Distances from Kankakee, IL to nearby cities and major US destinations
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Kankakee, IL to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Kankakee, IL sits in Illinois, on Chicago time, at 41.12° north and 87.86° west. The nearest place of any size is Park Forest, IL, about 33 miles away — roughly 53 min of driving. 27 other towns of size are within an hour's drive.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 182 are within three hours' driving of Kankakee, IL and 390 within six — which is a better measure of how connected a town is than its position on a map. The nearest city of real size is Chicago, IL, about 60 miles out.
The two lists below answer different questions. The first is what is physically close, which is what you want for an errand or a day out. The second is the major cities people actually drive to from here, which is usually a longer trip and a different kind of plan. Every figure is an estimated road distance rather than a routed one, and every drive time assumes free-flowing traffic with no allowance for a stop — how the estimate works. For a pair that is not listed here, the calculator will work out any two US cities.
Which way the driving goes from Kankakee, IL
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Kankakee, IL. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 101 of 182 — lies to the north, with 22 to the northeast. Only 4 sit to the southwest. That asymmetry is usually geography rather than road building: coastline, a state line, mountains or simply empty country in one direction and settlement in another.
114 of those places are in Illinois and 68 are across a state line, which matters more than the mileage does. Speed limits, phone rules and what you may do at a red light are all set state by state, so a drive of the same length can be governed by two sets of rules or by one. The state-by-state differences are set out separately.
The major-city list below spans a wide range: Chicago, IL is about 60 miles out, roughly 1 hr 12 min of driving, while Los Angeles, CA is around 2,000 miles — a different order of trip entirely, and one to plan in stages rather than as a day.
One thing none of these figures account for: the distance is the same in both directions but the drive often is not. A route that climbs on the way out descends on the way back, rush hour is in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening, and a mountain pass can be open one way and closed the other in winter. The estimate here is symmetrical because the road is; the day is not. For a long haul out of Kankakee, IL, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Kankakee, IL
- Park Forest, IL 33 mi · 53 min
- New Lenox, IL 34 mi · 53 min
- Chicago Heights, IL 36 mi · 56 min
- Joliet, IL 37 mi · 58 min
- Tinley Park, IL 39 mi · 1 hr 1 min
- Crest Hill, IL 40 mi · 1 hr 3 min
- Schererville, IN 40 mi · 1 hr 3 min
- Crown Point, IN 40 mi · 48 min
- Homer Glen, IL 41 mi · 49 min
- Oak Forest, IL 41 mi · 50 min
Major cities from Kankakee, IL
- Chicago, IL 60 mi · 1 hr 12 min
- Philadelphia, PA 778 mi · 12 hr 21 min
- New York City, NY 839 mi · 13 hr 19 min
- Manhattan, NY 841 mi · 13 hr 21 min
- Brooklyn, NY 843 mi · 13 hr 23 min
- Queens, NY 849 mi · 13 hr 29 min
- Houston, TX 1033 mi · 16 hr 23 min
- San Antonio, TX 1165 mi · 18 hr 30 min
- Phoenix, AZ 1655 mi · 26 hr 16 min
- Los Angeles, CA 2000 mi · 31 hr 44 min