Travels thru cities or around them?

[cjmgranny]

Hi all,
Is there an easy way to find out if it is a good idea to travel through a city with a travel trailer or if going around the city is preferable?
I grew up in Boston MA and although it is a great city, I would rather drive around it than thru it with my travel trailer if Boston were not my destination.
We are planning a cross country trip and are wondering specifically about Indianapolis IN, E St Louis IL and St Louis MO.
Thank you,
cjmgranny

[koda55]

One thing to remember when seeing the 3 numbers for cities:
The first number, if it is even, that will take you around the city. Example I240 I440

Odd number will take you into the city. Example I175 I375

[Wadcutter]

rk911 wrote:
between 2000-2012 ESL has averaged 21 murders per year. and according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority ESL had an average of 40-homicides per year between 1980-87. but between 1988-1993 the city averaged 68 per year. ICJA attributes that increase to the introduction of crack cocaine. what you may have been referring to was the homicide rate...the number of murders per capita in the city. the rate peaked in 1989 at somewhere between 300-350 homicides per capita.

there's no doubt that ESL is a dangerous place and apart from the riverboat casino there's not much in the area for tourists...and I'd be wary of the casino. just wanted to set the record straight.

I was working murders in ESL metro area in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I know exactly how many they were having. We were averaging 1 a night in the early 1990s. Weekends were a shooting gallery where we'd have multiples almost every weekend. We had several guys doing cold case murders who were solving 20-30 a year each. Those are cases the ESLPD had not done much for investigations and our people were picking up those cases and following up. In about 1993 or 94 we had 6 murders for the month January of that year and were wondering if our luck had finally changed because of the low number. Summer came and our luck hadn't.
Be careful quoting stats just for ESL. They don't include all the metro area around ESL which all run together like National City, Sauget, Washington Park, Brooklyn, Venice, Madison, and getting into Granite City. I was there. I know the stats.

[wnjj]

cjmgranny wrote:
Hi all,
I am thrilled to get this much feedback to my question. We have a small T@B trailer and this will be our first cross country trip. I appreciate all of your help! Keep thoses suggestions coming!
Thanks,
"Granny"
PS... I did not know bypasses had 3 numbers.

The Interstate systems uses 3 numbers where the last 2 match the highway they are an alternate for. For example I-5 has I-205 and I-405 for bypass routes in Portland, OR. If the first number is even the alternate route will return to the original. If not, it's called a spur and will not work as a bypass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System#Auxiliary_.28three-digit.29_Interstates_.28co...

[Red-Rover]

We generally take the shortest route regardless of traffic. The important thing for us is a GPS that advises well in advance what lane we need to be in for our next turn, that gives plenty of time for a lane change.
One of the worst places I have ever been in was last autumn in Salem, MA. getting to Winter Island campground. Streets designed for buggies and not 35 foot trailers. Really had to swing wide for some turns.

[rk911]

Wadcutter wrote:

cjmgranny wrote:
Hi all,
This information is terrific!
I was thinking we should avoid St Louis MO but had no idea that camping in E. St Louis IL would not be a good idea.

You really do NOT want to go into E St Louis. It's population is about 25,000. 30 years ago they were having over 400 murders a year. That's just in E St Louis and does not include the murders in St Louis. To put that in perspective if the same murder rate was to occur in New York City, pop of about 9 mil, NYC would have about 144,000 murders a year. To further explain everyone talks of the number of murders in Mexico. They have about 25,000-30,000 a year in the entire country. If you lived in E St Louis and figured in murders, shootings, stabbings, and serious batteries then the odds of you being a victim of one of them was once every 3 years. It's gotten a bit better now but it's still a very high violent crime area.
If you intend to visit the sites in St Louis and wish to stay on the east side of the river closest to St Louis then the only place in E St Louis would be the Casino Queen which is right across the river from the Arch. Drive directly to the Casino Queen and directly from. Do not venture any other places in E St Louis.
You don't say how you're coming in from the east and where you intend to go after getting thru St Louis. That will make a difference how to get around the St Louis metro area with fewest problems. If you're coming into the area on I-55 or I-70 and you intend to go on west on I-70 then take I-270 around the north side. If you intend to go west on I-44 then take I-55/I-70 to I-255 South at Exit 11. Take I-255 around the south side to I-270 north a couple of miles to I-44 west. If you intend to that I-55 south then about 3 miles after you cross the river on I-255 you can take I-55 south.

between 2000-2012 ESL has averaged 21 murders per year. and according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority ESL had an average of 40-homicides per year between 1980-87. but between 1988-1993 the city averaged 68 per year. ICJA attributes that increase to the introduction of crack cocaine. what you may have been referring to was the homicide rate...the number of murders per capita in the city. the rate peaked in 1989 at somewhere between 300-350 homicides per capita.

there's no doubt that ESL is a dangerous place and apart from the riverboat casino there's not much in the area for tourists...and I'd be wary of the casino. just wanted to set the record straight.

