Yesterday I left downtown Milwaukee at about 3:30pm and drove the first 65 miles on my way to ORD in about 70-75 minutes. I was cruising down I-94 without any traffic. I then hit I-294 and it took me about 45-50 minutes to go the last 13 miles to ORD. This surprised me, as I figured the traffic would be heading North, away from Chicago, rather than towards Chicago, but northbound traffic was non-existant. Luckily, I had plenty of time to catch my flight (which was subsequently delayed 3 hours).

I am going to be doing this each week for the forseeable future, at about the same time as well on Thursdays, and I am wondering if there are any alternatives to I-294 to ORD. When looking at the Hertz map, it looked like there were some other roads that would do the trick. They may be side roads, but they can't be any slower than I-294.

Any route alternatives anybody could provide would be greatly appreciated.