The route to St. Charles
More and more I rely on Google Maps on my iPhone. Sometimes it is for directions but recently it was to let me know the time to drive from downtown to visit friends in St. Charles.
I knew the route but wasn’t sure of the time. Thirty-five minutes isn’t too bad, certainly seems longer! Once I had my answer I was curious about the other two route options offered by Google Maps: transit and walking.
As expected the transit option (above) returned with the message, “Transit directions could not be found between these locations.” No surprise since I was headed far into suburbia. But what about walking?
Great, a walking route. But the route is over 70% longer than driving (29.5 miles vs 44.5 miles). I’m not sure what I expected but it wasn’t such an out of the way route. Some use walking routes to help find cycling routes and this is not a viable alternative. It must relate to safe ways to cross the Missouri River.
– Steve Patterson
It is very scenic that way.
The Mo. 364/Page Ave. Bridge over the Missouri offers a pedestrian connection . . . either just another example of relying too much on technology or the connections on one or both sides are really bad . . .
The 370 bridge also has bicycle/ped lanes, the US67 bridge it's telling you to take does NOT!
You can take the #194 Page to about 1/2 to 1 mile outside of Creve Couer lake, then bike the rest to the Taylor Bridge/Page Extension bridge to the Katy Trail. It's not very convenient, but it doesn't take 14 hours either.
If you are coming from St. Charles into St. Louis area, you can take the St. Charles Area Transit (SCAT) bus to the North Hanley MetroLink station: http://ow.ly/SYpG in the morning and afternoon. But right now, choices are very limited in getting to St. Charles from St. Louis.
I can't blow the map up (don't know how anyway) but that looks like a reasonable bike ride if you are just riding. The other two ways to cross the Missouri river are
1) from Creve Couer park taking the bike trail built into the Page Ave bridge brings you out at a parking lot for cyclists where you can drop down to the Katy
3) Highway 370 bridge which will bring you to north 94