Route 40 Columbus to St Louis

I traveled portions of US 40, from Zanesville Ohio to Columbus. And, Effingham, Il to Vandalia Il.

The road in Ohio was better than Illinois. But Illinois was not too bad.

You definitely don't want to take 40 through Columbus. It's congested.
Effingham was no problem.

Next time, I'll stay on 40 longer.(We were in a hurry on that trip)
I like traveling the side roads.

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks, I'm going to give it a shot. It's close enough to 70 that I can always jump back back and forth.

I guess my question would be why? Although parts of the 40 are pretty open and go through small towns it also goes through some larger ones. I hate having to stop at a signal at every corner. Why not just stick to the 70

Another option would be US 36. We traveled the section from north of St. Louis out most of the way through Kansas before heading south to go to Colorado Springs. If you do take 36 one benefit would be a free night of camping in Marysville KS. Look at it on Google. The city park is just south of 36 and has 30 and 50 amp hookups. We were tenting so I didn't look for a dump station so I wouldn't plan on that. They do take donations if you want to give.

Edit-
Sorry, I answered off of the content in the post and not the name of the post. Going to St. Louis you are going to add a good bit of time by taking 40. Much lower speed limits and they will vary going into every little town. I would say if you feel the need for a break from the interstate jump off and slow down for a few miles on 40. The good thing is when you get tired of red lights and 35 mph you are not far from the next entrance to I-70.

austinjenna wrote:
I guess my question would be why? Although parts of the 40 are pretty open and go through small towns it also goes through some larger ones. I hate having to stop at a signal at every corner. Why not just stick to the 70

Just to get off the interstate.

austinjenna wrote:
I guess my question would be why?

Because traveling the side roads is the best was to see AMERICA. :)

US-40 routes onto I-70 for much of way between Columbus and Terre Haute (that part I am familiar with), but most of the roadway is still available as a Business or Alternative/Emergency route. The two routes separate in western Kansas, where I-70 instead follows old US-24.

It is definitely a lot slower travel, was so even in the late 1960s when I was regularly driving in the area, and most of the smaller cities are even bigger now. You'll want to take the Interstate, maybe even the suburban loops, in places like Indianapolis, St Louis, Kansas City, Topeka. Even 50 years ago it took more than an hour to cross Indianapolis on US-40, and it is much worse now because the suburbs have spread out along the highway. Places like Terre Haute, Effingham, Topeka will slow you down for several miles, while the small towns might be 1/2 mile to a mile of 35 or slower, with possible 20 MPH zones in the town center.

I travel these roads quite a bit, find these situations vary also with day and time of day. I like to use US-24, which goes through several rural market towns. Watseka, Illinois took 20 minutes to cross on a Saturday morning, 7 minutes on a rainy Thursday evening. My time to get through Logansport has ranged from 6 minutes to 30 minutes (the short time being a loop around).

This is the best way to see America, the old highway system went from town to town, you get to see the towns, the people, how they live. The Interstates might cut through big city centers, but for the rest of the country they bypassed the towns and all you see will be the franchise businesses built at or around the Interstate exits, and the edges of corn, wheat and been fields, or the trees planted to hide the fields from view and make it easier for deer to jump out in front of you before you can see them.

Through Missouri and Kansas, at the latitude of Colorado, I prefer US-36. Through Illinois, US-36 is now I-72, in the same way that US-40 became I-70. I don't know US-36 further east, my more northern destinations put me on US-24, US-20, US-6 or US-12.

I70 from Richmond IN, to Knightstown, IN is very bumpy—I imagine that it has something to do with politicians campaigning on low taxes. We travel US 40 every time we tow through that stretch just because I70 is so rough. Richmond is a little slow but the I70 stretch around it is the worst. After Richmond, the small towns on US 40 are quite interesting.