ty97

As a former Chicago resident, I'm impressed at how "quickly" you got there TBH!

jordyn

Yeah, I'm the kind of person that is pretty happy rolling up to some airports (looking at you DCA, at least before the changes in security) even after boarding has already begun, but there's no way I'd plan on making this flight.

coast_2_coast

even with the downstairs security you can just give yourself and extra 7 min for walking and you’re still good AND it is so insanely close to the city you can Gail a cab and be there in 15 min from most of the city. One of my favorites for that reason!

Duke787

Out of pure curiosity, someone should make a poll on this one, would love to see how current/former Chicago residents view this vs those who have just passed through.

It seems like most people self-reporting as current/former Chicago residents (you can add me to that list) are on the side of not making it. I suspect it’s because those of us who lived there can recount more than a few times where it seemed like we had plenty of time to make a flight and then all of a sudden I90 just stopped for no apparent reason and the Google Maps estimate started slowly ticking up.

That’s also why when I visit these days, I always take the Blue Line back to the airport because it’s a relatively fixed amount of time (as long as you account for potentially missing it or some extra hold time along the way) vs the drive which is wildly unpredictable

Lux Flyer

I mean with their 1:45pm on a Wednesday. That is right around the time they flip the express lanes on the Kennedy to go back outbound. (most weekdays I've seen it as early as noon, as late as 2pm, but typically the latter half of that window). Depending how recently those lanes were reversed, it could be very quick to get from the loop to the 94 split, but regardless from 11am onward, it's routinely bumper to bumper between at least the split out to Harlem which is 10-15 minutes of traffic alone. As the afternoon goes on, it continues to backup along 90 reaching all the way back to the loop.

Can second this since I've been routinely driving between the ORD area and downtown (both directions) between late morning and early afternoon hours lately. Easily once or twice a week the estimate will jump 10+ minutes because of a random slow down or it hadn't updated for the most current traffic when I initially checked it to decide which way to go. It's just so highly variable, and part of it can even depend on which lane you're sitting in on 90 (I frequently pick out a car in another lane to compare myself against to see if I made the right lane choice ). But being familiar with the drive, I wouldn't recommend the earlier flight either, on an ideal day, OP is making it with a few minutes to spare. One hiccup on the trip to ORD and that flight is missed. And when it comes to I-90, those hiccups aren't exactly infrequent.

WillBarrett_68

Would I recommend this to my grandmother? No.

OP is clearly aware of what he's getting into. For the right type of traveler, this is perfectly cromulent.