respublica

Driving in St. Louis

I came across this Facebook post today about how weird St. Louis is in relation to driving directions and other unique mapping. The list is just below, but I would add one more. St. Louis and MODOT are not nearly as good at clearing winter highways than IDOT does just across the river. IDOT is so much better and efficient. To read each page you'll have to click each one to enlarge the print.

None Stop Car Thefts

KMOV News in St. Louis did some car theft tracking numbers and even though we hear and read about this type of crime every day, the numbers are shocking.

78 so far in Richmond Heights. 1981 in unincorporated St. Louis County. In the city of St. Louis 3656 so far this year.

A St. Louis police spokesman said, "We have found that many of the offenders stealing vehicles are juveniles. When it comes to juveniles and the crime of auto theft, the crime is not considered a serious enough offense by the Family Court to keep the juvenile in custody. They are following a point system, outlined in state statute, to make that decision. Juveniles are promptly released once arrested, and return to commit the same crimes since there is little to no consequence for their behavior."

Richmond Heights, Police Chief Gerry Rohr echoes that concern.

“Zero incentive to not be a repeat car criminal."

I'm not sure if similar car thefts are taking place in the Metro East, but if not, it probably won't be long before they do happen. Unless the Illinois side is much more likely to have consequences on the books.

The Tally is back

So far this year 8 mattresses and 8 ladders have fallen onto St. Louis highways.

Last year the final total was: Ladders 84 and Mattresses 64

The long ignored tally is back

With the Covid shut downs and all that went with it keeping my mind away from everything else, I'd forgotten to put up the current tally of the number of mattresses and ladders which have fallen on St. Louis highways this year. So here we go, as of today:

Mattresses 58  Ladders 83.

Quite a few actually.

A day for junk falling onto St. Louis highways

This may not have been the best morning for getting to work in St. Louis. Here are some of the things reported to have littered the interstates.

On the Hwy. 94 ramp to westbound 70, a report of lumber in the roadway

Eastbound 64/40 before Jefferson, it looks like several tires have gotten flat tires from some debris in the roadway

Westbound 64/40 near McKnight, a report of metal tubes in the roadway

Wentzville: Peine Road, near Hwy. 61, police are checking a report of a piece of construction equipment in the roadway

This is in addition to many crashes this morning. I've counted  13 crash reports from all over the metro area.

 

Thanks MoDOT

Wouldn't you just know the weekend we are heading to the Huzzah, MoDOT would be making botch all of I-44. We debated staying put, but Dale really wants to go down there, it's his happy place.

It will be near 100 degrees which is bearable along the river, but boy, how does MoDOT think it's acceptable for the crews to be working in that heat. Hopefully much will be done at night.

The thing is about highway work, if they publicize the highway will close at 8 tonight, you just know it will be mostly closed all day. If Dale would get his Zoom work done soon, we could get out of hear before afternoon rush hour out on 44 makes things really snarled up.

An overdue highway update

With business back to almost normal, so are the mattresses and ladders falling onto St. Louis area highways. So here is an update long overdue.

For 2021 thus far-Ladders 49 Mattresses 24

Ladders being way ahead surely means work is being done in many places. I actually suddenly came across on in the middle lane of highway 40 near Kingshighway last week. it was a metal ladder already sort of smashed from cars rolling over it and luckily I saw it in time and no one was in the lane next to me so I could avoid it.

Need Gas? Bring much money

All of a sudden gas prices are soaring and experts have all sorts of reasons for this. I've been cynical about their reasons for some years especially when there is always a big difference in price between the Metro East and over on the Missouri side of the river. Even though the news reporting tells us demand is high and that is why prices have jumped, but for the two bordering states to be so different tells me Illinois is doing a lot more taxing.

Here is a link to current Collinsville gas prices from many of our stations. Most are over 3 dollars a gallon.

Then see this link for prices across the river. Much much different. It may just be worth it fill up in Missouri these days. The highest is rare and around 2.79 but most are in the 2.39 range.

This will be awful

Once again the way to get to St. Louis from Illinois will be messed up with road work. And this project by IDOT is going to really mess things up. The three right lanes of eastbound Interstate 55/64, the ramp to southbound Illinois Route 3 and the ramp to southbound Tudor Avenue in East St. Louis, will all close as early as April 1. 

Can you imagine the semi trucks during this time? They dominate that route as it is.

That's 3 lanes and ramps! There will be no way to get over there without sitting in a long traffic jam at any time of day. For us in Illinois, it will probably mean taking the Musial bridge and then meandering all over the north side of downtown St. Louis to get back over to 64/40 or points south. Thankfully we now live in Collinsville and don't have to make daily trips over there, but unfortunately Dale still teaches a class and is on some seminary committees. He'll be stuck with this trip a couple days a week.

Every year it seems like IDOT or MoDOT is messing with the Poplar Street Bridge or points east and west of it. Will there ever be a time when they don't? I doubt it.

Hours and hours in a car for one shot

The local St. Louis news yesterday carried story after story on how crazy the Vaccination day in St. Charles County was going. I say crazy because it was a traffic and vaccination total botch up. 4000 people were registered to get their shots at the Family Arena/Convention Center and health workers and the National Guard had hoped to administer 400 an hour.

Well, wouldn't you just know the traffic came to a stand still and backed up for several miles. People were quoted saying they were still sitting in their cars hours after their scheduled appointment time. Most needed a bathroom.

Frankly, as I was reading about this throughout the day, and it didn't end until 10 at night, hours later than planned, my belief was that way too many people headed over there long before their appointment time. Get there early they thought. And when a couple thousand do this, it's never good.

This is why I was so impressed with where we got our shots, Memorial Hospital in Belleville. Our instructions were very clear. Please do not arrive earlier than 15 minutes before your appointment time and if you do get there early, stay in your car until it's time. If you have an appointment and a time slot, they will have shot for you. Just like St. Charles. Those people could have had a much better day if they all had used common sense. Or maybe the convention center should have sent out this advice ahead of time.

Why oh why did so many in St. Charles believe it was necessary to go hours early? If everyone would have gone when scheduled the people ahead of them would have been gone and parking lots would be fine all day as would the highways. This is what Covid has done to us. We panic.

But this getting out early for things is nothing new in St. Louis. It just has to stop during the vaccine times.