ST. LOUIS - Traffic continued to flow well on roads and interstates across the region tonight. The interstates were moving well with no more than normal congested spots.  The rush time started earlier and ended about normal time.

"We are very pleased with the efforts of drivers to flex their schedules, use mass transit and carpool," said Tom Blair, MoDOT assistant district engineer. "We encourage people to continue these efforts; that will help keep traffic flowing smoothly for the duration of the I-64 closure."

In another effort to keep traffic flowing smoother, the Missouri Department of Transportation is reversing the direction of the Interstate 70 reversible lanes to relieve increased traffic volume, starting tomorrow morning. I-70 reversible lanes will operate in the westbound direction in the morning and eastbound direction in the afternoon.

Portions of Olive Blvd. and Page Blvd. continue to have significant congestion in the evening between 5 and 6 p.m. although traffic does continue to flow along those routes. Drivers may want to consider using the interstates, Dorsett or St. Charles Rock Road, which have available space, during this time.

Rush Period: 

• Time = 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on arterials and interstates (started on arterials about a half hour earlier)

Summary of Trouble Spots:

• Travel times on Olive between Lindbergh and Craig have almost doubled around 5:30 p.m.
• Lindbergh and Manchester traffic is running about 175 percent of normal volume.
• Looking at some signal updates on southbound Ballas and Conway
• Volumes on Ladue Road are still up. Conway Road is very overwhelmed.

Incident Report:

• Motorist assist and traffic response responded to 56 incidents, including 5 crashes.

Metro information:

• Park Ride lots summary:
• People are continuing to use Shrewsbury MetroLink lot. Spaces were at about 200 at the end of morning rush and down to about 35 spaces by late morning.
• All Express bus ridership is strong.

Ridefinders:

• RideFinders announced that since Christmas Eve the volume of commuters requesting lists of other individuals they can carpool or vanpool with was 13 times greater than the same 10-day period a year prior. 
• Approximately 266 additional commuters have registered with the ridematching service since Dec. 24, up from just 20 for the same period at the end of 2006.
• Thirteen new carpools carrying 31 carpoolers have been registered since Christmas, as well a one new vanpooler.  The new carpoolers push the total numbers of carpoolers and vanpoolers registered with RideFinders to 7,250 commuters.

For more information on the I-64 project, visit http://www.thenewi64.org/, and for real-time traffic information, visit http://www.gatewayguide.com/.

                                                                                                              ###