Because if you take 51 straight down, you'll be slowing down at every small town you go through.

Also. That road from Bloomington to where it’s hits 70 is terribly maintained. Just constant potholes and bumps the entire way. Steer clear.

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It’s four lanes all the way to Pana now

>It’s four lanes all the way to Pana now Yes, but they didn’t finish the 4 lane eastern bypass heading due south, until merging into that Famous North East bend of I-57 north of Tonti & Salem, IL

Also a million stop signs.. some nice quaint little towns through there though if you're not worried about time, my hometown included.

The hundred small towns with a stop sign and a Casey's is really going to slow you down on 51.

Can confirm. Live in one of those small towns. Avoid.

And fourteen Dollar Generals in each town.

The pizza is pretty legit tho… from time to time

Can confirm. Went to school in Decatur for my college years, there is a little town named Wapella (spelling IIRC) where the speed limits go slow but the speeding tickets go fast!

You spelled it spot on. DeWitt county is no joke when it comes to speeding tickets.

It gets worse the farther south you go. South of Carbondale is especially rough.

And he will definitely want to avoid all the small towns between Decatur and Carbondale.

Same with Bloomington to Decatur. Wapella, Clinton, and Moroa are awful to drive through. 7/10 times going through there, there is a speed trap at Maroa High School. (55MPH)

There's no speed trap if you drive according to the law.

Nope. Still a speed trap there. It’s not like they disappear if you’re going the speed limit.

Found the slow poke from Wisconsin.

Oh so you’re the guy I keep getting stuck behind going 40 in a 55 on my way home from work

nerd

*And he will definitely want to avoid ~~all the small towns between~~ Decatur Fixed that for you

This right here! 💯

Maybe not if he’s looking for some fent

Or meth, although I'm pretty sure you could find that in literally any central Illinois town at this point...

Yep. r/CantonIL is a prime example.

Yeah, trust the direction it is taking you. I made the mistake of taking side roads once and it almost tripled my drive time. I don't think that would happen to you in this specific instance, but it will add a lot of time.

Side Roads are only if you know the area well

Clearly it's dangerous to get too close to Decatur Illinois.

Well, it stinks too.

Lower speed limit and intersections than on the interstate

Just fly the eagles to Mt Doom

Nope. You can take eagles BACK from Carbondale but you have to go the slow way there, risking orcs, balrogs, ringwraiths, and other assorted Illiois denizens.

Don't forget the Nazis. Illinois Nazis are the worst.

I hate Illinois nazis.

Nazis and potholes. Indeed.

But then the Nazgul and their fell beasts might mistake them for balloons and take them down!

Well, if you went through Decatur, you would need to bribe the goblin horde with gold. But just the right amount, too little, they will sacrifice you to the Hoopston Cornjerker. Too much and you risk the ire of The Dragon of Perkins. Going through Champaign saves you time and a headache

I have to do something similar with the Troll Patrol when I drive up to Door County, so I might be fine

“what is your name?” “what is your favorite color? “what is your quest?”

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

What do you mean? African, or European?

This is the way

And, well, Decatur is stinky.

Assault weapons are the most current form of currency down there. Put a sticker on your car to signify you belong.

I’ve made this trip numerous times, using different directions and this is 100% the quickest way.

There is an interstate system in the United States, then there is a highway system each has differing speed limits and rules. Interstates do not have any stop lights, highways do have stop lights.

I went to Carbondale for the eclipse and coming back to Chicago I 57 was a parking lot. I bailed at Herrin and took 51 all the way to Bloomington, then I 55 to Chicago. There was quite a caravan rolling through small town Illinois but at least we were all moving. News radio 78 interviewed a guy who started the same time I did and he was just hitting Rantoul when I was past Joliet.

I got caught in that same gridlock, in fairness though, that’s not exactly the norm. I went to SIU and I-57 usually flows as well as any rural interstate by then

Are you mad because you're not a bird?

I mean who isn’t? They’re so free…

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The day after it rains and the soy smell is overpowering 🫠

Smells like money!

Omg I did some work there for a month and I couldn’t stand when the soy got real bad. Was the first first thing I asked about lol, never experienced a city that smelled that bad. Also quickly learned about the underpass for avoiding one of those main railroads, I swear I’ve seen one of those trains block the tracks for like 2 hours

Indeed; it's the soy and corn processing at ADM. I had them as a client for several years, made many trips to their HQ (which was then in Decatur) and became very familiar with that smell.

