Possibly moving to Chicago, commute to Gurnee questions (Waukegan, Evanston: rentals, amusement park)

[Evan.]

Hi everyone. I joined to get some feedback on a question I had (and to post some more too, )

Anyways, I'm currently unemployed in suburban Pittsburgh. There is a job lead in Gurnee IL that I could reasonably expect to get.

What is the feasibility of commuting to Gurnee from one of the neighborhoods on the far north of the city, say Edgewater or Rogers Park? Google says it would take about 50 minutes baseline. I've personally found that Google is usually a little conservative when I've tested it in normal traffic conditions (probably because of typical speeding). On the other hand, I know that Chicago can have pretty bad traffic, at any point in the day.

Appreciate the help.

[Golden Camel]

Six Flags Great America amusement park is located in Gurnee. It opens at 10:00 am. If you are going to be traveling around that time, traffic backs up and there are often long lines to get to the exits from I-94. The park is not open during the winter.

[Evan.]

Thanks for the tip.

Others?

[emathias]

Personally, I don't consider Gurnee to be Chicago.

Can you commute from Chicago's north neighorhoods to Gurnee? Yes. Is it a nice commute? Hell no.

[marothisu]

Probably a longshot, but check to see if this company might have a shuttle to the Metra line in Waukeegan to Gurnee. If they do, your commute might be easier. From an area like Ravenswood, the metra ride would be around an hour. it might be a longshot, but you never know. It really depends on what company this is..Some offer shuttle service from metra trains to their workplaces.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Probably a longshot, but check to see if this company might have a shuttle to the Metra line in Waukeegan to Gurnee. If they do, your commute might be easier. From an area like Ravenswood, the metra ride would be around an hour. it might be a longshot, but you never know. It really depends on what company this is..Some offer shuttle service from metra trains to their workplaces.

Another long-shot possibility is to take the Metra train from Chicago to a suburban station nearby Gurnee and drive a car from the suburban station to work. This will, of course, require you to park a car overnight at the suburban station. Overnight parking regulations are governed by the municipality, and individual municipalities will have different regulations/parking fees. Of course this means the car won't be available to use in Chicago.

[reppin_the_847]

I THINK the Lake Bluff Metra station might allow such an arrangement but it certainly won't be cheap. You'd have to prepay 6 months or a year possibly, plus probably a lot extra for the overnight parking privileges. You'd want to contact their police department about it since they enforce the parking and I believe they sell the passes as well (during the day time maybe try their village hall).

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

Another long-shot possibility is to take the Metra train from Chicago to a suburban station nearby Gurnee and drive a car from the suburban station to work. This will, of course, require you to park a car overnight at the suburban station. Overnight parking regulations are governed by the municipality, and individual municipalities will have different regulations/parking fees. Of course this means the car won't be available to use in Chicago.

[chet everett]

The travel time estimate from google is, like in many cases, laughably optimistic. The baseline distance is at LEAST 35 miles from some place like a not so hip spot in the Edison Park neighborhood of Chicago's extreme northwest side closest to 294 to any spot with employment in Gurnee. Even assuming an average travel speed of 30 miles an hour, which is honestly rarely achieved in rush hour, you would be looking at travel times of well over an hour. Swap out a hipper spot closer to traditional core of Laekview and you would easy be looking at something like 90 minutes every morning and probably right around two hours every evening -- evening commute is always worse than AM...

I doubt you would save any time at all from Evanston -- the additional distance you'd need to cover on Evanston's surface streets coupled with the traditionally higher traffic volume / lower average speed on the Edens would not help the travel times.

Similarly there will be little if any advantage in TIME or COST to try to cob together a combined Metra / car commute from any spot inside Chicago to Gurnee. The schedule is not geared toward reverse commuters and though you might be able to say that time on train is less stressful than being stuck in traffic the fact is that paucity of reverse commute train options mean that if you so much as one minute late you are probably stuck waiting an hour of so. That would be a career ender if it happened on a new job. Too much stress. Further the shear distance that Gurnee is from Chicago means that any train, which will likely be local for reverse commuters, making every stop, will have average speeds LOWER than driving. The cost of a Metra ticket that passes through so many zones AND the cost of parking would rapidly eat away at the budget of even a very highly paid commuter (and jobs in Gurneee tend not to be on the higher end of the local salary scale...).


If you want to live in Chicago it just does not make sense to commute to / from Gurnee -- it is closer to Kenosha than to Chicago!

If the job in Gurnee is worth moving to the region for the smartest idea is probably to find an acceptably close spot in a decent enough town. For that like the Pilsen-esque vibe of authentico Mexican cuisine there are probably more than a few such spots in Waukegan. It is probably cheaper to rent there than in any other spot in Lake Co. For a more upscale town with nice mix of bars and resturants frequently by young people (many of whom work in the broad pharmaceutical field that is quite extensive in Lake Co...) there are rentals in Libertyville that would make for an easy to commute to Gurnee.

The whole region has like 13M residents and believe me if you try to drive from a hip spot inside Chicago to a job in northern Lake Co it will seem like most of them are out to slow you down...

[marleyk]

I'm actually from Gurnee and currently live in NYC. I'm thinking about moving back home and to get a job in the city. My sister makes the commute every day and I believe the MetroNorth line is about $160ish for 10 rides..it gets expensive. but she lives with my parents so the cost isn't as bad.

Also if you're going to commute..I would try to find a neighborhood in Chicago that's near the expressway. If you want to live in North chicago in Lake View for example..it will be a far drive from the expressway with traffic. It normally takes me a total of an hour to get from Gurnee to Lake View.

[marleyk]

Sorry just checked..she pays $206 for a month unlimited.