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From: macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis)
Newsgroups: net.travel
Subject: Re: Maine via I-495?
Message-ID: <175@harvard.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 9-Jun-85 23:00:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: harvard.175
Posted: Sun Jun  9 23:00:23 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Jun-85 00:49:04 EDT
References: <2543@decwrl.UUCP>
Reply-To: macrakis@harvard.UUCP (Stavros macrakis)
Organization: Aiken Comp. Lab., Harvard
Lines: 22
Summary: Don't take I-495, take I-95 aka Rt. 128

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.