Best time to travel through 70? (Hannibal: live, dangerous, safe)

[Atheistlady]

I'm a new and terrible driver. I want to know what the best times for driving on 70 are. Like the times with the least traffic. Or if there are any side roads? I'm terrified of being on the highway but I don't have a choice. Thank you!

[LakeLifePA]

2:00 am? The Interstate system in this country is statistically safer than any side road you'll ever encounter. I suggest you take driving lessons until you feel comfortable or get off the road and live somewhere you can take public transportation.

[Atheistlady]

I took 12 hours of professional lessons. I still don't feel comfortable. Traveling in the am is safer. It was on the way here for sure. Getting off the road and taking public transportation would only hinder me. The best way to learn to drive is practice. Lots and lots of practice. I'm a very careful and cautious driver. But also quite nervous. Thank you

[lepoisson]

I've driven on I-70 at night, morning, and evening on different days. The traffic is very minimal. The only traffic you'll encounter will be near KC or STL during rush hour.

[cyrano]

The driving is dramatically different in the big metro areas as opposed to the rest of the state, so you need to say where you're talking about driving. If you're in one of those areas, then maybe you should look into alternative routes. My wife's from StL and she (and her sisters) are the queens of street routes to avoid the freeways there. I think they're scared to drive on them; they're all highly anxious anyway. Observing them over the years convinces me that their anxiety makes them more unsafe than they would be otherwise, more erratic.

Here's some things I do on fast, crowded freeways; allow space for your fellow drivers to do sudden, stupid things. Learn to seek clear spaces if there's a lot of traffic. Try and match the flow of traffic if there's a lot of it. If they're driving too fast for your comfort, move to a slower lane. Signal your intentions, always. Don't assume that the slow lane is always the safer lane, especially in big cities; it's often where old people and (ahem) Orientals stay, and their excessively slow speeds are as dangerous if not more so than people driving too fast.

If you're going to stay terrified, stay off freeways. You're probably a danger to others as well as yourself. But try hard to get over it, because if you need to drive, you're just spending lots of extra time avoiding them. There's all sorts of ways people can deal with anxiety that don't involve drugs; just breathing more slowly can do a lot if good. I'm kind of anxious and my two things are several short periods of meditation every day, combined with a breath regimen of four seconds (or just four beats; you determine how long a beat is) inhale, four seconds hold my breath, four seconds exhale, four seconds waiting for the next inhale.

[Okey Dokie]

A little secret we've discovered is taking U.S. 36 instead of I-70 or I-80 across Iowa. It's four lane all the way across the state, there is a lot less traffic and a lot less trucks.

[ION1010]

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

A little secret we've discovered is taking U.S. 36 instead of I-70 or I-80 across Iowa. It's four lane all the way across the state, there is a lot less traffic and a lot less trucks.

Too true! I found this while traveling from Omaha to Hannibal. Avenue Of The Saints is the same going north/South.