The cancellation of MO 755 took with the best plan to provide connections between I-55 and I-64 (another option, via a freeway in the Kingshighway corridor, died even earlier). Today, using a spreadsheet for calculations and measuring distances via online satellite images, I will attempt to estimate the best way to make the move between Northbound I-55 and Westbound I-64. Due to differences in ramp configurations, turn prohibitions, and one-way streets, the result may not be the same for the Eastbound I-64 to Southbound I-55 movement.
A few assumptions for these calculations:
1) Travel speed was set at the posted speed limit, or posted ramp advisory speed. If the speed limit for a route was unknown, it was guessed.
2) All stop signs encountered add five seconds to the travel time (I’m just guessing on this value). Having to wait for other vehicles to take their turn would add more time, but since such additions are random, I will stick with the five second addition.
3) All intersections with a traffic signal will add 30 seconds to a route. Yes, on some days many traffic lights will be encountered in the green phase and not add any time, while some traffic lights will likely add more than a minute. Since this is an informal project for fun, I don’t feel like taking the time and hassle to obtain signal timing information from MoDOT and St. Louis City.
4) If a yield sign is encountered for a right turn next to a stop sign, no time is added. For a yield sign next to a traffic light, 30 seconds will be added. This is another subjective choice, but if one gets to the yield sign at the same time the adjacent stoplight changes, it can take just as long as if the turn was also controlled by the stoplight.
5) All speed changes are instantaneous.
6) No time penalties for turns – I may fix this in a future version.
7) No delays from traffic congestion
Measurements were started from the Sidney Street Bridge over I-55 and ended at the Tamm Avenue Bridge over I-64.
The routes evaluated, going from east to west:
1) Stay on I-55 into Illinois and make a U-Turn using the ramp between the Tudor Exit and Piggott Entrance
This is the longest and most indirect route evaluated at 11.24 miles (59,363’) but the only all-freeway option available. Travel time via this route is 12.9 minutes (778 seconds).
On many days, the travel time value will be greater due to having to face PSB congestion twice. Northbound traffic can back up to the I-44 merge on the worst days, while traffic for Southbound I-55 can back up over the PSB and congested the adjacent lanes, or even make accessing Westbound I-64 from the westbound Collector-Distributor (C-D) roadway near impossible.
2) Exit at Memorial Drive, make a U-Turn at Market Street, travel south to Spruce Street, take Spruce Street west to Broadway, and access Westbound I-64 from Broadway.
This is one of the longer routes both for distance (8.48 miles) and travel time. Encountering eight stoplights, this route would take around 13.8 minutes to traverse.
Like the Tudor U-Turn route, this route is also susceptible to PSB congestion, although Southbound Memorial Drive does not seem to back up as much as the I-55 ramps to and from the PSB. This route is more susceptible to congestion from Busch Stadium, and is completely unusable whenever Memorial Drive is closed. The traffic lights at Market also takes a long time to cycle through, which may add an additional minute to this route.
3) Exit at Memorial Drive, take Market Street west to Broadway, and then head south on Broadway to access I-64.
This route is similar in length (8.49 miles) to simply making a U-Turn on Memorial, but an additional stoplight can add additional time to this route, making it take 14.32 minutes to traverse.
4) Exit I-55 at Park Avenue, take Fourth Street north to Clark Avenue, take Clark Avenue to Broadway, and then take Broadway back south to access I-64
This route, 7.98 miles long, faces nine stoplights, giving it a travel time of 13.97 minutes. However, congestion from the Northbound I-55 ramp to the PSB can make accessing this route impossible.
5) Exit I-55 at Park Avenue, take Seventh Street north to Clark Avenue, take Clark east to Broadway, and then head south on Broadway to access I-64
This route is less direct than taking Fourth Street to Clark. At 8.13 miles long and with 11 stoplights, this route takes 15.28 minutes to traverse.
6) Exit I-55 at Park Avenue, take Seventh Street north to Clark Avenue, take Clark west to the 10th Street entrance to I-64
While shorter than the other routes using the Park Avenue Exit at 7.73 miles, the 10 stoplights along this route could make this route take at least 14.18 minutes to traverse (assuming all green lights, the time could be as little as 9.19 minutes).
7) Exit I-55 at Gravois Avenue, take the Gravois/Tucker corridor to Clark Avenue, then head east on Clark Avenue to access the 10th Street Entrance to I-64
One would encounter nine stoplights on this 7.45 mile route, given it a time to traverse of 13.70 minutes (or as little as 9.20 on all green lights).