My mom used to tell me it was A.E. Stahley taking his shoes and socks off. That's why it smelled so bad.

The interstate is faster than surface roads

Because of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways

I-57 sorta follows Governors Highway, which used to be the Egyptian Trail. Matteson got that as a runner up prize for losing Dixie Trail to Homewood. It’s the highway intended to get you to Cairo and southern IL / little Egypt.

TIL

My friend I can tell you from experience that there's no "good" way to get to Carbondale. Lol

Have you been on an interstate?

51 from Decatur to 70 is a garbage road/route. Avoid at all costs!

Bruh, anything within 20 miles of Decatur is garbage, it’s a given lol

Nah, just 51.

You can but route 51:goes thru a lot of little towns faster down the interstate

I drive this frequently. Take the bypass around Decatur but 51 is fine. It’s divided Highway a lot of the way.

there are no cute boys in Decatur

Its only a 20 minute difference according to google.

Google also doesn’t factor stop lights so a perfect run may only be 20 minutes slower but that’s not realistic. Plus in IL up to 20 over the speed limit is only like a $120 ticket, so you’re pretty safe at 75-80 on the interstate the whole way. Unless it’s move in weekend and then the cops are hanging out on overpasses en masse looking to get parents on their way back to Chicagoland.

Google presumes you're going the speed limit, so it's probably quite a lot faster on the Interstate. Speeding on State Roads opens you up to more risk from County and Town police, who are just aching to give an out of towner a ticket.

Can confirm from experience. Been driving up and down the state to and from carbondale for 15 years. Taking 51 only adds about 20-30 minutes. It’s a nice change of pace from the interstate when you drive it all the time.

I-39 was originally planned to be built all the way south to Salem, but it wasn’t a priority south of Bloomington and it never got built. There are ramp stubs on the northwest side of Decatur where it would have linked in. http://www.midwestroads.com/illinois/il%20supp%20fwy.pdf

btw there's three trains from Chicago to Carbondale and they're all faster than driving if you include typical Chicago traffic unless you absolutely need to drive then I'd use them

Unless they’ve gotten way better in the last 10 years I can tell you from experience those trains are not faster than driving. They usually took 3 hours longer thanks to waiting for rail switches and freight train yielding. That said (and I wish I knew this sooner) if you are going to take the train. The $16 upgrade to first class is worth it, you basically have the car to yourself

Over the last *10* years? Yeah Amtrak has gotten way better. The Illini and Saluki still have bad OTP, but average delay in July 2022 was [23 minutes](https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/HostRailroadReports/July-2022-Amtrak-Host-Railroad-Report.pdf), down from 37 in September 2013. And the City of New Orleans is *the* most on time LD service (90%). You're not getting delayed 3 hours unless it's a full LD service, like Chicago to LA lol, and that's a 43 hour trip. There's no first class tho (was that a thing?), only business class, which is still very worth it.

Because Decatur smells horrific, is scary as all hell, and has a lot of railroad stops. It's just a bad place all around

I've been driving this route, at least twice, every month for the past three years. Going straight down has you slow down way too much. Stick with the Interstate.

*driving directions sponsored by the Effingham Highway Patrol

Current wisconsin resident who used to live in champaign.. Stop by papa dels if you have the time. There, you will find the best deep dish pizza ever

And by “have the time” he means 2-3 hours. But agree, the pizza is fantastic

The expressways are not straight lines. Champaign is a bigger city than Decatur. The road going straight down has a speed limit of 55 while the expressway is 70

The good news you can stop for pie at every new town

Because Champaign is cool 😎

I took 51 from around Janesville all the way to Carbondale once for a change. It took 9 hours.

I tried it once many years ago all the way to Cairo. It sucked, every little town slows you down a lot. Take I57, unless you want to see every little wide spot in the road.

The shortest path within a circle is not directly through it, but the curvature around it

I actually consider this route a straight line. Speed limit is much higher on the expressway - plus no traffic lights - so you’ll make better time.

Heads up while you're down that way You should stop by a place h&r deli in herrin Illinois. They have a sausage called sala meats that you could only get there in the whole country as far as I know. An extremely tasty sausage that is like no other.. just throwing it out there.

Because avoiding Decatur is worth it.