[Wadcutter]

cjmgranny wrote:
Hi all,
This information is terrific!
I was thinking we should avoid St Louis MO but had no idea that camping in E. St Louis IL would not be a good idea.

You really do NOT want to go into E St Louis. It's population is about 25,000. 30 years ago they were having over 400 murders a year. That's just in E St Louis and does not include the murders in St Louis. To put that in perspective if the same murder rate was to occur in New York City, pop of about 9 mil, NYC would have about 144,000 murders a year. To further explain everyone talks of the number of murders in Mexico. They have about 25,000-30,000 a year in the entire country. If you lived in E St Louis and figured in murders, shootings, stabbings, and serious batteries then the odds of you being a victim of one of them was once every 3 years. It's gotten a bit better now but it's still a very high violent crime area.
If you intend to visit the sites in St Louis and wish to stay on the east side of the river closest to St Louis then the only place in E St Louis would be the Casino Queen which is right across the river from the Arch. Drive directly to the Casino Queen and directly from. Do not venture any other places in E St Louis.
You don't say how you're coming in from the east and where you intend to go after getting thru St Louis. That will make a difference how to get around the St Louis metro area with fewest problems. If you're coming into the area on I-55 or I-70 and you intend to go on west on I-70 then take I-270 around the north side. If you intend to go west on I-44 then take I-55/I-70 to I-255 South at Exit 11. Take I-255 around the south side to I-270 north a couple of miles to I-44 west. If you intend to that I-55 south then about 3 miles after you cross the river on I-255 you can take I-55 south.

[PA12DRVR]

C-Bears said " In St. Louis there is not much choice, and whatever you do don't go through East St. Louis! I suppose if each of you were armed with a machine gun and you were looking for excitement you could, but otherwise won't even stop close to East St. Louis."

I took martial arts lessons from an instructor who was raised in and learned his art in East St. Louis. When they achieved Dan rank, part of the test was to run around (IIRC)a 5-mile loop covering a certain area of town....in their (in this case) karate uniform.....it was not only a bit of a physical conditioning thing (running the 5 miles) but a bit of a mental and training challenge to expose oneself to ESL areas wearing "pajamas".

School apparently had to stop the practice a year or two after my instructor left due to liability reasons.

[Veebyes]

Rule of thumb for us if possible is to get around in late morning/early afternoon. Straight through or around depends on city size & how far the bypass is to use. Cities like Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Philadephia, NY & Boston are most definitly go arounds. Mid sized & newer cities of the west are much more vehicle friendly though they all have their sections to avoid.

[john_bet]

We usually travel the interstates, so we go thru on the I's or around on the I's depending on where we are at and the cities. From I-65 to I-74 we use I-465 west. We have gone north bound on I-65 thru Indy with our 5er and felt no problems. We have used both ways in the Quad Cities from I-74 to I-80. 12 or 13 years ago we went from our place just north of US-50 in Indiana to Colorado on US-50 right thru St. Louis as needed. I am comfortable driving a big rig RV anywhere, but some are not. Hope you enjoy your trip.

[john_bet]

rhagfo wrote:

FrankShore wrote:
That would depend on the type of rig you're pulling or driving. A travel trailer isn't bad, but if you've got a huge diesel pusher, I'd think twice about it.

What difference does it make? My rig is 8'+ wide, 13.5' tall and 50'+ long. If you are on the interstate the lanes are 10' to 12' wide, that would be a cake walk compared to this!

Rus, those pic's look a lot like the same as US-95/US-12 in Idaho that we drove last summer. We really enjoyed it.

[cjmgranny]

Hi all,
This information is terrific!
I was thinking we should avoid St Louis MO but had no idea that camping in E. St Louis IL would not be a good idea. This is our first cross-country trip and we would like to avoid high crime areas. I think I have added a photo of our camper to my signature. If not I will try again. We will travel from MA to Albuquerque and then on to CA.
Thank you for all your advise. Keep it coming!
Granny

[bsinmich]

I appear to be the only "crazy" here. I actually enjoy going through cities. I grew up in Detroit (years ago) and still go back to the city at ties. I met my late wife in Chicago and will still drive through the city. I have driven almost everything from popups to 45' motor coaches. The Newmar with the toad is 58'.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I set an exclusion zone around large cities if I have no plans to visit them.

[TOMMY47]

Try to go through on weekends--Sat--Sun.
If you can't, go after morning rush hour.
However, try to avoid when you can.

[Dog_Folks]

Here is a link to some other cool stuff about interstates:

Interstates