City vs suburbs living (Chicago, Naperville: transplants, apartments, to rent)

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

I believe it. I have a friend who commutes to work on the South Side (not even as far south as Beverly) from his home in Oak Park. He says the return trip in the evening regularly takes over an hour and sometimes up to two hours. Based on that, I have to assume it could easily and regularly take two hours to Naperville in the evening.

The commute via either surface streets or the Dan Ryan / Ike combo from the south side has a number of factors that simple do not apply to those making a longer comute to / from Naperville. Firstly though the well known choke point at Austin where the Ike losses a lane as it enters Oak Park is a factor outbound, it tends to be a little "speed up" on the inbound commute. No such unbalanced lane configuration exists on Dan Ryan. Similalry while there is a another choke point at Hillside inbound, the outbound stretch, especially where it feeds into the now "open road tolls" of I88, is a breeze outbound compared to years past.

The relative truck volume on the free Dan Ryan is often among the worst in the region. Trucks accelerate more slowly and make merging more of challenge. With the many exits in the Dan Ryan local lanes this is an especially serious problem. No such truck volumes are ever seen on the relatively pricey stretch of I88 that mostly parallels the national route of I80 and the relatively spread out exits further mitigate problems merging,

The fact is in the past I've roundly critized google maps for optimistic travel time estimates. With their aquistion of the Waze app and the whole lot better data from "crowd sourcing" the traffic patterns the estimates are not much better and I have found them to account for the fact even in the peak of rush hours there are some stretches that do move well above the limit. Even a relatively recent poster that moved to the area from the UK has come back to confirm that her hubby has been mostly pleasantly surprised with just how smoothly the commute is working out.

Needlessly sowing fear into folks contemplating a job in Naperville is not helpful.

[sipes23]

Ok, I'm going to add my two cents here, but with a different angle. I've moved from the far NW burbs to the city with two children under 10.

Pros:
-Better transit options (Metra is the only real option in the burbs)
-An interstate exit less than 1 mile from home (Ok, so it goes onto the Kennedy)
-Mature trees on side streets
-Everything is closer
-Better selection of cool stuff (ethnic food, weird books, etc)
-Better TV reception off of bunny ears
-Garbage is hidden in alleys (instead of a weekly display on the street)

Cons:
-The traffic (and what's up with Friday?)
-Schools (our neighborhood CPS school is pretty good though)
-City stickers
-People's Gas
-Pay or permit parking abounds
-Snow plowing on side streets
-Hip Chicago gets all of the toys (Divvy for example)

Both have their merits, but I prefer living in the city to the combination of suburbs I've lived in. I might change my tune should we still be living here when high school is looming for the kids.

[holl1ngsworth]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Redo that estimate (with Naperville as the end point) here in about 3 or 4 hours and let us know what it says. Better yet, do it tomorrow (Friday) at that time and let us know what it says.

OK, rush hour is finally upon us.

Drumroll....

A perfectly reasonable 1hr 10mins! Given the fact that a combination of uncomfortable buses, smelly CTA trains and tiresome walking takes "city" people upwards of an hour to a north side apartment from the Loop, I'd say that an hour and ten in the comfort of my own car ain't such a bad thing (A/C much?).

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Your google maps estimate done at noon is irrelevant to people who commute during rush hour. Redo that estimate (with Naperville as the end point) here in about 3 or 4 hours and let us know what it says. Better yet, do it tomorrow (Friday) at that time and let us know what it says.

Yep. As of 4:30 PM the estimate from Uptown to Naperville is 1 hour 36 minutes. I suspect that it will be close to the aforementioned two hour mark by 5 or 5:30.

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by holl1ngsworth

A perfectly reasonable 1hr 10mins!

From Uptown to Naperville? Try again. I just got 1 hour 36 minutes.

[holl1ngsworth]

Originally Posted by nearnorth

Yep. As of 4:30 PM the estimate from Uptown to Naperville is 1 hour 36 minutes. I suspect that it will be close to the aforementioned two hour mark by 5 or 5:30.

It won't be.

But what are we really talking about here? A hypothetical regular commute, or reverse commute?

Does the person live in Naperville and work in the Loop? Or live in Uptown and work in Naperville?

[holl1ngsworth]

Originally Posted by nearnorth

From Uptown to Naperville? Try again. I just got 1 hour 36 minutes.

Who would be going from Uptown to Naperville right now??

It's either Loop>Naperville or Naperville>Uptown

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by chet everett

The commute via either surface streets or the Dan Ryan / Ike combo from the south side has a number of factors that simple do not apply to those making a longer comute to / from Naperville.

So you're saying the commute to Naperville would be shorter than the commute to Oak Park? Do you have a helicopter?

The same factors apply in both commutes, but one contains the entirety of the other and much, much more. The person commuting from the city (wherever they are in the city...not everyone works in the Loop) would be passing Oak Park to get to Naperville.

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by holl1ngsworth

Who would be going from Uptown to Naperville right now??

Presumably someone who works in Uptown and lives in Naperville, but how the hell would I know?

That was the estimate being discussed-- the one that was one hour at noon and estimated to be two hours during rush hour. You'd have to ask the people who started the discussion why they chose it. I was just repeating it for consistency sake. It wouldn't be an accurate comparison otherwise.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by nearnorth

From Uptown to Naperville? Try again. I just got 1 hour 36 minutes.

Sweet!! Must be light traffic today. Leaving now. Bye guys!!