Driving distance between O'Hare (ORD) and Downtown Chicago is 20.5 mi and 1H 17min?

Heavy traffic in busy cities is normal. It would be similar if you were trying to get in and out of NYC or Boston or San Francisco at this hour. Is this news?

The smarter way is a perfectly nice train that runs from O'Hare to downtown Chicago straight shot: $5. It'll let you off blocks from anywhere in the Loop, or you can get an Uber at that point.

When you're in a city like this, a car is a huge impediment, an albatross around your neck. Paying hundreds of dollars to rent a car, plotz in hellscape traffic, pay to store it in a downtown parking garage, risk parking tickets if you're not savvy about parking in cities, etc. -- that's a lot of money and time sunk. At least evaluate transit.

I always use transit in NYC, Philly, DC, Chicago and Toronto. Never driven in any of them, never expect to. I'm also fond of staying in hotels right next to suburban train stations for 1/2 to 1/3 the nightly cost of a downtown hotel.

The red areas show traffic. There is currently construction which adds 12 minutes and there is a road closure.

This graph shows traffic statistics for this route:

You may also have "Avoid Tolls" selected in your Google Maps settings, as that route is using surface roads (River, Harlem) instead of the expressways for the first half of the trip. But, given the time of day and typical delays/accidents on either expressway routes (I90, I294/290) it's possible that was the fastest option.