Commute Time: Wicker Park/Bucktown to Warrenville (Chicago, Arlington Heights: house, construction)

[gotigers123]

Hello All,

I'd like to hear some estimates for this commute. About 30 miles. Google Maps says 45 minutes to an hour, but we all know how reliable they can be. I'll probably be leaving the house at about 6:30 in the morning and returning at about 4:00.

Please spare the comments about how this would be a bad idea. I'd just like an idea of commute time from those with experience doing it.

Thanks in advance!

[Drover]

This would be a bad idea.

Sorry, but there's a reason why people who've dealt with these kinds of commutes keep saying that, because we want to spare people the pain we've gone through, or at the very least, make sure they are making an informed decision. We all disregarded the drawbacks of this kind of commute until we (most of us anyway) got sick to death of doing it and either moved or got a closer job. Reverse commuting is just a PITA unless your job happens to be right next to a Metra train station.

So with that out of the way, I'd say the outbound estimate is pretty accurate at 45 minutes to an hour AS LONG AS YOU LEAVE AT 6:30 AM. However, the inbound commute would suck pretty hard. I'd go with 1:15 to 1:30 for the inbound. Add another 20 minutes on Fridays. Times will go down a bit when they finally stop tearing up the Reagan Tollway. I swear to Christ that thing has been under construction since I got my drivers license 20 years ago.

[Humboldt1]

Sorry, but true.

Perhaps you should do what I do, which is go to the gym after work to cut down on my commute time. Leaving at 6:30am means you will hit morning rush hour and returning at 4pm will mean you will hit rush hour in the afternoon. You may not hit the worst of it but traffic is never kind on the Ike around Harlem and Austin. You should expect 45 min to 2 hrs depending on the time and day. It also sometimes backs up on 88 (Reagan), near 355 and there is alot of construction around Oak Brook right now.

It takes me 45-50 mins (sometimes up to 75 mins) in the morning to get to Arlington Heights from Humboldt Park in Chicago in the morning, leaving around 8AM. In the evenings I leave the gym around 8:30PM and usually get home around 9PM. I take the Kennedy and sometimes take 290, depending on traffic conditions.

[aragx6]

Agree with the others. I reverse commute using the Stevenson and it's not ideal, but doable. teh Ike however is regularly one of the heaviest expressways both in the morning and at night, so be prepared for an hour to an hour and a half most days.

If you get hit with an accident or a light snow, figure it'll be 2- 2 1/2 hours and if you get a heavy rush hour snow, it could be 3 hours +

[jdiddy]

What the others said.

I did that exact commute (a little worse because I'm north of Bucktown) for about a year. I did it because I did not want to live in the suburbs, but I'll never do it again.

Like Drover said, 45 minutes is possible if you get on the Ike around 6:30. The way back though is rough. I did what Humboldt recommended and just went to the gym after work. It was a good way to stay in shape, but coming home at 8:30 every night gets tiring.

If you're young and single, I'd still say go for it. But do it under the reality that you'll have only a year or two before it starts to drive you nuts. So enjoy the year you have, at least the times when you are not in traffic.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Agree with the others. I reverse commute using the Stevenson and it's not ideal, but doable. teh Ike however is regularly one of the heaviest expressways both in the morning and at night, so be prepared for an hour to an hour and a half most days.

If you get hit with an accident or a light snow, figure it'll be 2- 2 1/2 hours and if you get a heavy rush hour snow, it could be 3 hours +

Yeah, I guess I should clarify that reverse-commuting to the south or southwest suburbs is almost tolerable. The reverse traffic actually moves on the Ryan and Stevenson. Sometimes it only moves at 30 to 40 miles an hour, but that feels like the Daytona 500 compared to what people are stuck with on the other expressways. Reverse-commuting to the north, northwest, and west suburbs just sucks.

[quadrokeith]

I make about half this commute every day, going from Logan Square to Oak Brook. I tend to work later hours and I try to beat the rush on the later side (8:30 am). If I leave at 6:30 am, I can make it to Oak Brook in about 30-35 minutes and not hit much traffic. My rule is: if I'm not out the door at 7 am, then I'm just gonna go ahead and wait until 8:30 or later because the traffic is practically unbearable.

The inbound is much worse, almost no matter what time I leave work (usually around 6 pm), it takes around 45 minutes. If I leave at 5, it probably creeps closer to 60 minutes. Now, bare in mind that from Warrenville you need to tack on an additional 25 minutes or so.

Leaving at 4 pm, you MIGHT be able to beat traffic on most days.

I would guess your commute will be 45-60 minutes to Warrenville if you leave at 6:30, and then 50-65 minutes back to the city. This is on a good day. On a bad day, feel free to tack on an additional 30-60 minutes. You'll probably find bad days about once every two weeks (this morning I left at 6:30 am and there was a bad accident on the Eisenhower... delayed 20 minutes of just sitting in traffic, not moving).

It's a tough commute. I would not be so willing to do it if I didn't have flexible work hours. If I see that traffic is bad as I'm about to leave, then I either stay home and do a little work from home and wait for it to clear up or I work a little extra and/or head to the gym by my work.

[jessiegirl_98]

Warrenville is much farther than Oak Brook, so I wouldn't compare the two. You won't be able to beat traffic leaving at 4. As the others said, add extra traffic/a wreck/snow into the mix and you could be looking at 2.5 hours easily. Not fun at all. I've seriously been stuck in a really bad snow storm between the 2 for over 4 hours....that's not the norm, but that is a horrible commute. You couldn't pay me to do that.