In the mornings, Lake Street is a very viable alternative to trucking all the way into Arlington Ctr to pick up Rt. 60. Though in weekday evenings it tends to be very often a bad choice, with a ton of traffic due to a) the oodles of 'no left turn' and 'no right turn' signs that force everyone coming from Rt 2 to stay on Lake St., b) the light cycle at the school and the narrowness of the road that means that anyone turning left there automatically holds up all the traffic behind them for *at least* one light cycle, c) traffic to and from Thorndike Park, and d) traffic halting for bicyclists on the bike path. (I should note here that Rt. 60 also has many of these defects combined with it being a major route through Arlington.)

When I lived in that area I had a 'super secret' back route to keep from sitting in Lake St. traffic for 15 minutes or more every day.