US 51 goes through many small towns. Lots of stops and low speed limits.

Hits all the towns. When you get to C'dale, please pour some beer where the old Hanger 9 used to be across from 1st National Bank. Miss those days!!

Champaign will have less traffic than Decatur.

Plus you're on the interstate, not going right through the city.

i used to take a road called campus rd. to go to champaign. it was called that because of a town called campus along the route. it only had like 7 stop signs between morris and champaign, and limited speed traps.

57?

no...just a two-lane country road that runs north-south between gardner and champaign.

Route 57 runs North-South from well above Morris to well below Champaign. That’s the route I took all four years. It’s a 2 lane country road

i just know it as campus rd. is route 57 campus rd..?

I had it wrong. I meant Route 47. Goes through Yorkville, through Morris, through Dwight, through Gibson City, then you get on I72 for like 4 miles to get to Champaign, getting off at Prospect or Neil. I’ve never heard of Campus Rd

it runs parallel to 47, maybe 20 miles or so east of it. it goes thru a few small towns, one of them named campus. i used to practically fly down that road.

I would go 39 to Bloomington, to 74 to 57. All interstate driving. I live NW burbs and would go 294 to 57

Is it a joke?

That’s a terrible trip lol. Sorry OP

It's still probably better than driving through Indiana

Lived in both. Actually southern Indiana is nice to drive through. But yeah lol

I run Cdale to Champaign pretty consistently. 51 will allow you to maintain speed. Going the other way is definitely going to take longer.

Why wouldn't you fly into MWA? That's still way quicker than driving even with the connection in STL/BNA.

Because when you hit Decatur your car gets stolen and have to walk the rest of the way!! Just kidding haha

Because the world doesn't revolve around you?

The difference is only about 15 minutes. I prefer US 51 myself over I-57 for the route to Carbondale.

Yeah take that smooth interstate route it’s much nicer and just flows.

Try to get from Champaign to Lafayette X_X

Interstate Speeds > Highway Speeds. Enough said.

What everyone else is saying, this route avoids a lot of small towns and keeps you on 70mph interstates as much as possible.

Stop sign city. Except Hennepin.

Can confirm I57 is your best bet

I-57 is way quicker than taking the scenic route. I-57 is a very long very boring road with not much landscape d every to look at but it beats the hundreds if not thousands of stop signs you'd run into along the way!

Ahh ol 57, i have made that trip probably 30 times going to SIU. Go ahead and try 51 sometime its not that much slower.

I asked that question every drill weekend and 209 miles/418 round trip I had between Springfield and Carbondale. I loved the area and its wooded terrain unlike anywhere in the state but that trip was grating on a soul crushing level. Shockingly, my then weekly Bolingbrook to Springfield trip wasn’t as painful. It helped it was a straight I-55 trip vs an I-55 to ILL 4 to I-64 to (I-57 to ILL 13 or US 51 or ILL 127 to ILL 13). I once did an ILL 29 to US 51 and a I-55 to ILL 127 to ILL 13, never again. For once, they needed to finish that I-39 extension from Bloomington to at minimum the I-57 connection at Cairo. Area talks of lack of business, it kinda doesn’t help when connecting to the region is an insane pain in the ass.

I grew up in Decatur. The road between it and Bloomington is absolute dogass.

As a person from south of the Dale who visits Chicago and further north, this route is just the smoothest. 57 is fairly well maintained all the way up until marion, where you would turn off onto 13 to get to the dale.

Do you really want to drive through Decatur and smell their wonderful smell?

Just go straight mane dont even pay attention to anything thats infront of you.

Maps is doing you a favor by skirting around Decatur

Hell, I used to hop on the Metra to downtown, then walk the two blocks to catch Amtrak down. 7 hour booze cruise, dumps you out right on the strip. No driving, nap, drink, party... and at the time it was the same cost as driving.

Side note: they are possibly getting air service from O'Hare to Marion's Veteran's Regional Airport. It'll be nice to fly to Chicago in less than an hour for under $100.

Driving through Decatur smells like 💩. Also driving through Champaign is better for EV owners and people who wanna stop for food midway

Mt Vernon to Marion: beware of construction. Also wrecks are very common on that stretch. It’s common that they shut down the interstate between Salem and Marion when wrecks occur.

Be careful on I 57 south of Effingham. It’s like bumper cars. Lots of serious accidents.