Commuting time from Oak Park to the Loop? (Chicago, Sparta: home, landscaping) - Chicago Suburbs - Illinois (IL) - City-Data Forum

Spartan1510 · 10-28-2012, 01:23 PM

Hello everyone,

I've been searching and reading through old threads and posts and have found a wide variety of answers so I am not sure what to believe. We have a potential career opportunity in the Loop - we want to be near the city but not necessarily IN the city. From our visits to the Chicago area we are interested in Oak Park. We already have family there, like the walkable downtown area, like the schools, and would like to have a single family home with a yard and a garage. We have two kids ages 4 and 1. I have read information indicating that the Green Line is a 16 minute trip into the Loop and I have also read that the train is a 30 minute ride into the Loop. I know there are two trains so maybe that explains some of the varying information? I expect that traffic is also hellish but it's only 10 miles. I have a 60 mile commute now. Ideally, I would like to keep to a commute time of 30 minutes, but no more than 45 minutes.

Simply put, I am asking to better understand the commute time from Oak Park to the Loop, both by train and by car.

Thanks in advance!

Spartan1510 · 10-28-2012, 01:25 PM

I have also read that the Green line can have an interesting mix of passengers, if you know what I mean. Is the mass transit from Oak Park to the Loop safe or would that be a concern?

chet everett · 10-28-2012, 01:33 PM

The "rush hour crowd" is generally a pretty standard mix of folks heading to their jobs or home in the evening. There are some flakes that ride the green line middays , but no more so than the blue line or red line. Evenings the greenline tends to be a little dicier as you do have a younger crowd that is sorta looking for the kinds of things their parents almost certainly would not approve of but this is not generally a huge problem that results in violence...

If you want better speed and less disrupting passengers ride the Metra --- seventeen minute express http://metrarail.com/content/metra/e...Schedule#focus

Spartan1510 · 10-28-2012, 01:43 PM

The Metra time doesn't seem bad at all. I suppose that I need to add the time and cost to get to the Metra stop and pay for parking in addition to looking at the walking time after getting into the city. Any idea about drive time?

Thanks.

chet everett · 10-28-2012, 01:47 PM

If you are OK with riding the boulevards into the Loop the speed is about the same as Metra, of course parking in the Loop is quite costly, and if you are uncomfortable driving past vacant / boarded up buildings...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spartan1510

The Metra time doesn't seem bad at all. I suppose that I need to add the time and cost to get to the Metra stop and pay for parking in addition to looking at the walking time after getting into the city. Any idea about drive time?

Thanks.

Spartan1510 · 10-28-2012, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chet everett

If you are OK with riding the boulevards into the Loop the speed is about the same as Metra, of course parking in the Loop is quite costly, and if you are uncomfortable driving past vacant / boarded up buildings...

1. I live in Metro Detroit and worked downtown for 13 years. There is nothing that Chicago is going to throw at me in terms of vacant or boarded up buildings that will be of any concern to me. Trust me - I've driven by burned out cars left in the middle lane of the street for weeks because the police did not want to go into the area.

2. When you say "boulevards".....I assume you mean city streets? Simply not the highways.... If that is the case - I would be surprised to make it 10 miles of city streets in less than 20 minutes.

oakparkdude · 10-28-2012, 02:08 PM

Green line is probably around 20-25 minutes to loop. It obviously depends on where you get on and off (4 stations in Oak Park, many in Loop).

Driving is also around 20-25 minutes on the freeway inbound and a bit more 30-45 minutes outbound unless there's an accident/construction. Don't drive unless parking is paid for by your employer. Also depending on where you live, simply getting to the freeway ramp can take up to 10 minutes.

Spartan1510 · 10-28-2012, 02:12 PM

Ok. What I'm hearing is that there are options for commuting within the amount of commute time we would be hoping for. I really appreciate all of the information.

Good win for the Bears BTW. Field goal to win at the end of regulation. Outstanding...

chet everett · 10-28-2012, 06:52 PM

The boulevards were originally developed not by the City of Chicago but by the Chicago Park District, a separate governmental unit that was concerned with landscaping, recreational and cultural issues. There are (?were) restrictions that kept commercial vehicles off the boulevards so that a drive on the blvrd was more like a pleasure trip than "work". City of Chicago :: Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District (cont.)

boulevardhist

The main advantage these days is lack of retail curb cuts and wider one-way streets so that travel is uninterrupted by shoppers and fast food patrons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spartan1510

1. I live in Metro Detroit and worked downtown for 13 years. There is nothing that Chicago is going to throw at me in terms of vacant or boarded up buildings that will be of any concern to me. Trust me - I've driven by burned out cars left in the middle lane of the street for weeks because the police did not want to go into the area.

2. When you say "boulevards".....I assume you mean city streets? Simply not the highways.... If that is the case - I would be surprised to make it 10 miles of city streets in less than 20 minutes.

BigLake · 10-29-2012, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spartan1510

Ok. What I'm hearing is that there are options for commuting within the amount of commute time we would be hoping for. I really appreciate all of the information.

Good win for the Bears BTW. Field goal to win at the end of regulation. Outstanding...

Just to add to this, the Blue Line, which has ~ three stops in OP (Oak Park Ave, Austin and Harlem stops in the Central, East and West respectively) is about a 20-25 minute ride into the heart of the Loop, depending on your starting point in OP. The Blue Line is a "little" less crowded and less "colorful" than the Green Line.

What's stated above about driving time is pretty accurate. On "off business hours", the drive into the Loop via the Ike range from 12-15 minutes (OP is ~9-10 miles from the Loop) to a lot longer during rush.

BTW, you'll have to stop by Village Hall and get special approval to live in Oak Park if you are a Spurty. As tolerant a place as OP is, there are limits to what is accepted in the village. Standards and all.