<p>I am planning on exploring Chicago. While I did hear about things, I am not sure if CTA blue line is safe at 2AM. What is your opinion? Which part of the route should I avoid?</p>
<p>Wandering Chicago at 2AM isn’t safe pretty much anywhere. Especially when you move westward past Cottage Grove there’s a lot of shady activity, even during the daytime. I would suggest avoiding that–especially if you’re alone. However, being in a group is vastly different so in that case it’s up to you and your party.</p>
<p>Students take the Blue Line back from Wicker Park or Logan Square late at night on weekends all the time. The question isn’t whether the Blue Line itself (or any other CTA transport) is safe – they are all safe enough. The question is how you get back to campus from the places you want to go, and how much time you have to spend waiting in or walking through places where you feel exposed. </p>
<p>The university runs a shuttle on weekends from the South Loop, but the last one now leaves at 12:30 am. (I think it used to be later.) The CTA #6 bus, which is express from the South Loop to Hyde Park, runs all night, no less frequently than every 12 minutes, and it’s an easy connection with the Blue Line, but it puts you about 3/4 mile from most of the on-campus dorms. From there, you can walk, take the university shuttle, or the CTA #55 bus (if you live on the north side of campus). That’s not a bad area at all – it’s the nicest part of Hyde Park – but it’s still someplace you would rather have company if you are on the street in the wee hours of the morning. The shuttles and 55 bus run frequently, but not so frequently that you might not have to wait 10+ minutes.</p>
<p>not safe - source - lifelong chicagoan</p>
<p>In my experience, many “lifelong Chicagoans” systematically overstate the risk of things like living in Hyde Park or riding the CTA at night unless they do those things themselves on a regular basis. </p>
<p>The same thing is true where I live. A few years ago, I spent a day walking around the southwestern edge of the University City neighborhood here with a recently retired police officer. He came prepared for foot patrol in a war zone, and was stunned to find a happy, peaceful, middle-class neighborhood (which is what I expected because I had lived there for eight years, when crime problems citywide were much worse). His expectation was based on cop folklore that was seriously out of date, and that had probably never been actually accurate. And I remember the advice my wife got when she was getting ready to go to graduate school at Penn, about where it was safe to live. We knew lots of lifelong Philadelphians, many of whom had gone to college at Penn, and they had no idea what it was like to live in the actual neighborhoods near Penn (but beyond the undergraduate ghettos).</p>
<p>FOR ME, there is a world of difference between my feeling of safety in taking just about any CTA ride (train, bus, Wicker Park, Hyde Park, makes little difference) alone at 2 a.m. compared to,say, alone at 8 p.m or with a group of friends at 2 a.m… You’re not going to find relevant statistics, mostly because the number of middle-class teens riding the Blue Line alone at 2 a.m., and then waiting around for a bus in the South Loop is vanishingly small. Also, feelings of safety are situational within your life. If you are a 50-year old resident of Northbrook who is considering how they might choose to get home from a late night show in Wicker Park, you (and just about everybody you know) are likely to choose to bring your car, park it in a lot close to the club, and drive yourself home in it. The idea of finding yourself on a Blue Line train at 2 a.m. with your ultimate destination Hyde Park — it just isn’t going to happen. So someone who says “not safe” might be speaking from that situational sense of safety and likely scenarios. </p>
<p>If you were my kid and were going to be visiting Chicago for a weekend, I’d ask you to do your 2 a.m. travelling only with groups of friends (3 or more, I think), or if you must travel alone at that hour, to spend some cash on a cab.</p>
<p>I’m kind of on memake’s team here – I’d feel safe doing it (there should be decent foot traffic at on the Blue Line at least into the Loop) but if I were a parent I wouldn’t be thrilled about my child doing it. </p>
<p>OP, are you looking to get to campus from O’Hare? You might want to look into a shared ride van and take your anxiety off navigating a new place late at night.</p>