Commute from Belmont to Methuen? (Boston, Waltham: house, to live, move)

[US-Traveller]

How long would a commute from Belmont to Methuen by car take? Is there much traffic on 95 and 93?

[holden125]

Originally Posted by US-Traveller

How long would a commute from Belmont to Methuen by car take?

With no traffic it would be about 40-45 mins. But there will be traffic at normal commuting hours.

Originally Posted by US-Traveller

Is there much traffic on 95 and 93?

Yes! Fortunately there's not as much on 93 northbound in the morning rush as there is heading toward Boston, but things do slow down by the interchange with 95/128 and a little bit by the 495 interchange too. I would skip 128 altogether and go through the streets to 93 North, probably at the Mystic Valley Pkwy entrance. The tough (and slow) part will be getting to 93, but it's courting disaster to loop around on 128.

Your tag says Chicago. I love Belmont but if you're planning a move out here to a job in Methuen, you might want to live closer to 93 to minimize that hassle if you have the option. I head north on occasion but only on the weekend and the Mystic Valley Pkwy is not so bad then. To get to work every day there are easier rides.

And I tell you this despite the fact that I'm organizing a posse to run Mitt Romney out of my town on a rail.

[SickOfRevere]

roughly 40 minutes.

30 on a good day
an hour on a bad one

95 A.K.A. 128 is terrible going both directions in the morning and 93 only slows down for a couple miles approaching 95.

[US-Traveller]

What do you have against Mitt Romney? We're looking to be in Belmont if we take the jobs in Methuen or Norwood because we are Latter-day Saints and its nice to be near the temple. Is Belmont a Mormon friendly area?

[holden125]

In my opinion Belmont is a Mormon-friendly area in the same way that any other local town is, but not particularly so despite the temple being there. My sense is that Massachusetts, perhaps because of its early history of religious intolerance, has reached a point where someone's religion is considered a private matter. This means that there are not, to my knowledge, any areas I would consider anti-Mormon or unwelcoming, but also that people in New England are less comfortable with overt public displays of religiosity in general.

Remember that you'd have to go to Methuen every day (Norwood opens a whole other issue as it's in the opposite direction). I don't know how often you'd want to go to the temple, but you could live in a place like, say, Winchester (which is expensive, but so is much of Belmont), and be closer to 93 while still not being far from the temple.

My issue with Mitt Romney has nothing to do with his faith, but rather with his political and economic views. You may have heard that the Boston area is liberal heaven, and indeed Belmont went 2- or 3-1 to the Democrats in votes and in political contributions despite Romney being an early candidate who has lived in the town for quite some time. A lot of people in Belmont, and in the area in general, don't share his politics, but I've never heard anyone really say anything negative about his religious beliefs. I invite others to give their thoughts, but I would not think you'd encounter any religious hostility in any town in the Boston area, beyond a general political liberalism and perhaps a preference for secularism in government. I'd actually be quite surprised if you did.

Another note: the LDS temple is officially in Belmont but the towns of Arlington, Lexington and Waltham offer many homes that are as close to it as many parts of Belmont. I am, for example, in the opposite corner of the town, near Mt. Auburn Cemetery. My old house in Arlington Heights is thus considerably closer to the Temple than my current Belmont address.