<p>One of the problem is with the GPS, all the ones I used over the years always tell you to go to GW bridge doing this route. One time I missed the Garden State Pwy exit and decided to follow the GPS reroute to GW bridge at 10pm thinking it could not be that bad this time of night and I do like the sight of Manhattan skyline. Of course, I lost almost 2 hours getting stuck going across the bridge, and had a horrible time staying awake into the wee hours of the next morning after a long day doing Boston/Philly round trip. So, I too have not seen GW bridge ever since.</p>
<p>Take the train and rent a car in Boston if you really need one. It’s not worth the headache.</p>
<p>“One of the problem is with the GPS, all the ones I used over the years always tell you to go to GW bridge doing this route.”</p>
<p>This is a big problem when traveling anywhere in the metro area - it often directs you to take a route which isn’t the best. If you are familiar with where you are going it’s not a problem - but if you’re not you are stuck. </p>
<p>I always take the George from the Palisades into Manhattan/Yankee Stadium or to the island and have never once been stuck in horrible traffic on the bridge. Sometimes it’s slow moving but nothing that takes more than 10 minutes to get across at most. The Palisades dumps you right onto the bridge though. I think you only get stuck creeping along if you are on 95 approaching the George from NJ - that’s where the back up is.</p>
<p>NJ Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, George Washington Bridge, I-95, I-84, Merritt Parkway–basically everything in North Jersey, NYC, Westchester, and Connecticut–will be a living hell at that hour. I’d either have a leisurely dinner in Princeton and plan to get in late, or take the train. If I absolutely had to drive at that hour, I’d take 206 north out of Princeton to Somerville and pick up I-287 north to I-87/NY Thruway, then take that north to I-84 east across the Hudson, and pick up the Taconic State Parkway north around Fishkill. The Taconic will take you clear up to I-90, still in NY State, which you take east a few miles until it becomes the Mass Pike which takes you right into Boston. By the time you’re approaching Boston, traffic will have cleared. It’s not the shortest route in miles (it’s about 40 miles longer than I-84) but you’re much likelier to avoid traffic congestion this way.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
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<p>;) See post # 4</p>
<p>I think taking the Taconic is silly. Speed limit is 55 vs 65 (plus the deer factor) and if they left Princeton anytime after 5p there will be no rush hour traffic on 84 at all, anywhere. They wouldn’t even hit 84 in NY until sometime after 7pm.</p>
<p>I would be listening to the traffic reports and make my decision as I got to the top of 287 in Suffern.</p>
<p>Hutch/Merritt a mess? Go up 684.
Cross-Westchester a mess? Shoot up the Taconic or the Saw Mill.
Big backup on the Tappan-Zee? Take 87N to 84.
84 in Danbury a parking lot? Take the scenic route, go up the Taconic to 90.</p>
<p>I think we can all agree, no what what, don’t take the GW. ;)</p>
<p>As for the speed limit on the Taconic/Saw Mill/Hutch/Merritt - 55? You will be in the tiny minority. The flow goes much faster than that. I think large portions of the interstates are only 55 as well.</p>
<p>Yes, doesn’t mean that is what the flow is but you will get stopped for speeding at lower speed than on 65 MPH roads. Plus at night, at least in my experience, because of deer, you often have to drive much slower than 55 - especially the further north you are on the Taconic. I have had to drive 35 on it at times. I rarely take it anymore, and only during the day and if I am not in a hurry to be somewhere.</p>
<p>In a dead winter, was on Taconic at 3am in the morning, going north towards Wappengers Falls. I lost traction on a patch of ice and the car danced three full 360 and stopped next to the rail. One side was a mess, but I still took the car into my aunt’s driveway, can’t wake them up. Spent the rest of the night in zero. :)</p>
<p>I would be dead by then had it been in the rush hour.</p>
<p>OP again. We’ll be leaving in a few minutes, at about 6:30. I’m planning to take 287 to 87 to 84. Wish me luck.</p>
<p>Have a good drive Sherpa. By the time you read this…you will BE in Boston!</p>
<p>I agree with emilybee. You can’t have rush hour everywhere on this route. If you were leaving NY metro area around 2-3 pm, then yeah you are going have to worry about Danbury or Hartford rush hour. Otherwise, I think it is a little bit of an overcompensation to add 40 miles to go up the Taconic if you already got pass most of 287 and it is towards the tail end of the rush hour.</p>
<p>287-87-84 only adds about 15 miles. The stretch on 84 from the Newburgh-Beacon bridge to Danbury is one dark and lonely stretch of highway, though. It seems to go on forever.</p>
<p>^Also the most beautiful part of I84, especially where it goes over Taconic Parkway.</p>
<p>Let us know how it went.</p>
<p>The prison all lit up at night makes it seem not so desolate. ;)</p>
<p>The downside of the night drive is the truckers and the crazies. I’ve done a few one-day trips to NY (leave Boston in the am, spend about ten hours in Manhattan, drive back), and it’s a miserable return trip from Manhattan until a bit north of Hartford.</p>
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<p>One other thing to keep in mind about 84 (and 95) at night on Fridays and weekends during the summer in the general Danbury area is beach traffic. Lots of people heading out to LI Sound beaches and to Cape Cod.</p>
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<p>Actually there are two prisons on opposite sides of I-84 in Fishkill. (And I’ve been inside both of them.) </p>
<p>Downstate Correctional Facility:</p>
<p>[Downstate</a> Correctional Facility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downstate_Correctional_Facility]Downstate”>Downstate Correctional Facility - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>Fishkill Correctional Facility (formerly the Mattewan Home for the Criminally Insane):</p>
<p>[Fishkill</a> Correctional Facility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishkill_Correctional_Facility]Fishkill”>Fishkill Correctional Facility - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Green Haven is also not too far away: (I’ve been in that one too …. No, not as an inmate):</p>
<p>[Green</a> Haven Correctional Facility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Haven_Correctional_Facility]Green”>Green Haven Correctional Facility - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>^ Fridays and Sundays are problematic all over. People going north/south/east/west to the Catskills/Adirondacks/Berkshires, the Jersey Shore, LI, the Cape, etc, etc, etc…but since the OP was traveling on a Tuesday this didn’t matter. </p>
<p>I think I knew that about the prisons being separate facilities.</p>
<p>If I were making that drive, I would take the Tappan Zee, not the GW, then up 95 to 91 (I think) to 84 to the Mass Pike. If I were planning on a 4 pm departure, I would drive for about an hour and half, then find a place for dinner to wait out some of the worst of rush-hour traffic. >>>>>>>></p>
<p>Agree. Going over the GW and thru NY at any time is iffy.</p>