<p>We hope to combine S’s dropoff at Tufts with a late summer trip to Cape Cod. Any suggestions from MA Cc’ers?</p>
<p>I know there’s been highway work done in the last year or two. We’re looking for routes that might help us avoid Boston traffic, even if it means going a bit out of the way. Any tips would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>I’m not a “MA CCer”, but I spend the end of every summer on Cape Cod, and I’ve had to go to Boston on occasion from there.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I would just bite the bullet and go through Boston. The mid-day traffic isn’t that bad in late August. At worst it will take you two hours from Buzzard’s Bay instead of 80 minutes or so, but you’ll probably lose less time than that.</p></li>
<li><p>Or, when you get to Route 128 you can turn northwest, and then come in from the northwest on the Concord Pike. That’s a fair number of additional miles, and I don’t know that you won’t be trading one traffic jam for another, but the Concord Pike inbound on an August afternoon is unlikely to be horrible.</p></li>
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<p>Cape Cod traffic in the summer is often worse than Boston traffic. Abstain from traveling during the day on Saturday–weekly house rentals are Saturday-Saturday, Friday afternoons–people coming down after work or leaving work early for the weekend, and Sundays–people leaving to go back home–the time of day depends on the weather. </p>
<p>I don’t have any specific driving directions for you.</p>
<p>Actually since many schools around MA start last week of August, you may find your travel to the Cape to be not that bad. Most of us with kids in school will be back at home.</p>
<p>Corranged is right. I was assuming mid-week. Leaving Cape Cod on a weekend afternoon can be a nightmare. If you have to do Cape Cod -> Tufts on a weekend, leave early – before 9 or 10 am, depending on how far out the Cape you are.</p>
<p>(I also assumed from your thread title that you were leaving Cape Cod and going to Tufts, not the other way around. You may want to clarify that. Or clarify that you’re talking round trip.)</p>
<p>Weekend traffic over the bridges onto the Cape are usually an extremely long stop and go process due to those stupid traffic circles. Try to time that for the middle of the night. Traffic starts backing up around 3-9 Friday afternoon/evening and then again around 7 am Sat and Sun. My ILs have a place up there and we just make a point of not even getting in the car on the weekends.</p>
<p>The rotary after the Sagamore bridge no longer exists.</p>
<p>You’re right, I forgot. We’re closer to the Bourne Bridge. But traffic is still a pain on the weekend. I think it’s the narrow lanes over the bridge coupled with that really high curb…I see people try to make it a one lane crossing all the time.</p>
<p>I would second un-soccermom. We usually spend the third or fourth week of August on the Cape and rarely encounter the traffic problems that friends who go earlier in the summer report. Even during the recent construction, we never had problems with the Bourne or Sagamore bridges from either direction as long as we avoided traveling during “prime time”.</p>
<p>We share a house on the Cape and I think we make switchover day Sunday. There’s always been plenty of traffic, but not nightmarish stuff. Only the Bourne Bridge makes sense for us, but for you it might make sense to listen closely to the traffic reports and plan accordingly! Sometimes 495 and 24 to 3 makes more sense than taking 3 directly from the Cape. I think it’s highly unlikely it would be worth going all the way around Boston on Rte 128.</p>
<p>I’m hoping that taking out the rotary at Sagamore will have solved some of the traffic problems further up Rt. 3 – my fiance and I came home from our in-laws’ in Plymouth on Sunday night and encountered less traffic than we’ve ever seen coming back to Boston on Rt. 3 on a Sunday in the summer.</p>
<p>Wow - thanks, everyone–
We’ve always tried to avoid weekend travel to/from the Cape, but… it looks like preorientation drop-off falls on a Saturday :(</p>
<p>Well, then I think we can conclude (a) traffic in Boston isn’t what you have to worry about, (b) leave early – forget that extra few hours on the beach, (c) use Sagamore bridge if at all possible, especially on the way back (I can second or third that, too), and (d) if you plan to come back to the Cape, linger at Tufts so that you aren’t coming back to the Cape until after the midday switchover rush.</p>
<p>I live in the next town over from Tufts and travel to the Cape a few times a summer. I agree with JHS’ message: stay late at Tufts on Saturday and head down in the late afternoon. Take I-93 straight through the City of Boston and take R-3 to the Sagamore Bridge. It is not worth going west to R-128 or going all the down to the Bourne Bridge. With the new flyover at the Sagamore Bridge , you might face less than a 1 mile back-up at the bridge and smooth sailing after that.</p>
<p>We’ll actually be heading to Tufts twice-- once for preorientation dropoff and move-in, then back again for matriculation and final goodbye four or five days after. We’ll definitely be on Cape Cod in between. The idea of heading back later, after the worst traffic has passed, sounds like the thing to do.</p>
<p>Will def. take note of these directions. Have found that mapquest routes are not always the best.</p>
<p>lspf72 - Here is a link to a Globe article on a nightmare ride back form the Cape over Memorial Day weekend.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/05/30/dream_ride_to_cape_but_a_nightmare_driving_home/[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/05/30/dream_ride_to_cape_but_a_nightmare_driving_home/</a></p>
<p>I’m glad I left early. I was over the bridge clean as a whistle by 9:00 am Monday, although traffic was pretty thick and I thought there might be problems later.</p>
<p>I grew up in a town over from Tufts and spent and still spend a lot of time on the cape. You can plan on about 1.5 hours from Tufts to Hyannis area with light/reasonable traffic. AM 1030 has traffic reports most of the day and if you have internet access you can check out smartraveler although I don’t know how often that gets updated on weekeneds. Also *1 on (at least verizon) cell phones has traffic reports.</p>
<p>I agree with what everyone has said- Sat can be a fairly busy day for the rental swiches, Fri and Sun nights for the weekenders, and rush hour for Boston traffic although it is the best way. There is a carpool lane open on the SE Expwy during rush so sometimes hitting the beginning or end of rush can be not bad.</p>
<p>Jackie</p>
<p>also if you have other cape cod questions, feel free to ask!</p>
<p>Thanks for the extra info Jackie. Had never heard of Smartraveler, and will definitely check out the AM traffic reports. We’ve been going to the Cape for years (relatives), but always from home here in NY, and have always avoided weekend travel (til now). </p>
<p>After reading that Globe article (yikes!) I’m starting to think we should just plan a shorter vacation, at one end or the other of our Tufts’ trips. Although it doesn’t seem that far, making the round trip to Medford 2X might be more trouble than it’s worth. Now just have to work out the logistics with college stuff, siblings and dogs…</p>
<p>And-- re: the Globe article, add me to the list of people who dislike the Sagamore bridge - two narrow lanes and no dividers. No wonder it gets backed up.</p>