Springfield sits in the flat farm country of central Illinois, and its roads are laid out in a fairly simple pattern around downtown and the State Capitol. I-55 runs along the east side of the city, connecting Springfield with Bloomington and Chicago to the north and St. Louis to the southwest. I-72 joins it on the south side and heads west toward Jacksonville and east toward Decatur and Champaign. Veterans Parkway loops around the west side, and Dirksen Parkway parallels I-55 on the east.
Inside the city, MacArthur Boulevard, Wabash Avenue, South Grand Avenue and Stevenson Drive carry most of the traffic. Veterans Parkway and Wabash Avenue are the main west-side shopping corridors, and both back up at rush hour and on weekends. Downtown has a regular grid, one-way streets around the Capitol complex and plenty of state office buildings with large parking lots. Neighborhoods outside downtown mostly have driveways or alleys, and the flat ground means a mechanic rarely has to hunt for a level spot to set a jack.
Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport sits on the north side of the city, and the Amtrak line through downtown connects Springfield with Chicago and St. Louis. Springfield Mass Transit District buses cover the main routes, but most state workers and commuters drive. With the Capitol, state agencies and the hospitals all drawing daily commuters from surrounding towns, a repair done in a parking lot or driveway saves real time. The I-55 corridor also carries heavy truck traffic, so a breakdown there is worth avoiding.