When I mention Suburbs I mean the towns outside the city but not outside public transit. (anything further than that and you’re not suburban you’re “downstate”) Chicago and it’s surrounding Suburbs have a very good public transit system. Although the trains from the south suburbs (like NW Indiana and Calumet City area) don’t run as often as say, trains from Downers Grove or Aurora. And the south suburban ones also don’t run “express” in the way some of the others do. Metra has begun to allow people to bring their bikes on the trains and they run on weekends (not as frequently as on week days) Pace buses also run frequently into downtown during the week and there are special transfer passes you can get from Metra & Pace onto the CTA. However, the suburbs don’t all have good public transit WITHIN the town. Like, I grew up in Lansing, IL (right on the Indiana border) within the village, there were only 2 buses and they just went down the two main streets. If I wanted a public transit bus to school….too bad for me, there wasn’t one. Or if I wanted to catch a bus to my friend’s house on the other side of town from where I was, well I could take a bus to just about 2 or 3 miles away from her house. The suburb I currently live in, has busses only to the train station (that I know of). So like if I didn’t have a car, I’d be walking all the way to the grocery store. I’d say if you are coming to Chicago, either live IN Chicago or the West or North suburbs. Yes I love my south suburbs, but you really don’t want to live there.