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The Unofficial Guide to Driving in Wichita

We know everyone uses their phone to get around these days until they know an area. Gone are the days of my dad printing off MapQuest before heading to the neighboring town for a rival basketball game.

But before we get into Wichita roads, we should probably start with how Wichita even works in the first place.

Wichita is essentially a big square grid which makes it super easy (one of the biggest perks of living here tbh), but I’ve always kinda wondered where the 0 point is.

Like when someone says “north Rock Rd” and not “south Rock Rd” or vice versa.

If you’ve lived here long enough, you know directions aren’t random and it starts to make sense after a while.

Everything is built off a simple grid system centered around Douglas and Main: north/south, east/west, clean and predictable, easy peasy lemon squeezy. (Here is a blog we wrote a while back - Decoding Wichita’s Street Addresses).

Wichita is one of the easier places to get around once you learn just how easy it really is.

We already talked about how Wichita drives aren’t that bad, at least not compared to everyone else.

So first things first, you understand the grid. The next layer is the roads.

We will probably run out of room in this deep dive and will need a part 2, so this time we’ll focus on the highways and next time we’ll focus on the other major arteries (Rock Rd, Douglas, whatever is on the West side, etc)..

Kellogg (US-54 / US-400)

If the roads of Wichita had a main character, it’s Kellogg. Ole reliable. Or ole-ways under construction, am I right?

Kellogg (or US-54 / US-400 as the gov’t likes call it) cuts straight across the city east to west and touches just about everything - Andover, Towne East, Downtown, Goddard.

They say the quickest way from point A to Point B is a straight line. Well, that straight line is Kellogg if Point A is the East side and Point B is the West side.

If you’re going anywhere, there’s a decent chance you’ll end up on Kellogg at some point.

And if you’ve lived here long enough, you’ve also accepted something else:

Kellogg is always under construction.

Actually, that’s not fair.

Back in 2021, for the first time in 30 years, Kellogg was not under construction, but that didn’t last long.

It didn’t start as the freeway we know now. It used to have stoplights, intersections, slower sections. Over time, it’s been upgraded piece by piece into a full freeway which explains why it still feels a little… inconsistent.

Some stretches feel brand new.

Others feel like they haven’t changed since ‘Nam.

And somewhere, at all times, there is a cone. And boy are the orange cone trees beautiful when they’re blooming.

Kellogg isn’t just the busiest road in Wichita but a big reason a lot of Wichita looks the way it does. Development followed it. Businesses lined up along it. Growth pushed outward because of it. Just drive past K-96 east towards Andover and you’ll see it continues to grow outward.

I-135: The Line Down the Middle

I-135 runs north to south straight through the city, and if you zoom out on a map, it basically splits Wichita in half. Even neighborhoods and cultures are divided based on this highway.

It’s one of those roads you don’t think about much because you use it so often.

Going north side? I-135. Heading downtown to save a few minutes? I-135. Trying to avoid Kellogg for a minute? Also I-135.

When it was built, it cut through existing neighborhoods and reshaped parts of the city. So today, whether you realize it or not, it still acts as both a connector and a dividing line.

This is also known as the ‘Canal Route’ and I believe it was finished back in the 1970’s.

I-35 (Kansas Turnpike)

This is one that has confused me since I was little. I-135, I-35 - why can’t we name things so it isn’t so confusing!

Anyways..

I-35 doesn’t really run through Wichita, it kind of skirts around it.

This one is for road trips, or when you need to go south.

Think Kansas City, OKC, etc.

It’s less part of daily Wichita life and more part of getting out of it. It is a toll road, but it’s nice that there are no more tool booths and it’s all digital.

I-235

I-235 is Wichita’s almost-loop.

It wraps around the west side of the city and connects back into I-135 on both ends. And if you’ve ever said:

“I’m just gonna take 235 instead”

You already know exactly what it’s for.

It’s the route you take when you don’t feel like dealing with Kellogg. Less stop-and-go, fewer surprises, a little more breathing room.

It’s also gotten a lot better over the past few years with new ramps and flyovers, which means it’s quietly becoming one of the smoother ways to get around.

Still not quite a full loop, though.

I mainly take this one to get to the west side without having to go down Kellogg then hit a million lights to get to the north part of the west side.

K-96

K-96 doesn’t get as much attention, but it does do a lot of heavy lifting.

It runs along the north and east side of the city and has become a go-to for getting around without touching Kellogg especially with how much that side of town (and Andover) has grown.

It’s not the most exciting road, but it does a lot of the heavy lifting.

The Bigger Picture

When you zoom out, Wichita’s road system is actually pretty straightforward:

• Kellogg moves you east and west

• I-135 moves you north and south

• I-235 helps you get around the west side

• K-96 helps you get around the north and east

• I-35 connects you to everywhere else

That setup explains a lot and helps explain how you can get almost anywhere in 20 minutes which is also one of the big perks I pitch about Wichita.

Wichita wasn’t built for walking (maybe some day). It was built for driving.

So… Why Is There Always Construction?

Short answer: because we’re still building it.

Most of Wichita’s major roads weren’t finished all at once, they’ve been upgraded in phases for decades.

Kellogg has been a multi-decade project.

I-235 has gone through major rebuilds.

I-135 is still getting improvements.

So if it feels like construction never ends..that’s because it doesn’t and probably never will.

It’s just the long version of getting to where we are now.

Tips & Notes

• If you’re headed west down Kellogg, a ton of accidents happen near the on-ramp from hillside - we recommend you stay in the far left “passing” lane, it seems to move quicker and less likely to get cut off and hit.

• Consider living out east if you have to drive west for work, otherwise you might learn why west-siders are called ‘squinters’ (hint - you’re staring at the sun in the morning AND on the way home)

• A while back, there were some comments about whether or not the left lane on Kellogg is a passing lane. Growing up, I think we were taught that most left lanes on highways are considered passing lanes and you should stay in the right lane unless you're passing. Technically on Kellogg inside city limits, “the statute’s left-lane requirement applies to highways outside corporate city limits”.

What do you want to see us go deep on in a future deep dive?

Let us know!