moving to chicago to do delivery work - which part of the city is less congested? (Cicero: apartments, crimes)

[movingsomewhere]

i plan on moving to chicago to do delivery work such as pizza delivery and or mail and package delivery. what part of chicago is less congested in traffic? i am assuming downtown is the most congested part of chicago. i prefer to do my line of work where there's more housing (houses/apartments) than businesses. areas with lots of businesses tend to be the most busy, therefore, traffic is bad.

[Drover]

Generally speaking, the further you are away from the lakeshore and/or downtown, the less congested, though the main arteries can still get congested leading inbound during morning rush and outbound during afternoon rush, no matter how far from the city core. But in general, there isn't a lot of congestion most times of day in the areas north of Fullerton, west of Western, and south of 31st. However, this area also includes a lot of neighborhoods you might not want to spend quality time in.

[Avengerfire]

Well the areas that are more congested are where you will have more deliveries and make more tips so...

[NYrules]

Ive seen in Chicago's downtown as well as in Manhattan, pizza places in many cases gave up the cars and went to bikes. It's a good idea I guess as long as you don't get hit, will give you good excercise, and is much easier to get around the city in. But overall driving in the Loop or Gold Coast to me doesn't seem that bad really and I really don't see why it is such a big deal. Ok during rush hour it might back up some, but overall the traffic moves just fine and remember this, if you work downtown your delivery radius will only be maybe a mile at most vs. tens of miles like it was back long ago when I was a delivery boy out in the burbs.

[Lookout Kid]

There are parts of the west side where there are only three or four buildings left on a block (while the sidewalks and alleys remain)... But you probably wouldn't want to deliver pizza there.

Be careful what you wish for. Often times in Chicago less congested = riskier neighborhood. Of course this isn't always true!

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Ive seen in Chicago's downtown as well as in Manhattan, pizza places in many cases gave up the cars and went to bikes. It's a good idea I guess as long as you don't get hit, will give you good excercise, and is much easier to get around the city in.

Actually it seems tons of places have switched to bike messengers for deliveries.

[aragx6]

I've seen them in the loop.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Ive seen in Chicago's downtown as well as in Manhattan, pizza places in many cases gave up the cars and went to bikes. It's a good idea I guess as long as you don't get hit, will give you good excercise, and is much easier to get around the city in. But overall driving in the Loop or Gold Coast to me doesn't seem that bad really and I really don't see why it is such a big deal. Ok during rush hour it might back up some, but overall the traffic moves just fine and remember this, if you work downtown your delivery radius will only be maybe a mile at most vs. tens of miles like it was back long ago when I was a delivery boy out in the burbs.

As a delivery driver working on tips, there is more money to be made in Lake View,Lincoln Park,Wicker Park, etc than downtown anyway.

The reason delivering with a car downtown is not advisable has nothing to do with traffic anyway and yet traffic can get really hairy down there like when the bridges are raised.

The risk taken of getting your car towed or ticketed is unreal at anytime of day or night.

[Drover]

Yeah, they'll even ticket FedEx/UPS trucks downtown even though downtown commerce would all but grind to a halt without parcel services. I've even seen one meter maid walk up to a FedEx truck and put a ticket on it... by the time I got back out of the restaurant with my "to-go" order in hand, another one had come along and given it another ticket already.

[reppin_the_847]

Honestly if you're planning on doing a delivery gig such as pizza delivery, I'd try to stick to suburban jobs rather than city jobs if possible. Of course they're always gonna need delivery guys in the city, but just on the clear basis of risk (risk of getting into a collision, risk of getting mugged, etc.), the risk-factor is higher in the city than it would be in an affluent suburb. Now before any flamers come after me, notice that I mentioned that the suburb must be affluent. In other words, delivering pizza in a suburb such as Cicero Maywood isn't exactly going to be safer than delivering pizza in a city neighborhood, because that is an example of a suburb that is known for being home to more crimes and a gang presence. If you live in Rogers Park, for example, you could probably commute up to a pizza delivery job in Evanston or even the Wilmette/Winnetka area (as safe as it gets in suburban Cook County). Good luck!

Originally Posted by movingsomewhere

i plan on moving to chicago to do delivery work such as pizza delivery and or mail and package delivery. what part of chicago is less congested in traffic? i am assuming downtown is the most congested part of chicago. i prefer to do my line of work where there's more housing (houses/apartments) than businesses. areas with lots of businesses tend to be the most busy, therefore, traffic is bad.