is anyone familiar with.......
 

......the traffic patterns around indianapolis, and st. louis? would you stay on 70 and 55 respectively, and go straight through or take the beltways?

tolls aren't a concern. if i can avoid it, i don't want to be sitting in major traffic jams like 495 around dc. :eek1: :)

In St Louis I would take the bypass. Use 270 if you are continuing on 70 or 55 N and stay on 55/70 until you get to I 255 if you will be taking 55 s or 44 out of St Louis. The interchange across the river where 55/70 split can be a PITA even at 3 am.

For Indy depending on the time of day it can be a mess no matter which way you go through. If you do decide to take the loop take the south side.

no hazmat allowed thru Indy but other wise thats the prefered route also depends on where your going from St. Louis on which way to go.

Whut them two guys said Diane, on Indy. If your hauling hazmat, take the loop south around Indy. It saves about 2 miles over the north side loop..and about 15 minutes at times. I've never had a mojor slowdown going straight through Indy with non-haz...but I don't get all that many non-haz loads through Indy.

St Louis. If your heading west beyond St. Louis, take the I-270 route. Saves about 18 miles over going through downtown. If your going south of St. Louis you will save miles taking I-57 south from Effingham. Especially if your headed to Little Rock.
If your going to be jumping onto I-44 though, just stay with I-70/I-55 to downtown. Taking the southern loop doesn't save you time or miles in that case. You can actually miss a lot of traffic going into downtown at the right time of day. The southern loop seems to pack up all day long for some silly reason.

thank you all! :thumbsup:

i'll be going westbound, and no hazmat, unless you count my stepson's old couch. :eek1: :D i volunteered to drive their rental out to phoenix :hellno: so i don't know exactly what times i'm going to hit those cities.

thanks for that tip for staying on 55 orangebear, hopefully i can hit it at the right time and breeze on through. ;)

A word of caution on Indy: If you're going 70 straight through, watch the signs. There are also one or two curves posted at 40 or 45...I'd take 'em seriously.

It's not as bad as Nashville, but if you've never been through there, it can catch ya offguard.

I went through Indy at 0800 one day last week (Tuesday, I think), and was surprised to find only the slightest slowdown, even at rush hour.

Be safe!

thanks for the reminder 69xke and welcome to the board, i'll be there when they pack the truck, so i can make sure they don't get zealous and go to the roof.

looking at the map again, i skipped over columbus oh, and tulsa/ok city. does anyone think i'll have trouble with any of those? :confused:

[edit] does anyone know how the traffic around indy/st. louis stacks up against the cross bronx or north jersey? [/edit]

Westbound I70 in Columbus can come to a stop during morning rush hour from the 105mm to the I71 split at the 100mm. Stay to your left before the split to follow 70. It stays slow till the other side of downtown. Other than that I would go right thru the middle unless you have a CB and hear something different. When its rush hour there's no guarantee on the bypass either. If you want to take the bypass go the southern route, its not much farther. Ohio in general will give you 62-63 unless there having a bad day. I've been spotted at 64-65 and they let me go or hit me with the spotlight just to say slow down. At night its a law they have to leave their lights on so its easy to spot them in the middle. At night they tend to leave us alone and concentrate on drunk drivers. Enjoy your trip.

omg, snowman i totally forgot about speed. :o i assumed the limit would be 65 almost all the way through.

leave it to you to bring that up :D :p :D j/k