95N Commute Times (Pike Northward) (Waltham, Arlington: renter, home, purchasing)

[RTrebor]

Hi All,

I currently am a renter in Waltham and am looking at purchasing a first home. I work a couple of exits west down the pike and so am very familiar with the short stretch from exit 26 south to 24 (pike) in the morning and north from 24 to 26 in the afternoon.

I am trying to weigh the additional commute time as you go further 'up' towards towns like Bedford, Reading or Wakefield at the extreme.

Am I correct in the thought that the RT 3 and RT 95 junctions are the worst points? Anyone familiar with this route have ideas on average times to go from say the Pike to RT 3 or the Pike to 93?

Also, I've heard that you can't really avoid the log jams here... if I was to get off the pike on 95N at 430p in the afternoon, is it still as bad as 530 or 630?

Thanks a lot for the help. Trying to weigh commute sanity vs benefits (namely schools!) in other towns with the understanding my current job may not be there forever. My hours are a little flexible and I can probably work from home on Fridays as I know even getting onto 95N on Friday afternoon is a disaster!

[wxjay]

Reading or Wakefield would be an absolute nightmare for a commute. 128 S in the morning is usually pretty jammed from 93 westward and then gets even more so after Rte 3 down to the Pike. I have heard of people who live in Burlington that work in Waltham and it taking them almost an hour on select mornings.

Coming back won't be much more pleasant for those two either. The bulk of the heavy traffic will be from roughly Rte 2 up through the 93 split. I work in Lexington and often have gone to Reading or Woburn to meet friends for drinks or a movie. It would often take me 30-35 minutes to go from Exit 31 to Exit 35 or 36. And during Christmas season - make it more like 50 minutes.

Out of the places you mentioned, Bedford would be the better option, assuming you can get something in that community (i.e., quite pricy). Is there anything wrong with going for Natick or Sudbury (pricy yes, but if you are considering Bedford...)?

[RTrebor]

Seems like Bedford has the odd and end smaller place, which is all we need, for a more reasonable price than Sudbury. In reality its really unlikely we would end up there, but I wanted to mention an in betweener geographically to gauge as I had heard south of route 3 might not be as bad. Sounds like the whole thing is a mess, though? The only thing tying us west is my job and if something was to happen there we would hate to be living some where that didn't have any other lure for us.

Giving a little more detail, we both grew up in the 'real burbs' in central / western mass and like the more urban feel of places like Waltham or Watertown. Most of the 'easy' candidates like Arlington are just too hyper competitive and so a town like Wakefield while sleepy but fairly dense with a nice Main St and public transit options is appealing. Since it only takes me about 15 mins to go from 26 -> 39 off hour I was hoping even in conjestion it would take like 30 minutes, but from what you are saying it sounds more like grid lock.

As an aside... I could work out of a building right on 495. Google claims I could go north up 495 and s down 93 in 57 minutes... but I wonder if those routes are the same story. An hour is my target max (since its 4 days a week, not 5).