We love: the museum campus

Map: Mike Novak

The Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum and Adler Planetarium are three of the city’s coolest attractions, but getting there practically requires running shoes and a terry-cloth sweatband. The Adler (farthest east on the museum campus) is a 1.1-mile walk on the meandering pedestrian path from the Roosevelt El stop, making it a difficult trek for kids, the elderly and people with disabilities, especially in winter. Joe Brennan, vice president and general counsel for the Field Museum, says the problem is especially bad for tourists who don’t know that they need to use the underpass at Roosevelt Road and instead try to cross Lake Shore Drive. To make matters worse, only one CTA bus serves museum entrances year-round, and drivers must pony up a cool $19 to park all day. We wouldn’t suggest moving the museums off their scenic peninsula for all the front-door limo service in the world, so what to do? Well, as pie in the sky as it sounds, we’d love for the CTA to pick up where the city’s recently canceled free summer trolley service left off. That’s right: a sightseeing dream bus that, like the trolley, would swing by Ogilvie and Union stations, plus tourist attractions such as Navy Pier, Lincoln Park Zoo and Chinatown, and drop off visitors at museum campus destinations. Too much to ask in the throes of CTA service cuts? “We have no plans to change service at this time,” offered CTA spokeswoman Sheila Gregory.
In the meantime When the weather’s bad, hit more accessible spots such as the Chicago History Museum (1601 N Clark St, 312-642-4600) or the Museum of Science and Industry (5700 S Lake Shore Dr, 773-684-1414).

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