Hey all,
I'll be moving to Philly in June and am interested in buying a condo in the Art Museum area. I like the neighborhood feel of this area and it seems to be a relatively good value compared to Center City.
My one concern is the commute time to CHOP (where I'll be working). I will be using public transportation, driving, and walking. I've heard public transportation access isn't the best around the Art Museum.
Anyone have thoughts on this?
Thanks for your help.
-M

It will vary a little bit depending where you're living exactly, but it won't be bad at all. You can expect to have to make a transfer, though (although you could take the 7 down to South St. and walk across the bridge, which would save you the trouble of transfering but will stick you with a 10 minute-or-so walk).

Take a look at the map here (note that you can click on it to enlarge the various sections of it). As you can see, there are a number of north/south buses that run through the neighborhood; which one you take will depend on your exact location. From most of them you can transfer to the following (listed in order from best to worst):
--42 on Walnut St. This makes a left on 34th and has a stop right in front of CHOP.
--40 on South St. This runs up South, over the river, and has a stop a block away from CHOP. Doesn't run quite as frequently as the 21 or 42.
--21 on Walnut St. Runs up Walnut. You'd get off at 33rd or 34th and Walnut and be about a 5 minute walk from CHOP.
--Subway-Surface Green Line trolleys. You'd transfer from your southbound bus to the trolley at the 22nd St. subway station, and you'd get off at 33rd or 36th. From either of those two stations you'd be about a 10 minute walk from CHOP.

As you can see you have a number of options. Maps and schedules for each of these and all other SEPTA routes are available at http://www.septa.org under the "schedules" tab. Or, as I said before, you could just take a bus to South St. and walk from there. Either way, you're looking at under 30 minutes including walking. Not bad at all.

*Disclaimer: I don't live in the neighborhood, so if I accidentally left out a potentially-better option, someone please chime in (though I don't think I have).

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When life throws pies at you, make yourself a tall, cool glass of piemonade!

I commute from 26th and Brown to the Cira Centre (30th & Market) every day, which is a similar commute to the one you are considering.

Walking takes me 27 minutes.

Public transportation, actually, is not bad. Fairmount has five Center City bus lines that serve it (the 7, 32, 33, 38, and 48). Look at this link for details on how often they run---http://home.comcast.net/~kyle.sollie/Fairmount_Cen ter_City_Combined_Bus_Schedule_June_2 005.xls)

For example, on a weekday from 7:00 am to 9:30 pm, there are 279 rides from Fairmount to Center City (Market St.), averaging just 3 minutes between each ride.
From Market Street, take the trolleys. All of the bus routes I mention drop you near a trolley stop. (The 7 and 48 drops near 22d & Market; the 32, 33 and 38 at 19th & Market). The trolleys run every few minutes or so during rush hour. My commute ranges from 17 minutes to 25 minutes, depending on how you make the connections.

Driving, setting aside parking efforts, takes about 8 to 10 minutes.

Hope this is helpful.

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Kyle O. Sollie

Do note, though, that the South Street bridge will close in a year for 18 months. How the bus routes will change is anyone's guess.

It would be a quick bike ride over the Spring Garden bridge, though it might not be a whole lot of fun because of the traffic.

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lee

If you are walking to work that you can walk along the trail along the Schuylkill river which you can get to behing the Art Musuem. There are steps either at Walnut Street bridge or I believe at the South Street bridge.

What's CHOP? a restaurant?

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Your first mistake was to answer back to the undefeated, master of beating suckers silly.

I biked it when I did a gig there.
It is a very pleasent and fast bike ride

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Peace Out, Philly!

Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia

In addition to the above suggestions, I've found it's a quick walk straight down 20th Street and across JFK to 30th Street Station. There are no cross streets between 20th St and 30th St. Station, so it's a very easy walk. Additionally, from 30th Street Station, there is a CHOP shuttle that makes stops at the various CHOP buildings and runs during both the morning and evening rush hours.

Thanks to everyone for the input and suggestions. It sounds like it's definitely not a bad commute at all.
-M