suzanne / April 26, 2004 4:00 PM

Usually the train. On a good day it takes bout 30 minutes.
This summer (aka when it gets warmer) I'll ride my bike on days that I don't have to dress up or look nice for work.

Naz / April 26, 2004 4:09 PM

About 5 seconds. I love my home office/studio. The nice thing is that it is an actual home office for the most part. I'm glad I have enough room in the apartment for it to feel like a separate and conducive working environment.

Carly / April 26, 2004 4:18 PM

Red line to blue line.

It takes me an hour and fifteen minutes from door to door.

It kinda sucks.

dawson / April 26, 2004 4:18 PM

If I'm feeling lazy I take the #156 bus. It's right outside my door, which is nice, but the commute can take anywhere between 1/2 hour to 1 hour.

My alternate route is on the Brown Line. A 10 minute walk is required, but this route never takes more than 1/2 hour to gety my bootay to work.

j3s / April 26, 2004 4:23 PM

Usually, 5 seconds; like Naz, I work from home. However, today I commuted for the first time in a year and a half: from my new apartment to my old apartment. Hopefully I'll have DSL installed at my new place by the time I have to return my old keys on Friday...

Peter / April 26, 2004 4:32 PM

Brown line in, Purple line out.

It usually takes 30-40 minutes, depending on how much duct tape the CTA applied to the infrastructure the night before.

Andrew / April 26, 2004 4:54 PM

I drive ~1:15 each way (for a grand total commute of ~75 miles) to my job in the suburbs. I feel much better about this now that I have a hybrid Prius -- whereas once I got about 25MPG, I'm now upset if I fall below an average of 48.

jmo / April 26, 2004 5:09 PM

3 blocks. Stroll.

Luke / April 26, 2004 5:32 PM

20-35 minutes, depending on the direction and intensity of the wind. 40 minutes if I can't bicycle.

shechemist / April 26, 2004 6:05 PM

about 22 min on my bike to school. 30 mins if I take the bus/el.

when I was working, it took about an hour and 15 mins one way on the train. I read more then, but really, I much prefer my commute now.

A lex / April 26, 2004 6:58 PM

10-15 minutes via the Blue Line.

I start work at 7:30 a.m., can be putzing around my place at 7:15 and still make it in on time. Gotta love the "L!"

haydn / April 26, 2004 8:58 PM

35-45 minutes driving from Rogers Park to Oak
Park--either LSD to Ike or main arteries to leafy boulevard system to, as one co-worker termed it, "the Lake Street autobahn." That's really the best part of the commute-dodging el tracks, trucks and those tricky pedestrians is like playing a late 80s arcade game. 1 hr 5 minutes on Red, Green Lines if I have time.

eliina / April 26, 2004 10:54 PM

*sigh*, 30-40 minutes in the car, but at least none of it is on a highway. and most of the traffic in the morning is inbound while i'm outbound and vice versa. i dream of a job close to the red line.

Benjy / April 27, 2004 12:50 AM

I'm stuck driving out the Kennedy because my office is near O'Hare. If I leave at 8:00, I'll get there by 9:00. However I usually leave just before 9:00 and get there around 9:20. Everybody else in my department seems to have discovered this trick, too...

MC High Life / April 27, 2004 8:03 AM

I live around Addison and Leavitt and hike up to the Western stop on the Brown Line. It's about a 25 minute walk followed by a 40 minute ride to the Loop.

I could walk to the Addison stop in a little over 10 minutes but a nice, quiet walk in the morning is a great way to start the day. An added bonus is that it is easier to get a seat on the ever more crowded Brown Line.

I get off at Addison on the way home. I want to get out of my monkey suit and into a High Life ASAP.

'That Ian' / April 27, 2004 8:34 AM

I carry my bicycle down the stairs, ride North on Hermitage and take a right on Augusta until I hit Ashland whereupon I take a left and ride for a few minutes. Then I take a right on Armitage, a left on Seminary and I'm at work. It takes me about 10 minutes. Maybe 8 on a good day.

heather / April 27, 2004 8:44 AM

a quick 15 minute walk through a couple of parking lots to the blue line, 45 minutes to clark/lake, and, in this beautiful spring, a 10 minute walk over the river to my office.

Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it's awesome - it all depends on what book I've picked up to accompany me....

anne / April 27, 2004 8:48 AM

Right now I walk about 10 minutes, but our office is (probably) moving, and I'm definitely moving to Andersonville in a month, so it'll probably be Red Line, then walk, or Clark bus, then walk. sigh....At least I'll be living in a far better apartment.

Pete / April 27, 2004 9:05 AM

Metra, from one Union Station (Joliet) to the other (Chicago). About 65 minutes each way, which would seem interminable were it not for my chronically towering "to-read" pile.

Al / April 27, 2004 9:53 AM

I used to take the bus and then the train and then the bus from Hyde Park which would take an hour plus. Now I drive and from LSD its only a 20 min drive. It's sad that most south siders have to rely on the unreliable CTA bus system. I shake my fist at you #55!

paul / April 27, 2004 9:59 AM

Somedays it's the 5 second commute, other days it's a walk to the purple line, and a 35-45 minute ride to River North. The later in the morning I go in, the slower the train ride, due to track work.

davin / April 27, 2004 10:27 AM

my commute is literally the bane of my existence. it can take anywhere from 35 minutes (in the morning) to 1 hour and 35 minutes at night. i hate the Edens and i hate how much of my life is spent on it.

the worst part of it all is that my cd player was stolen out of my car, so i only have a little radio. yick.

i'm trying to stay positive, i really am.

Brenda / April 27, 2004 10:31 AM

Brown to Red to Blue. Basically, the longest possible way to travel to a place that is 7 miles directly south of my apartment. Takes almost an hour each way.

If only there was a subway line that ran the length of Damen Avenue...

Andrew / April 27, 2004 10:42 AM

Davin, it only makes sense if you live fairly close to the lake (in this case, close means Western Ave. and east), but instead of jumping on the Edens, try taking Lake Cook to Sheridan and Sheridan down from there. It's how I go every day, and it's a predictable 25-30 minutes from Lake Cook to Evanston. (Of course, if *everybody* knows my shortcut, it won't be so quick...)

emily / April 27, 2004 10:45 AM

As we just moved from Evanston to Wicker Park, my commute went from a 5 min car ride to almost an hour. I used to be able to walk to work along the lake in about 25 minutes on nice days, but now it's the car every day.

Now that my residence has moved from Evanston to the city, it's time to do the same with my job.

Craig / April 27, 2004 10:54 AM

Before I moved: South Blvd Purple Line Express to Merch Mart Brown. Off at Washington/Wells. #20 Bus West to West Loop Gate. 1hr 5mins or so

Starting today it's: Damen Blue to Grand Blue. Snatch the #8 Halsted 5 mins south, or walk 10 mins south. 25 mins or so. Can't wait to bike it tomorrow.

Roni / April 27, 2004 11:30 AM

We carpool...The hubby drives to work, he gets out, I take the wheel, drop off Miss Ella at daycare, then I drive to work. Hubby takes el to daycare afterwork, then the 3 of us head to la casita. Whew! One hour door to door in the morning. After work is quicker cause there's no need to head downtown.

Emily / April 27, 2004 11:36 AM

#76 diversey bus, unless I can catch a ride with my roomate. It takes about 25 mins, not counting waiting time and it takes me almost exactly door-to-door.

Wendy / April 27, 2004 11:41 AM

I drive up Lincoln Avenue. It's about 35 minutes, but sometimes I make it in 20 and I don't know why I think there must be a wormhole somewhere just past Devon where I disappear or something.

mich / April 27, 2004 12:52 PM

It's a good solid hour's drive, at least, from Hyde Park out to Naperville. Why do I do it? Seriously, would YOU live in Naperville? Right. I just so wish the train schedule was conducive to the reverse commute. I could get so much reading done. However, I do get to listen to an obscene amount of radio. Or my one lone Johnny Cash tape. Mmhmm.

holden / April 27, 2004 1:48 PM

10 minute walk to the Cali L stop, ~20 train time to Monroe, 8 minute walk to work. so roughly 40 minutes. not bad. gives me some time to sample some cd's and also a book! but, next week, i will be switching jobs and will then be biking from Western/Fullerton to Belmont/Lincoln & i have no idea how long it will take.

pj chmiel / April 27, 2004 1:57 PM

It takes me about 5 minutes to travel the 1.5 miles between home and work on my Vespa scooter. It would be about half of that if Brwyyn Mawywrr avenue wasn't so littered with pesky stop signs at every block. I've always deliberately made an effort to live within a couple miles of work, as I can't stomach over a 10 minute commute.

