I’m really, really dreading this Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. You see, I will be working a normal day, getting home about 5 or 5:30 and then have to set off for my relatives in Michigan.
I’ll be leaving from roughly the 90/94 (Kennedy/Edens) Junction and will have to get to 94E in Indiana. I am anticipating terrible holiday + rush traffic. Right now, the plan is to suck it up and head right through the city on the typical Kennedy & Ryan to Skyway route.
Can anyone think of a better way to go? Thinking about an expected three hour trip just to get to Indiana, I start thinking of crazy ideas like Cicero to something east or north and west to the Tristate but I know they will be just as busy and not any faster.
Well, you could avoid the downtown interstates by using surface roads to Lakeshore, Lakeshore down to Jackson Park, and Stony Island to the Skyway. Depending on how far from the lake your starting point is and the relative speeds of traffic on Lakeshore vs. the Kennedy & Dan Ryan, you might save some time. A lot will depend on traffic conditions the day of — be sure to check the traffic reports before you leave.
I don’t envy you your drive, though. When I lived in Chicago, I always took Amtrak over to Michigan (Ann Arbor, specifically) instead.
You might think about taking a nap at home, and then leaving around 7 or 8 pm. You’ll probably arrive about the same time. Leaving early probably wouldn’t help; on days like that, rush hour seems to begin around 2 pm. Good luck!
I’ll admit that I’ve never driven anywhere near Chicago, but I’ve done three-hour solo drives dozens of times and Tim’s advice about taking a nap is solid. The worst, scariest long drives (well, next to those in bad weather) are ones when you are overtired. If there’s time to make sure you set out well-rested, please take it. You’ll feel so much better fully alert than you will if you’re struggling to stay awake.
Unless it’s important to be there Wed. night, leave around 7 a.m. on Thursday.
I guarantee no traffic; I’ve done Chicago to SW Michigan at that time on Thanksgiving Day several times.
(And one post-Thanksgiving Sunday morning I made it from SW Mich to O’Hare in under 2 hours. Was fighting with my sister (who was my passenger) and couldn’t get rid of her soon enough.)
Yeah, I agree with the early morning. I’m an early riser myself, but if you get a good night’s sleep and head out around 5 AM, there’ll be no traffic.
(Footnote: my idiot son decided to fly into O’Hare at 6 PM on Wednesday. Sigh. We’re in northern suburbs; one year, he flew into Midway and it was six hours round trip to pick him up.)
Is Amtrak an option for you? I live on the north side of Chicago and have occasional business in Battle Creek. I always take the train, and use cabs while I’m there. Amtrak takes about as long as driving, is cheap, and hassle-free. Just a thought!
I considered both the Thursday morning drive and Amtrak.
Amtrak doesn’t have a late train out there on Wednesday and since there’s two of us, it’s like a $300 round trip.
We’re staying at my brother’s place in AA for the couple nights that we’re there but the party is at some other relatives near Adrian, some 40 miles south east. My brother does not own a car so we’re his ride. Also, I don’t think I’d enjoy a long meal into the night with relatives I haven’t seen in years after having just driven in for 5 or 6 hours.
That said, a Thursday morning departure is not completely ruled out. If the travel times are really awful, it may happen.
Here are the results and they are surprising. Long story short, there was no unusual traffic at all.
We left Jefferson Park at 6 sharp and got onto a slow but moving Kennedy at Foster. After the Junction, the speeds went faster and faster and by the time we were south of about Fullerton, we were moving so well, I was checking my phone to make sure I had the date right. There were absolutely no delays all through downtown, the Ryan or the Skyway or Indiana tollways. Total travel time was 5 hours with a quick stop for food and fuel. This is the nominal travel time you’d expect if you set off at, say, 6am on a Sunday. In fact, I’d advised my brother (our destination) that we would get in at 1 or 2am so when we showed up a few minutes before midnight (Eastern), he wasn’t even home yet. FWIW, the WBBM traffic report had O’Hare to Downtown travel times at 50 minutes.
Coming home, we hit the city at about 5 on Black Friday. Traffic was even lighter coming back home and we arrived about 4.5 hours after leaving. If it weren’t for the tollbooths, I don’t think we’d have dropped below 80 the whole way. WBBM had their aircraft reporting mall parking lot congestion. Rolleyes are suitable here.
Thanks for all the suggestions, though. I can’t explain it but I guess it just goes to show how unpredictable traffic is around here.
I agree on the unpredictability of traffic nowadays. My trip to O’Hare was only 40 minutes (normally 30), and the trip home was speeding along at 30 minutes. Who woulda guessed?
