MyThanks to all contributors.

I thought at this point I would add my own stories since I now sub-let in Lincoln Park and drive to AHts daily.

SO far these are average, but I have also had the luck to work from here on the snow days of this month, so this is w/o the worst of the travel days.

I have seen about 45-50 min out bound if i leave just before 7, the trip has gone as fast as 35 minutes on lite days and when i have left at 6:30. The most I have seen was about 1hr.
In bound is longer, coming inabout 1:10 avg. When i leave later then 7, its down to 45 even, but right in the middle of rush its as high as 1:15- the worst I saw was 1 Friday with no bad weather and 1 stuck vehicle burnt the middle lane- just after the toll, that night it was 1hr 30 min.

This is not the best, but it is what i expected so I think when my sublet is over this spring I will move here, I just hope April is when the temp goes above 32 degrees for more then 1 day.

 

I live in Libertyville (north suburbs) and the commute is terribad in either and both directions. Good days will give you a 30-40 minute commute in fairly slow but steady traffic. But bad days where it snows 5"+ you are, and Im not kidding, looking at a 3 hour 1-way trip. Consider somewhere in lake county, its a lot closer and the taxes are about 4% lower too.

 

Metra is my best friend I live in Aurora, drive 5 minute to the route 59 Metra station, and take the Metra in. Then walk 2 blocks from Union Station. I hate driving in to the city. It's about 1.5 hours with traffic each way. I lived in the city all my life until 5 years ago when we moved out here. Life is much slower in the burbs, traffic is less, there's more space to stretch your legs.... My parents still live in the city and every time we visit them, I wonder how I lived there all those years....

And since we're talking Chicago highways---let me rant: I HATE the I-90 toll booth. Probably one of the dumbest traffic control ideas ever implemented. take 3 lanes of traffic, open them up to 10 lanes of toll boths, and pack everyone back into those 3 lanes. Then inbound, funnel in 2 more highways while we're at it...

And I-88 (my native highway)--that highway will forever be under construction! I can't remember when there WASN'T any construction on it.... OK, end rant.