You can have separate banks for each city. That way you can scan just the repeaters for the city you are in. I have a radio with 1000 channels and no memory banks. I have to hook it up to the computer and reprogram it whenever I go to a different area.

On the Yaesu radios that support memory banks, you don't have to use them. You can put the same channel in multiple banks or put every channel in one bank.