Traffic on I-90!!! (Worcester, Springfield, Lowell: home, school, college) - Massachusetts (MA) - City-Data Forum

jimbear · 08-22-2010, 04:23 PM

we are heading through Mass on 90 to RI and the traffic between the NY line and the rest area here between exits 9 and 10 is nuts...very frustrating! Is this normal? Mass 511 said there was traffic from an air show near exit 3, but what what is the deal near exit 10? ahhhhhhh

Cuda87 · 08-22-2010, 06:02 PM

There was terrible traffic this weekend from exits 3-7 due to the air show.

The traffic around 9 on the weekends is bad from all of the CT and NY people trying to get onto I-84 to go home after vacation.

Traffic can be bad around there too because of Worcester around rush hour

mr2448 · 08-23-2010, 10:14 AM

This was just a bad weekend for travel! Our trip from North Conway to Rhode Island took almost 5 hours as compared to the almost 3 1/2 on a normal weekend. Many people were closing up their summer properties and going home due to the coming school year. BTW, watch out for traffic this coming weekend in New Hampshire. Pease Airport is having its own Air Show! Westover, Pease and Quonset are the three major air shows in New England.

holden125 · 08-23-2010, 10:44 AM

Between returning vacationers, college kids starting a new year, etc., it's not surprising there was traffic at the Exit 9 interchange where I-84 from CT-NYC feeds in. But even very far from Mass. this weekend was like the full moon of traffic weekends. There was something in the air.

I started out yesterday in Virginia and was heading to Long Island for a birthday party before coming back to Mass. today. Heavy traffic near DC, across Maryland and Delaware, in PA south of Philly (wanted to stop in Philly and gave up on the idea). The NJ Turnpike was an absolute nightmare, as was Staten Island, NY. The Belt Parkway in Brooklyn and Queens was the absolute worst. Flooding in several places and cars turning around on the road and coming up the entrance ramp. Even the local streets on Long Island were flooded.

The plan was to make a bunch of stops and get to Long Island by about 7:30, but even skipping all the stops we got there at midnight. 14 hours to do a 6-hour drive.

Highwyre237 · 08-23-2010, 02:13 PM

I was part of that traffic this weekend. Went down 84 on friday to NY, and back up 84 to 90 on sunday... god last night was pretty bad. 84 through CT was slow (mostly near waterbury) and 90 was pretty bad too.

miu · 08-23-2010, 02:29 PM

The air show, the rain making the roads slick and with poor visibility plus it being one of the last weekends of the summer.... it was almost as bad as traveling at peak times during Thanksgiving week along the I-95 Northeast corridor.

But it could be much much worse. There's 62 mile nine day traffic jam going on in China right now...

China's nine-day traffic jam stretches 100km

Quote:

Thousands of vehicles were bogged down Monday in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes.

Lowerdeck · 08-23-2010, 06:48 PM

I was coming up 84 from Hartford to Sturbridge last night, that was pretty brutal. Heavier than normal for a Sunday evening, and the rain making everyone go about 50 mph made things worse.

But every highway was struggling yesterday. Coming through Connecticut, I got stuck in mysteriously stop and go traffic on Rt. 15 in Hamden. Moving but 40 mph in Middletown on I-91, with traffic barely moving southbound towards Meriden. The typical long line of cars trying to cross the Charter Oak Bridge eastbound. Then about 40-50 mph being the norm on 84 east towards Sturbridge. And to think, I was trying to avoid 95 and whatever hell that might been.

It is normal to see heavier traffic between 9 and 10 on the Pike - Sturbridge and Auburn. It is the primary road between points northeast (Worcester, Lowell, New Hampshire, Maine) and points southwest (Hartford, New Haven, NYC, everything else). It becomes a funnel on both sides.

miu · 08-24-2010, 03:21 AM

This was posted on the airshow page:

Quote:

Westfield Air Show Tthank you for supporting the Air Show. We were able to entertain record crowds (250,000). It meant a lot to the men and women who worked so hard to produce this show to see the overwhelming support. We will post photos of the show...feel free to share yours.

So... those attendance numbers would have generated a ton of passenger car traffic all around New England with the Springfield area being the central point. And that would have greatly affected I-90, I-91 and then I-84.