Best route to Mass Pike at rush hour?

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

So I just got a job offer for a job that would require me to take the pike out to Framingham area every morning. I've never actually tried to get to the pike (I'm in Ball Square area) in the morning, and wondered if anybody had favored routes?

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

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.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

The total inability of our transportation planners to reduce the huge afternoon backups in that area is one of my peeves. 2 east->16 north is bad, 16 north approaching Mass Ave is much worse. Lake Street or 60 northbound approaching Mass Ave are both disasters.

We thank people who take public transit by giving them a half hour traffic jam getting out of the Alewife garage onto Route 2, or a very slow, unreliable bus ride because of the traffic on 16.

If Cambridge got rid of the all-way walk phase at Mass Ave and 16, which most pedestrians don't wait for anyway, it would be a start.

Whittemore Avenue provides a very useful shortcut from 16 north to Mass Ave. Entering Whittemore used to be prohibited from 4-6 pm; a year or two ago Cambridge changed it to 3-7 pm. The cop guarding the street usually goes home around 6:30.

[hr-macgirl.livejournal.com]

If Cambridge got rid of the all-way walk phase at Mass Ave and 16, which most pedestrians don't wait for anyway, it would be a start.

Cambridge doesn't control that intersection. Blame my favourite whipping boy, the DCR, for the horrible setup.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

For some reason, the Mass Ave/Alewife Brook Parkway light is maintained by Cambridge, even though the parkway is a DCR road.

There are signs on the light poles saying to call Cambridge Traffic and Parking if the light is malfunctioning. Plus the signal heads are yellow, not battleship grey.

[kylenffxi.livejournal.com]

Whittemore Avenue provides a very useful shortcut from 16 north to Mass Ave. Entering Whittemore used to be prohibited from 4-6 pm; a year or two ago Cambridge changed it to 3-7 pm. The cop guarding the street usually goes home around 6:30.
I literally shifted my working hours to go in slightly later and stay later at the office so that I will arrive at Alewife at exactly 7 pm from Rt. 2 East every day when they made this change. I am always careful to drive extremely slowly and respectfully on Whittemore since it is a residential street, but waiting 15 minutes at that one Rt. 16/Mass Ave light every day was driving me crazy. I would love it if the city could do something to relieve the congestion there and make it easier to get on or off of Rt. 2.