Location and Traffic on Route 28 (Newark, New Brunswick: to rent, garden, relocate to)

[yunjin]

We will relocate to NJ from another state soon. My spouse will be working in Franklin Lakes NJ and my job is at Rutgers - Piscataway. Plan to rent for one year. We did a little bit research and think westfield/cranford is a good option for us so that we can split the commute. Never been to that area so just wondering how bad the traffic is on Route 28 from westfield to Garden State Pkwy during rush hour? And also how bad is the traffic on south bound of garden state pkwy? Thanks

[Kracer]

Are you committed to Westfield?
The state routes like 28, 27, 1 usually are very jammed with cars trying to get to the parkway, turnpike or 287.

The parkway is jammed going north in the mornings and south at night. It seemed that everytime it rained there was an accident on the parkway in the Newark area.

I used to commute from Fords and then from the Somerville area to West Milford which is a bit north west of Franklin Lakes. It is interesting to note that from either of these two places the commute took about 1hour and 12 minutes. Around 55 miles either route.

Fords to Piscataway is about a 12-15 minute ride and you have a few different routes to take. 287 is jammed going north from the Fords area as is rt 22, which also floods in places. Fords to Rutgers, Piscataway has several routes. New Brunswick ave to rt 27 and Washington ave. Or New Brunswick ave to Durham rd, washington ave. How the heck long it would take from Westfield to Piscataway might make distance from there irrelevant with all the traffic. RT 28 to Bound Brook and then River rd across 287 to Picataway would be one route to try. Again 28 runs thru Plainfield etc and it if full of traffic lights and commuters. rt 22 to river road or rt 527 thru Bound Brook would be another route.

One of my routes was the parkway to rt80 to rt 23. The other was 287 to Boontoon and then onto rt 23. or 287 to 23 then through Pompton plains on the county road that runs thru Ringwood, Franklin Lakes is just a bit to the east of that route. Looks like a direct run up 287 to Franklin Lakes would be a good choice as well.

Might consider someplace along 287 like Bedminster, Bridgewater. Any way you go will have a lot of traffic but the closer you are to a 287 or parkway the better. Fords or Metuchen along New Brunswick ave may be a consideration. It takes about an hour to get from Somerville to the NY border on 287.....staying close to the speed limit and baring mercy flight helicopter landings to evacuate accident victims. Bridgewater to Rutgers is realtively fast and direct via 287 south and river rd. May be about 12 miles or so.

Good luck!

[Older&Wiser]

Cranford is on the GSP (Exit/ent 137); the furthest point at rush hour via Rt 28 (called North Ave by the locals) is about 5 minutes. Westfield at rush would be about 15 minutes. If you were heading south from Westfield you would go down Central Ave to GSP 135. Heavy GSP is northbound in the AM; southbound in the PM. You'd be going against the traffic as you would on 287 if you follow that around to Rutgers. PM me for any additional questions.

[yunjin]

Thanks. We haven't decided yet which town to relocate to. Westfield was an option because we like to be close to a walkable downtown...but yeah looks the traffic will be a problem :-(