I’m approaching the end of a year of commuting from my home down to the Loop every day. It’s the longest period in my life during which I’ve had a downtown commute. I suppose I could take the train but that would either require me to set aside 15 minutes to walk to the train station or drive to the train station and park. Then there’s the walk from the train station to the office or alternatively, a cab ride. Add up the fare, the parking, and the cab and it would actually cost me more to take the train while affording me substantially less flexibility.
With no traffic I live 15 minutes from the Loop. I’ve found that there’s a narrow window during which I can get from home to the office in 40 minutes. Outside that window it’s an hour and a half.
I think there must be some sort of pact so that the CPD doesn’t give tickets during rush hour. I have yet to see a patrol car anywhere along my route.
Getting from the Kennedy to the office is an art all its own. The greatest obstacles are cyclists, cab drivers, and bus drivers who, for some reason, have arrived at the conclusion that the traffic laws do not apply to them. Then there’s the 7-11 along the way on the ground floor of a rise. There’s always somebody double-parked in front of it, presumably having gone in to get coffee. And the timing of the stoplights with people trying to make left or right turns (depending on which way the street went—no two-way streets in this portion of the Loop).
We must have switched lives in some part, since I’ve been working from home for just over a year now. I’m not sure I am well adapted to the seclusion, but I don’t miss even my small commute (15 mins).
I’m a wimp on travel to the Loop. I either arrange for a hotel stay or simply park at the first parking lot I spot getting off the expressway and walk the rest of the way in.