Route 40 Columbus to St Louis
Is anyone familiar with this road? considering it as opposed to I-70 on our way to CO. Seems to go through some fairly populated areas.
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
