traffic for half the trip. And as much as it saddens me to say this, unless there is a major catastrophe on the expressway that shuts down all lanes, cars will almost always beat the train when you calculate the time door-to-door, not train station-to-train station.

[Mr Downtown]

The proper public transit route is CTA bus 192, which runs express from U of C hospitals Goldblatt Pavilion to Roosevelt (about 20 minutes) and then on to Union Station. At Roosevelt, board a Green or Orange Line train to Clark & Lake, and transfer there to the Blue Line to O'Hare. 80 minutes total from Goldblatt to O'Hare.

[facebookdigg123]

ended up taking the airport shuttle for the peace of mind and not getting hopelessly lost with luggage. wasnt worth the $54 roundtrip since I had plenty to time to get to the airport, with even enough time to switch to an earlier flight. better safe than sorry though.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Good to hear,
Sure bet you were happy everything was on time.
Like you mentioned better safe than sorry

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by facebookdigg123

ended up taking the airport shuttle for the peace of mind and not getting hopelessly lost with luggage. wasnt worth the $54 roundtrip since I had plenty to time to get to the airport, with even enough time to switch to an earlier flight. better safe than sorry though.

$54 round trip sounds like a good deal.