Safest route into Hyde Park

85bears46
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 14:10:00 +0000

I have driven off the Garfield exit off I-90 (or Day Ryan as we call it in Chicago) numerous times to U of Chicago Main Campus.

In daylight hours it is a relatively safe route. In the morning you will see a lot of Lab School parents as well as UChicago Medicine people taking that route to Hyde Park. Realistically, there is a short distance (may be .6 mile) between the Garfield exit and Morgan Drive (road going through Washington Park) . Once you are on Morgan Drive, you are pretty safe.

Garfield Blvd. is pretty wide with three lanes on each side. Tell your daughter to stay on either the left lane or the middle lane. Then she doesn’t have to worry about any shady characters at street corner when she stops at the red light along Garfield.

Garfield these days off I-90 is much better than 20 years ago. City of Chicago spent millions on renovating the El train stop there and so there are actually many University people getting off the green line stop at Garfield and taking the 55 bus back to Hyde Park.

I have taken the Stony Island at 79th Street exit off I-90 a few times due to horrendous traffic on Dan Ryan in the morning. I drove Stony Island straight up north to campus. That is the South Shore and Jackson Park neighborhood. In day time it is fine. In fact this is the route my kid’s school bus usually takes when they get back from school trips.

All things considered, however, I think the Garfield exit off I-90 is more direct if your DD is coming from the east.

I don’t know how you can take LSD/41 coming from the east. If you are getting off Stony Island at 79th Street exit, it will be a really big detour to go back out to LSD. Of course your DD can drive I-90/94 all the way up north and connect to I-55 and then take LSD south. That will be absolutely the safest route, But it will of course take a much longer drive (and during rush hour, a whole lot longer).