How long from 22nd street to lake street on 90/94? (Chicago: home, employment)

[hindukid]

My wife is taking a job in Hammond. She will be taking dan ryan. We are looking at places in the south loop and river west. For the south loop she would exit at 22nd street and for river west it would be lake street. It would probably be at 6pm or so.

From my experience Dan Ryan is generally pretty good up to 22nd street but I'm not sure beyond that. In our current place I get off at 55 and take that to Lake shore so the stretch beyond 55/22nd street is unfamiliar to me. Since several lanes disappear and you pass the circle I am thinking that stretch may be problematic.

[Drover]

Living in South Loop versus River West could easily cut 20 minutes off her commute, perhaps as much as 30 minutes. You are correct in that the backup starts right around the Cermak/Stevenson exit/interchange area. Up until then, the Ryan flows as smoothly as anyone could hope for during rush hour, and the Ryan is one instance where the "reverse" commute does make a difference.

[chet everett]

Reverse commute into Indiana from Chicago?

Difference from either Riverwest or South Loop is minimal. Maybe an extra 10-15 minutes on a 35-40 total trip, and some of that is offset my specific choice of building -- like if you are on a one way street / closer to actual on-ramp so that traffic lights and intersections are more in your favor...

[surlycue]

Chet, you must be a speed demon. At afternoon rush hour it takes me about 20-25 minutes from Cermak up to Lake or there abouts.

[chet everett]

At 6PM, barring a Sox game clogging things up, the Dan Ryan is pretty darned empty. Indiana has a pretty small employment base for Chicagoans to be heading home from. The reverse commute is very distinctive and much lighter than pretty much any other expressway.

Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee Corridor

[ajolotl]

Coming from the south on the Ryan *at any time* you will be MUCH happier to prepared to bail at Cermak latest. Often I have to bail a bit earlier (35th) and take one of the back roads. It will make a huge difference psychologically and a non-trivial one time-wise.

[surlycue]

Yeah, but we are talking about the stretch of 90/94 around downtown. Many 9-5ers in the loop that aren't able to hit the road by 4:30 try to hold out at the office or gym until 6 to beat the rush so rush hour lasts pretty steadily in that area from 4:15 until 6:45 or so. If she does that route for a while and gets sick of the constant congestion she may have better odds taking cermak west to ashland and up to ogden.

[Irishtom29]

I live in the south Loop and lemme tell ya, that stretch of the Ryan-Kennedy north of Cermak can be all buggered up at any time---I NEVER count on it's running well, regardless of the time.

When I visit my daughter near Grand and Ashland I back street it over there even though the Ryan-Kennedy thing would make short work of it in theory. But it can't be counted on.