Commuting from Newton to Lexington (Boston, Arlington: schools, living in, buses)

[DC2boston]

I'm moving to the area soon with my family and will be working in Lexington. We like the relatively urban feel of Newton and the strong schools, but want to get a handle on the commute. Can anyone give me a sense of how long that drive would take or if there are legitimate public transportation options (Lexington has no T stop, apparently)? I assume the best route is up 95, but would guess it gets pretty slow as you approach 90 and then again at 2.

Thanks in advance for any information.

[ogre]

The commute out on I-90 (Mass. Pike) would be a reverse commute, so that part should be no problem. Once on 95 (known locally as rt. 128), you could encounter some serious traffic. I'm not really familiar with the back streets, but as I picture the area between Newton and Lexington, I'm thinking your best commute would probably be via local streets, though it might depend on what part of Newton you lived in and where in Lexington you would be working.

Lexington does not have any kind of rail service on the T, but it is served by transit busses. Newton is as well. I'm not very familiar with bus service, but it would be worth a look at the T's website (http://mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/bus/) to see whether there is a route between Newton and Lexington.

These towns are really pretty close to each other. There is only one town between them. Newton has a lot of good qualities. If I really wanted to live in Newton to take advantage of those qualities, I would consider the commute to Lexington to be quite reasonable for the chance to live in I town I really liked.

[jayrandom]

Newton and Lexington are close enough that it really depends on where in Newton you're coming from and where in Lexington you're going to. For what it's worth, 95 between Newton and Lexington usually moves pretty well in the morning, although there is often a minor backup at the 90 merge. It is a pretty reasonable drive, although sometimes it will get very backed up.

As for buses, I've lived in the one town in between and can tell you that while you could do the trip on a bus, it's more than likely that you would take 1+ hours (and even that is the best possible situation). Driving is the way to go between those two towns. If you do want public transportation to Lexington, your best bet might be to look in Arlington, which is not quite the same as Newton but more urban than Lexington.

[DC2boston]

Thanks for the feedback and confirmation on the commute.

Although this would sacrifice our desire to be in a more urban setting, the beauty and proximity to water of North Shore towns like Ipswich and Newburyport is attractive. Obviously the commute to Lexington is much longer and the towns are both much smaller than Newton, I'd be curious if anyone has some experience living in either place, particularly with kids, or thoughts on getting from there to Lexington.

Thanks again for any thoughts. This board is full of great info for people making the move to Boston.