One of the most beautiful streets in the world is just an hour away (2024)

What’s the most beautiful street you’ve driven along?

Is it one near your home? In another state? In another country?

One of my favorite streets — DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Chicago — made the new list of “71 Most Beautiful Streets in the World” according to Architectural Digest.

“With the towering skyline on one side and the shore of Lake Michigan on the other, DuSable Lake Shore Drive is the perfect way to take in the Windy City,” the list states. “Grant Park, Museum Campus, and Soldier Field are set along the expressway and the 18-mile Lakefront Trail runs parallel to the busy street for those who wish to explore on foot.”

Every time I drive it — even after hundreds of treks — I pause to appreciate the spectacular view of the skyline to the west and Lake Michigan to the east. It’s a paved and popular juxtaposition between man-made marvels and natural beauty.

“There ain't no road just like it, anywhere I found. Running south on Lake Shore Drive, heading into town. Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound,” according to the song “Lake Shore Drive” by the Chicago-based group Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah, released in 1973.

(On a weird side note, I’m writing today’s column on Saturday while listening to WXRT, 93.1-FM, and its weekly “Saturday Morning Flashback” feature. Just as I wrote the previous paragraph about that song, it randomly played on the radio. Coincidence? Maybe.)

From the intersection of Jeffery Drive/Marquette Drive on the city’s south side to the Hollywood Avenue/Sheridan Road exit on the north side, Lake Shore Drive provides a snapshot glimpse of Chicago and its picturesque promise to newcomers. I try to never take it for granted, regardless if I’m running late for a Cubs game on the north side or a Bears game at Soldier Field.

Yes, heavy traffic can bog down the Lake Shore Drive experience but it can also force us to slow down and look at the beauty on both sides of that paved ribbon winding along the gift of a Great Lake.

There are few things I enjoy more than pedaling along the Chicago lakefront next to Lake Shore Drive, navigating through thousands of people of all shapes, sizes and dialects. Someday, if I ever look back in my life while facing death, I'll close my eyes, remember these experiences and quietly smile.

I can only imagine that other beautiful streets on Architectural Digest’s list prompt similar experiences for users. I’m not much of a world traveler so I’ve driven only a handful of those 71 ranked streets around the globe. These include Central Park West in New York City, Miami Beach’s legendary Ocean Drive and San Francisco's winding Lombard Street.

As a kid, when my parents drove down that tourist-heavy, 5 m.p.h. street during a vacation trip to San Francisco, I remember thinking to myself, “This is the dumbest road in the world.” And the slowest. When I returned 40 years later, I more appreciated its aesthetic and historic value. (Completed in 1922, the street was designed to slow cars down on its steep hill.)

The No. 1 ranked street on that list is located in Colmar, France, near the Germany border.

“The architecture, which seems untouched by time, with its colorful timber structures, contains an Alsatian aesthetic,” the list states.

Lake Shore Drive may not be as fabled but it has a magical quality that continues to hold a spell on visitors.

“It remains a beautiful skyline and beachfront, despite the city’s bruises,” a Chicago restaurant owner commented on a social media post of mine about Lake Shore Drive.

“I love that drive. I take it a couple of times a year,” another person said.

“No city in the U.S. has anything like it,” one friend added.

Other Region readers want nothing to do with anything involving the city of Chicago.

“You mean the Lake Shore Drive where if you don’t drive 60 mph you get run over?” one reader quipped.

“I don’t want to get shot so I stay out of Chicago as much as possible,” another reader said.

Last year I wrote a column suggesting that more Hoosiers should visit the Second City, considering its prominence in our country. Critics shot holes in my suggestion, citing crime problems and headline-grabbing homicides.

I’m not saying I feel 100% safe in every Chicago community. I don’t. But I feel 100% more alive there. There’s something about the Windy City that continues to electrify my sensibilities and heighten my awareness from the moment I see its skyline at a distance. It's like seeing the Emerald City in Oz.

“I’ve been there hundreds of times and each new time plugs me in to an electrical socket of emotional jolts. All of my senses get heightened to a degree,” I wrote.

I feel the same about driving along Lake Shore Drive.

Most of us will never travel along most of the thoroughfares on that global list. But DuSable Lake Shore Drive? Come on. It’s less than an hour away from Northwest Indiana. And it’s worth our time, every time.