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Highway 40 the New "Al Capone's Vault"

By: Marijean Jaggers | 01/08/2008

I have a unique perspective on the highway 40 closure in St. Louis. All of my coworkers live and work in St. Louis and many of my clients do as well. I've been able to sit back and watch the non-news unfold from the comfort of my home office in Charlottesville, Va. Yes, even so, the anxiety leading up to the closure affected me since it necessitated shifting of schedules for my colleagues and the St. Louis media was full of promotion and perhaps overpromotion of the pending traffic doom.

And then highway 40 closed and there were no traffic issues. It was kind of like when Geraldo opened Al Capone's vault, or like the first business day of 2000 when everything was fine. Remember Y2K? There were reports from my colleagues of local TV reporters standing on overpasses in the freezing cold to report on . . . nothing.

While amused by the nonevent, I'm also impressed. I have to believe that all the pre-planning the metro area did paid off and that proactive employers like mine also took steps to allow people to work from home or have nontraditional schedules. I'm ultra impressed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's use of Twitter to follow those reporting in about their commutes.

Good job, St. Louis! What do you think of how the community has responded to the potential traffic issues?

Posted in Uncategorized

comments

Justin says:

Tue, January 08, 2008 at 6:24:pm

The pre-closure hype reminded me of “sky-will-be-falling” media coverage that preceded the visit to St. Louis by Pope John Paul II in January 1999. Like then, I think this hype led people to either change their schedules or their driving habits. I’ve actually had an easier commute since the closure, if you believe that.

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Tammy says:

Wed, January 09, 2008 at 10:00:am

Wouldn’t it be nice if some of the changed habits during the Hwy 40 construction stuck with us after the work is done? Flex schedules, sequenced start and ending times, carpooling and working off site could all go a long way to long term traffic improvements for the area.

Mistie says:

Wed, January 09, 2008 at 1:50:pm

I’m actually incredibly impressed by the job MODOT has done getting the word out. I think they did just about everything short of sending individuals to homes to work out commute plans one-on-one! I hope, like Tammy, these proactive and positive changes stick - I think it might lower the collective blood pressure of St. Louis!