Cinnamon / April 27, 2004 2:27 PM

10-15 minutes as a passenger in a shiny, red Prius named Sparky.
or
30-45 minutes from the purple to the red, depending on how much duct tape fell off the train on its way out of town.
or
20-30 minutes by bike. Gotta do that more often this summer.

miss ellen / April 27, 2004 2:36 PM

30 minutes, door-to-door.

even though i just moved two el stops farther away from the loop, i now literally cross the street to the station, when before it was just under a 10 minute walk to the train.

plus i'm at logan now - word up to the underground station ;)

Jake / April 27, 2004 3:34 PM

30-50 minutes. Two block walk to Paulina Brown line, transfer to Red line to Grand. "This is Grand!" Two more blocks to walk to work.

Much better than when I lived up near Foster & Leavitt when I had to either walk, like, 8 blocks to the Western or Daman stop, or take the Foster bus to the Berwin Red line.

Does anybody else ever occasionally get on the Purple line expess going north at Belmont when you think it's the Brown line? It seems to happen to me about once every 8 months, and I get so mad at myself that I want to break out a window and jump out.

Jonatahn / April 27, 2004 3:52 PM

10-15 on the bike. Milwaukee Ave. is my pipeline.

Eliza / April 27, 2004 8:56 PM

on a good day, twenty five minutes on the brown (western) to the red (chicago)

amyc / April 27, 2004 9:44 PM

Jake, you and I have the exact same commute (Paulina--Belmont--Grand). Freaky.

Craig / April 28, 2004 9:25 AM

Update: 15 minutes by bike. Damen to Washington Blvd. Excellent.

Jake / April 28, 2004 9:36 AM

Amy, strange that I've never seen you. What car do you get in? I'm usually in the second or third from the front.

amyc / April 28, 2004 10:11 AM

I usually take the last car -- easier to find a seat and read.

Naz / April 28, 2004 10:13 AM

Gapers Missed Commuters!

robin.. / April 28, 2004 10:14 AM

35-40 on the brownline. my work and my home are 1/2 block, tops, from either spot at which i detrain--a very compelling advantage. however, we're moving all of 2 blocks this weekend, and i'll no longer be able to get on at one of the few places where the el is no longer el'ed.

Archie / April 28, 2004 10:39 AM

My work is a 10 min walk across one major intersection in suburbia, but sometimes i get lazy and make it into a 5 minute drive :)

Ian / April 28, 2004 10:42 AM

Like Naz, j3s and Paul, I enjoy a 5 second commute to my desk.

Do you home-workers generally leap out of bed and start working or do you complete a morning routine of shower and breakfast before starting the day?

Jim / April 28, 2004 10:44 AM

I work in the 'burbs near O'hare and live in Edgewater.

1) Red Line to Pace, 70 minutes
2) Bike, about 45 minutes*
3) Car, 35 minutes

*except on days its so windy, like today, I think I'll die... add 5 minutes. But it seems like an eternity!

Naz / April 28, 2004 10:46 AM

Ian - a bit of both. Some days I'll go right into work and then do my missed morning routine just before lunch but it depends on if it's a workout day. If it is, then it's up early, workout, shower, some brekkie then work.

Jen / April 28, 2004 11:07 AM

This is off-topic, but I think the Walkin Dude is Yanni.

I've seen that guy at clubs before. He's so pimp that it's a crime.

I admire him deeply.

davin / April 28, 2004 11:13 AM

i think it's amusing how many people have responded to this question. i have often thought that i spend nearly as much time talking about my long commute as i do on the commute itself.

andrew, i do know about sheridan and use it when the edens is going to take me over an hour. sheridan rd is a guarenteed hour for me as i live in wicker park.

Naz / April 28, 2004 11:20 AM

Davin - it's true. You spend a good chunk of your time commuting - it's like sleep now, part of the routine, which is crap if you can't use it productively.