Jersey City commute to Somerville - route with least traffic (78, Turnpike or 22) (Newark: taxes)

[pirates21]

I'm going to be moving to Jersey City, but before I commit I wanted to figure out if my daily commute to Somerville would be too much to handle. I know nothing about traffic in the Somerville area, so I don't know the best way to get there.
78 west to 287 seems like the best bet with 78 being reverse commute but the forum talks about horror stories on 287. Is 287 south from 78 a high traffic area? Or is 287 just bad going North to Morristown?
On a map, 22 looks like the most direct route, but how is a commute on 22?
Also, someone recommended maybe taking the Turnpike south to 287 north. I'd prefer avoid the tolls, but if its the fastest and least stressful method I'd consider it.

Anyone have advice? Thanks.

[captne76]

Probably your best route would be to get on the Skyway towards Newark Airport then I-78 West to 287 South.

I wouldn't expect much traffic on that part of 287 but there is quite a bit on 78 where NJ24 starts off because there is a bit of commuting going towards Morristown.
78 has local & express lanes separated to that point so staying on the expresses should avoid that.

No tolls this way either.

The NJ YankMyCrank (TurnPike) is one of my least favorite roads and I leave it mostly for out of state tourists to pay those taxes. It also would be way out of the way to go that far South then have to come back up "2 8's" (287).

US 22 does run in between all this and is direct but has traffic lights from about Mountainside until around Green Brook. It's probably your second choice and a good alternate if the I-state gets all jacked up due to an accident or something.

Actually coming from Somerville to about Union I very often take 22 and put up with the lights because of the shorter distance.

[The Michigan Man]

How bad is it getting out of JC in the morning?

[captne76]

Hmmm, I have come out of the Holland Tunnel into J City many times and usually no problem getting on the Skyway to escape to the West. Most of the traffic there is pointing towards the Big Yapple.

[BobKovacs]

You'd actually want to take 78 to 202/206, which will run you right into Somerville. That'll avoid 287, and also avoid 22.

[captne76]

There's never been a direct exit from I-78 to US 202/206 as far as I know. I-287 is right next to it and it seems all the exits to 202/206 are off I-287.

Ck the Goo map yourself: <iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp ;q=somerville+nj&amp;sll=37.370157,-95.712891&amp;sspn=28.97858,55.371094&amp;ie=UTF8& amp;ll=40.57739,-74.607553&amp;spn=0.027158,0.086689&amp;z=14&amp;i wloc=A&amp;output=embed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&a mp;q=somerville+nj&amp;sll=37.370157,-95.712891&amp;sspn=28.97858,55.371094&amp;ie=UTF8& amp;ll=40.57739,-74.607553&amp;spn=0.027158,0.086689&amp;z=14&amp;i wloc=A" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

[captne76]

BTW while it is a doable commute, the concept of it to someone who has lived in or near NJ for decades, it seems odd, since J City is an urban area that before the boom times of the last 2 decades used to be a crowded urbanized type of place while Somerville is easily reachable from lots of more spread out towns.
You'll be kind of going from the eastern edge of the state near NYC to the middle of the state each day, then going back to a city at night.