Living in Chicago and Commuting to burbs....help me pick my poison (Evanston: apartment, home)

[usamathman]

Need little advice here.


Recently moved to Chicago.


Just found an apartment I really liked on the Gold Coast (East Delaware)


My predicament.


Have 3 jobs I am considering that are nowhere near the city.


Job #1 is in Romeoville (the one I really want)

Job #2 in Deerfield (the one that pays the most $6k higher)

Job #3 in Burr Ridge (pays the least, but more interesting than job #2)


Question: Am I crazy to even consider commuting to/from any of these locations just for a paycheck?


I did a 55 mile commute each way for 3 1/2 years when I lived on the east coast, so I know what it is like to have a long commute.

Wondering if living in the city is worth the hassle.

I personally think it would be.

Any advice would be fantastic.

[theuptowner1992]

Location alone, I think that Deerfield would be the easiest reverse commute. You can drive straight west toward I-94 on most streets around there (i.e. Division, Chicago) and encounter minimal congestion. Then you would head north, which would avoid the suburban commuter traffic.

From the Gold Coast to either Burr Ridge or Romeoville, you would need to sit in rush hour on Lake Shore Drive southbound before exiting onto I-55.

[beaniemac]

all three jobs are a hassle as far as commuting, but jobs 1 and 3 would be totally out of the question given where the OP lives.

I dont think driving to deerfield would be a walk in the park either. coming from the gold coast, you still gotta deal with driving both the kennedy and the edens, and then go to 294.

I commuted from the south side of chicago to des plaines for a job a while ago, and it was a nightmare. the commute was so bad, I could take the public transporation and it'd only take me about 10-15 min more than if I drive.

also my commute involved driving to the red line, to the purple line, to the yellow line and then a bus ride. it was AWFUL. this was back when gas was almost $5 a gallon, so it was much cheaper to take public transporation. I left that job a few years ago to take a job that allowed me to work at home. having that 3+ hours back every day is so worth it. I'll never take a job that doesn't involve a reverse commute or a simple commute downtown.

[chet everett]

Frankly I wonder if some of the above posters even know where the towns they are commenting are located. Burr Ridge is MOSTLY in Cook Co,with nearly all of its office / industrial parks east of Rt 83. There are no giant office campuses, mostly midsized low rise commercial buildings. It is a fairly easy drive from the Gold Coast, and I have personally done the trip along the Stevenson / LSD, which is just a hair over 20 miles, in less than 30 minutes during normal rush hour traffic. The return trip is similarly fairly painless as there are nearly NO signficant concentrations of either work locations along the Stevenson corridor nor many office workers that live along the path. Overall commute is not bad at all.

In contrast Deerfield is a solid five to ten miles further away via either the Kennedy & Edens or Kennedy & 294, and one must deal with the MUCH larger numbers of commuters heading to MASSIVE office campuses in the area and further north... The congestion is also negatively impacted by the volume of folks heading to offices out towards O'Hare as well as signficant pockets of higher income residents that do in fact commute along the same corridor. Expect the drive out to be at least 40 minutes and the drive back to be a solid 20% or more longer, much worse when there is a Cubs game...


Romeoville is signficantly farther and is in area that has seen some rather intensive development of logistics type facilities. Though these typically do not have the large volume of workers that a HQ campus might, they do have LOTS of truck traffic and that really does snarl the commute. The 10-15 miles that one needs to venture SW of Burr Ridge can be MUCH more congested because of this fact...


In short, given the differences in travel situations the OP might want to rank the ease from their current location as BURR RIDGE >> Deerfield >>> Romeoville. If they really want the Romeoville job they might want to consider relocating to an area like Pilsen that would chop off probably 10 minutes in the AM that would allow them to get a jump on traffic and at least that much on the way home, though it of course comes with trade-offs. If they want they Deerfield job it might make sense to relocate further to the NW, while still inside a relative hip area either along the Kennedy / Blue line or closer to the Edens junction, even someplace like Lincoln Square would take a big bite out of both ends of the commute...

[JacksonPanther]

I don't see how you can rank the Romeoville commute as worse than Deerfield. The R commute is longer, but should be wide open on the Stevenson. I have worked out on Bolingbrook, and never saw 55 getting "snarled" by trucks out that way.

The Deerfield commute should be a non starter from Chicago. The only way to work up there would be to live up there. You think it's a reverse commute, but that return home will be crowded no matter what. In the summer, the returns home will be a nightmare.

Burr Ridge > Romeoville >>>> Deerfield

No matter which of these options you select, in the winter you need to get in the habit of leaving work at the first sign of snow. If it starts snowing at say 2pm and you leave the office at 5:30, you will be royally screwed.

[reppin_the_847]

chet everett & JacksonPanther are correct on this one.

Because the Gold Coast is very slightly north of downtown (it is walkable to downtown practically or 1 or two CTA el stops distance really), folks tend to think the north burbs would be the easiest suburbs to commute to. This is shockingly not the case, unless you're talking about a bordering inner-ring northern suburb such as Evanston, Skokie, Lincolnwood, possibly Park Ridge, etc.

Given your choices, however, Burr Ridge is probably the easiest driving commute. Look at these distances and current drive times at 9:23 AM Central Time (past the morning rush hour):

1 E. Delaware Pl., Chicago, IL - Deerfield, IL = 28 miles or 40 minutes

1 E. Delaware Pl., Chicago, IL - Burr Ridge, IL = 22.4 miles or 35 minutes

1 E. Delaware Pl., Chicago, IL - Romeoville, IL = 33.7 miles or 49 minutes

During rush hour, the Chicago to Deerfield reverse commute is absolutely brutal. That Kennedy / Edens split is so awful that words can't even describe. It is easily one of the worst bottlenecks in the entire USA (it has been included in many such lists before). It's so bad that you may often find yourself slogging through very slow local routes instead.

[usamathman]

Thanks for the information everyone.


If I could have my way, I would find a gig downtown.


But haven't had much luck so far.


Definitely makes sense to move closer to the job. But I get sick every time I think about moving to the burbs.


Think I will do a test drive to each location in the upcoming week.


You guys are awesome.


Thanks again.

[Ace Rothstein]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

I don't see how you can rank the Romeoville commute as worse than Deerfield. The R commute is longer, but should be wide open on the Stevenson. I have worked out on Bolingbrook, and never saw 55 getting "snarled" by trucks out that way.

55 isn't bad outbound in the morning but can be pretty bad inbound in the afternoon.

All of these commutes are pretty awful, like 75 minutes each way at a minimum.

[chicagoliz]

It's been a long time for me, but I found the commute on the Stevenson to be orders of magnitude better than the commute on the Edens or Kennedy, in either direction. It is possible the Stevenson has gotten much worse.

In addition to doing some test drives, plug the addresses of the employers and your home into the Waze app on your smartphone at the time when you would be going to/coming home from work. Do it every day for a week or two, and that will give you a little more sense of how bad it would be.

[beaniemac]

Originally Posted by usamathman

Thanks for the information everyone.


If I could have my way, I would find a gig downtown.


But haven't had much luck so far.


Definitely makes sense to move closer to the job. But I get sick every time I think about moving to the burbs.


Think I will do a test drive to each location in the upcoming week.


You guys are awesome.


Thanks again.

I think this is why a lot of companies are relocating from the suburbs back to downtown because the young work force does not want to live or commute to the far out suburbs.