moving to SW suburbs advice (Orland Park, Burr Ridge: appointed, houses, employment)

[f4ipilot]

My wife and I are looking to move to the southwest suburbs in spring 2011. I will be working in Burr Ridge and we are trying to pick a nearby suburb to purchase a house.

I have been lurking and reading on this site for a couple weeks and have read many post but I wanted to finally post to get some more current info as many of the post I have read are from a year or more ago.

My wife and I are very active runners and bikers and it would be very advantageous for us to be able to run and bike from our home without having to drive somewhere first. Therefore, we are looking into the Palos Park area. Could everyone give me pros and cons of that area to help my decision? The trail system there seems really nice for running and mountain biking from what I have read. How difficult would it be to plan out a 60-80 mile road ride from a neighborhood in that area? What other areas offer good running trails what are within a daily commute of Burr Ridge that I should look into? We are planning on having children in 2-3 years so that is somewhat a factor also. Housing budget is up to $450k. Thanks for your input.

[dacas1]

Palos Park would seemingly fit all of your needs.

[chet everett]

Those kinds of distances are going to mean LOTS AND LOTS of "interaction" with vehicles. If you are serious about that kind of mileage you MIGHT want to think about be further west and maybe making your commute to work a little longer. My rational is simply, further west there is less traffic and less odds of getting crushed. Folks out near Yorkville and points west / southwest simply have less traffic to deal with.

Another option is simply to stay real close to Burr Ridge and plan on hooking up with one of the semi-informal "clubs" that ride together on some of the less traffic clogged roads that link the towns along the BNSF together.


If you look at a map of routes that actually could be used for longer distance road rides I think you may be disappointed by the limited options you'd have starting in Palos Park. The difficulty that comes from so many roads running through the forest preserves is that those roads are ROUGH with mininimal shoulders / maintenance.heavy truck traffic along some (Archer, LaGrange, 143rd,Bell , others...) means you really are very much at risk...

The basic layout of towns east of 355/ south of 55 funnel so much traffic NE that things are skewed very much toward getting folks on high speed roads. In the more core BNSF towns the mix of arterials and tollways, together with the a more complete grid, makes for more options. Further SW the impact of older farming towns is evident in the ways the roads are laid out, and one can sorta sneak around without being overwhelmed by traffic all heading to employment center...

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by f4ipilot

My wife and I are looking to move to the southwest suburbs in spring 2011. I will be working in Burr Ridge and we are trying to pick a nearby suburb to purchase a house.

I have been lurking and reading on this site for a couple weeks and have read many post but I wanted to finally post to get some more current info as many of the post I have read are from a year or more ago.

My wife and I are very active runners and bikers and it would be very advantageous for us to be able to run and bike from our home without having to drive somewhere first. Therefore, we are looking into the Palos Park area. Could everyone give me pros and cons of that area to help my decision? The trail system there seems really nice for running and mountain biking from what I have read. How difficult would it be to plan out a 60-80 mile road ride from a neighborhood in that area? What other areas offer good running trails what are within a daily commute of Burr Ridge that I should look into? We are planning on having children in 2-3 years so that is somewhat a factor also. Housing budget is up to $450k. Thanks for your input.

I would say Palos Park would most assuridly be right up and down your alley... However, you may also want to look into the area right near 82nd Ave at about 14000 S. in Orland Park as there are plenty of homes right in your price range and many of them butt right up against the main trail in town which you can take all over the south side. S 82nd Ave, Orland Park, Cook, Illinois 60462 - Google Maps See what you think of that area. There's a ton of houses that line that trail many of which are right about 450K.

[dacas1]

Roads are not "rough" in the area. I don't know what the previous poster is speaking of.

[knighthood82]

Originally Posted by dacas1

Roads are not "rough" in the area. I don't know what the previous poster is speaking of.

They are a lot rougher if you're on a bike and not driving in a car. Some of the roads (especially the ones going through the forest preserves) have little to no shoulder and drivers that don't think they need to share the road with bikers.