St. Louis - Easy To Get Around In (St. Charles, St. Peters: live in, moving)

[Bobster]

People who live in St. Louis tend to think that we have it bad when it comes to commute times. Maybe this is exasperated by the shut down of Hwy. 40/64, but the fact of the matter is that the "average" one way commute for people working in downtown St. Louis is only 21.5 minutes!

That places us 43rd out of the largest 68 cities in the country. St. Louis county (with an average commute of 22.2 minutes) came in at number 147th out of 233 counties measured nationwide. Only St. Charles county (average commute time of 25.9 minutes) had a commute time that exceeded the national average (24.3 minutes).

St. Louis is blessed with an excellent highway infrastructure (bridge condition aside). Having recently moved to far north county where I have to drive for 15 minutes or so in order to get to a super highway, I took notice of how good the rest of the St. Louis area has it!

Even in the further out areas, people are rarely outside of a 10 or 15 minute drive to the nearest interstate and in these areas, State roads are generally well maintained and free flowing.

So, what say you? How would you compare your experiences in different cities to your experiences driving in St. Louis?

[aragx6]

I was amazed when I moved to Chicago to discover that a 45 minute commute is considered normal, and only at an hour do people start to get antsy. Many people have even longer commutes than that!

As far as the interstate thing goes I have noticed this as well. My boyfriend's family lives in Overland Park, KS outside of KC and it takes them about 15 minutes to get to a freeway, and they live in an incredibly popular wealthy area!

In St. Peters where I grew up it took 5 minutes to get to I-70, 10 to get to 40, and now the page extension is literally a 2 minute drive from our house! It's helped property values tremendously!

[Bobster]

The ease of getting around is really one of the coolest things about St. Louis. I didn't truly appreciate it until I moved to an area that is probably about as far removed from an interstate highway as you can be in St. Louis (Near Sinks Road and North Lindbergh).

[Fishtacos]

Most people I know in St. Louis are well aware of the easy commutes.

I do find that many people in St. Louis are strangely obsessive over the local news, as ratings show St. Louis to be often among the highest local news watchers Nationally.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

St. Louis should have another bridge by 2015, though.

[WestCoDude]

It's ridiculous how easy St. Louis is to get around in. St. Louis really is the biggest small town in the United States--for better and worse. The minimal traffic is definitely a bright spot.

[Bobster]

Thanks for the comments...when they get 40/64 back up and running, it's going to be all the better! I do wish that they had included at least a right of way for future light rail expansion though!

[bissit]

I'm so excited to leave Bay Area traffic! What is the public transit like in STL? Do people use it like they use BART here in SF/East Bay? Also, someone mentioned a 30 minute commute - is that round trip? To me, a trek from say, Santa Rosa to San Rafael drove me mad - to the point where I was an awful person at the end of the day. Is it true that you don't have backups???

[aragx6]

There is light rail here (the Metrolink) but it's fairly non comprehensive. It's great for driving to, parking and riding into the city during a Cards game or a holiday or for a daily commute, but for most people it's not a point a to be point b kind of thing.

The 21 minute average is one way, but it has little to do with traffic and more to do with sprawl.

During rush hour 270 is usually moving slowly (and of course accidents slow it down further) but for most people sitting in traffic isn't the daily ordeal it is for most parts of the country (Chicago where I live now included)

And, if you work and live in the city you're commute will be quite short indeed!

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by bissit

I'm so excited to leave Bay Area traffic! What is the public transit like in STL? Do people use it like they use BART here in SF/East Bay? Also, someone mentioned a 30 minute commute - is that round trip? To me, a trek from say, Santa Rosa to San Rafael drove me mad - to the point where I was an awful person at the end of the day. Is it true that you don't have backups???

Public transit is not so great. However, traffic is not heavy in St. Louis and it's hours of it are very limited. You an get anywhere in the metro area under 45 minutes. Many many places are a lot closer to less than half of that time.

The Bay area's traffic is very bad, nothing like St. Louis.