From Deerfield to Downtown Chicago: Where to park ?? (Erie: car, parking)

[hgoldi]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

^I would park at Dempster on the Skokie Swift. It is much safer to leave your car there than at the Howard station on the Red Line. It is also very close to 94 and you can drive there way quicker than you can to the Howard stop on the Red Line^

Do you mean parking the car at the street or at a parking lot? Thanks!

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by hgoldi

Do you mean parking the car at the street or at a parking lot? Thanks!

A parking lot next to the train station.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

The "Lake-Cook" stop probably has a little more space than the "Deerfield" one but it will still be packed. The next further south station that actually has some parking would probably be the "North Glenview" stop.

reppin, i've rarely seen the Lake Cook stop that crowded. And even if it were full, I would suppose one could park at the Home Depot lot with few problems.You're right when you say that the stop at the Glen (Glenview North) is not very crowded, but I'd say that Lake Cook is usually a safe bet, too.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

^I would park at Dempster on the Skokie Swift. It is much safer to leave your car there than at the Howard station on the Red Line. It is also very close to 94 and you can drive there way quicker than you can to the Howard stop on the Red Line^

wouldn't Linden in Wilmette on the purple line also work that way?

also, if one really does want to drive DT at any point during the trip, does 900 N Michigan still offer the great parking deals with proof of purchase? At one time, it was the parking bargain of the century.

[hgoldi]

As I understand from your kind advice , the best parking locations are:
1- Cumberland , at the Blue line
2- Dempster, at the Purple line

Or a Down Town Parking with early bird rate.

Am I right? Any other recommendations?

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by edsg25

wouldn't Linden in Wilmette on the purple line also work that way?...

The Skokie Swift Dempster stop is way easier (and faster) to get to from Deerfield and I am pretty sure it has way more parking spaces than Linden.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by hgoldi

As I understand from your kind advice , the best parking locations are:
1- Cumberland , at the Blue line
2- Dempster, at the Purple line...

No. Dempster on the Yellow Line (aka Skokie Swift) is preferable.

Forget about Cumberland on the Blue Line. It is way far out of the way from Deerfield.

[reppin_the_847]

Based on "edsg25"'s advice, I'd probably go with the Lake-Cook Metra stop. Here's the thing....riding the CTA is an experience in and of itself, but it can be a frustrating one at times! The CTA often-times is slow, noisy, crowded, has many stops, etc. On the flip-side, the CTA is very frequent, offers instant access to certain Chicago neighborhoods that you'd otherwise need to cab it to, and is THE public mode of transit (the CTA trains & buses) within the city limits of Chicago.

Metra on the other hand is like a luxury train ride (picture a little more bare-bones version of Amtrak) compared to CTA, and it's designed to whisk commuters into the downtown Loop area of Chicago from the suburbs. It is generally quite fast, and pretty immune to delay problems at least in lines running through the northern suburbs. The flip-side is, it'll get you to Union Station, and then you may need to rely on CTA trains & buses from there to get you to other parts of the city. Additionally, the Metra runs on a less frequent schedule. Check out transitchicago.com and metrarail.com for the CTA & Metra websites, respectively. Good luck!

Originally Posted by hgoldi

Do you mean parking the car at the street or at a parking lot? Thanks!

[hgoldi]

you are helping us a lot!!
Thanks for the recommendation about Skokie at the yellow line, I confound it with Dempster at the purple line.
And again , thanks for the description comparing Metra and Cta, very helpfull.
It seems to us , that we will park at Skokie station ,mainly because it close to Deerfield, the parking is cheap and we can take advantage of the 7 days CTA pass.
If you have any other suggestion or still any idea of cheap parking at downtown , we will really apprecciate it!

[hgoldi]

Hi again!
Checking the web I found that we can free park our car at E. Erie st. (between N Wabash st. and N Rush st.). Could you tell me if this information is accurate?
Thanks in advance