Now ya tell me. Back in the late '70s 
, we were driving from Columbus to the Western states. About 1 or 2 a.m., we got off the freeway to look for a gas station and a snack... in East Saint Louis. Didn't stop anywhere, including at most traffic lights, and it seemed to take forever to find a ramp back onto the freeway from the surface streets.
70 and 64 pass hard by East St Louis, so I'm not sure it would matter at that point. Take 270 through Alton if you want to avoid it.
https://youtu.be/Ip11Dk8tCBI
Seems to show them leaving East St. Louis, and crossing the 55 bridge into St. Louis. I don't know what the city is like post-2020, but in the before time I was never worried about turning off where they did. Looks like downtown. Not hard to get into a bad neighborhood from there, of course.