8) Exit I-55 at Gravois Avenue, take the Gravois/Tucker corridor to Clark Avenue, then head west to access I-64 from Clark Avenue
This one has a length of 7.10 miles, encounters seven stoplights, and has a time to traverse of 12.25 minutes
9) Take the Truman Parkway north to Chouteau, head east on Chouteau to 14th Street, then north on 14th to the entrance ramp to I-64 at the Clark Avenue intersection
This 7.10 mile route encounters six stoplights and one stop sign and requires around 11.82 minutes to traverse.
10) Take the Truman Parkway north to Chouteau, head west on Chouteau to Jefferson, then north on Jefferson to I-64
This route is 6.49 miles long and has seven stoplights. Time to traverse this option is 11.69 minutes.
11) Take I-44 west to Jefferson, then north on Jefferson to I-64
Depending upon traffic, this route may not be possible since there is a little short of a half mile to weave across I-44 to access the Jefferson Avenue exit. This route is 6.55 miles long, has eight stoplights and takes around 12.11 minutes to traverse (or 8.11 minutes on all green lights, but at least for me that used to be pretty hard to get).
Even though the ramp to Westbound I-44 from Northbound I-55 is posted for 20 miles per hour, many drivers seem to ignore that posting, so for this exercise the speed of the ramp was taken as 30 miles per hour (using 20 miles per hour increase the travel time by about five seconds). All further routes keep the 30 miles per hour speed for this ramp.
12) Take I-44 west to the Grand Avenue Exit, take Lafayette Avenue west to Compton Avenue, take Compton north to Market Street, then head west on Market to access I-64.
This route encounters the most stop signs of any route analyzed here (four), but the second least amount of traffic lights (three). It has the second shortest estimated travel time at 10.74 minutes (with no stop signs or traffic lights it would take 8.91 minutes to traverse). The route is 6.92 miles long.
13) Take I-44 west to the Grand Avenue Exit, take Lafayette Avenue to Grand, then take Grand north to I-64
This route has one stop sign and six stoplights. In addition, the left turn to access Westbound I-64 may be unsignalized, but the large volume of opposing traffic can add some more delay. I also have some doubts regarding congestion on this route; the nearby interchange with Forest Park Avenue seems prone to backing up traffic on Grand.
This route is 6.62 miles long and has an estimated time to traverse of 11.35 minutes.
14) Take I-44 west to the Vandeventer/Kingshighway Exit, take McRee Avenue west to Kingshighway, then proceed north on Kingshighway to I-64
Using the chosen parameters for stoplight delay, this is the quickest route at 10.15 minutes. However, since there does not seem to be a posted speed limit on McRee Avenue, the speed limit for this street was assumed to be the St. Louis City standard of 25 miles per hour, even though I recall a higher speed limit being posted in the past. This route is also the shortest route distance wise at 6.06 miles. This route has six stop lights, but I recall the light at Chouteau to be fairly long. In addition, this is the only route which involves an at-grade railroad crossing. Although this track is lightly used, one risks a long (maybe greater than five minutes) delay with this route.
15) Take I-44 west to Hampton, then take Hampton Avenue north to I-64.
This route has the second shortest distance at 6.24 miles. It has the third lowest time to traverse at 11.31 minutes (but if one gets all green lights, it has the shortest time to traverse at 7.3 minutes). There are eight stoplights on this route.
During the past year, as can be seen on Google’s satellite images of the area, Hampton experienced congestion from traffic accessing Forest Park. This could be a potential deal breaker for this route.
Conclusion
I've summarized the data into the following table. Base Time is how long the route would take without any stoplights or stop signs, while Adjusted Time 1 is how long the route would take assuming each stop sign adds 5 seconds and each stoplight adds 30 seconds.
(Edit 1-11-2011: Fixed the chart to correctly show the number of stop signs)
Now if someone absolutely had to have a route recommended to them, I would unfortunately have to recommend the I-44/Compton/Market option since it appears to be more reliable than either the Kingshighway or Hampton options. Can't say I'm thrilled with recommending this residential route, although East-West Gateway does show Compton classified as a minor artierial between Gravois and Martin Luther King Drive (see http://www.ewgateway.org/pdffiles/library/trans/funcclassapp/fc-StlCity.pdf). Remove the railroad crossing from McRee Avenue and I would happily recommend using Kingshighway. Guarantee that Hampton would not turn into a parking lot again on the next 70 degree day, and I would recommend that route.
In part 2, I will take a look at possible alternatives for further reducing travel times and improving reliability on some of the routes between Northbound I-55 and Westbound I-64.
