macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis) (06/10/85)
To bypass Boston on the way to Maine, it's best to take not I-495
(the outer circumferential highway, which makes a very wide loop
around Boston) but rather Route 128 (I-95, the inner circumferential
highway).
There are only two problems here:
1. 128 gets slow at rush hours, including weekend departure (Fri.
eve) and return (Sun. eve). Avoid these times.
2. most of 128 is also called I-95 despite being a loop road. This
has to do with qualifying for federal aid after Massachusetts
turned down Federal money for an `inner loop' through the middle
of the city.
The complete approach from, e.g., NYC is: I-84 E to I-90 E (Mass.
Pike) to 128N (I-95 N) to I-95 N. So it's not that hard after all:
from the Pike, take I-95 N. If you want to stop in Boston, take I-90
all the way in. (A very easy drive.) Do not use I-93 south of Boston
(very slow, very bad condition, being reconstructed), but I-93 north
of Boston is an excellent highway, a longer but faster route to rejoin
128 than Route 1 N, which is a bitch.
Of course, it can't hurt to have a good map dated after 1980 or so.