[Contoura]

Dear all,

I will be driving from Washington DC to Bennington next week. I have picked Sunday dawn as my departure time, because I feel like that would give me the least traffic -- can anyone confirm or deny?

According to GPS the fastest way to get there (7 hrs) is to take 270 S > 200 E > 1 95 N > 1 295 N > NJ Turnpike > 1 80 W > NJ 17 N > I 87 N > NY 7 E > VT 279 E and then US 7 S. What do you guys think? I've never driven this part of the country before, and I much much prefer highways over stop and go red-light filled roads. Can anyone tell me if this is infact the most "highway-y" route?

Any tips are most welcome.

Thanks,

Sara

[harry chickpea]

Check with the New Jersey forum on what works there with current construction and traffic patterns. Remember to gas up before hitting NJ to avoid waits and higher pricing. The rest of it looks pretty straightforward.

[mp775]

Except for the segment of NY 7 from Troy to Bennington, that's all highway (NJ 17 has a lot of commercial driveways, but no signals or intersections). You will hit some signals in and east of Troy, but NY 7 is mostly a two-lane rural road with at-grade intersections but no signals. 279 has no intersections but is mostly undivided. Once you're in Bennington it turns into a very short divided highway before the interchange with US 7 (not the same 7; NY 7 becomes VT 9 at the border and is the main east-west street in Bennington). There is no more highway-y route to Bennington; the only other options are longer and involve either coming in from the south on US 7 through the mountains or from the east on VT 9 through the mountains.

I'm not familiar with Albany-area traffic, but it looks like I-87 to I-787 to NY-7 is marginally shorter than I-87 to NY-7.

[jcraig10]

Yes, take 87 to 787 to 7 around Albany

17 can be a bit slow but it's only a few miles and once you're on 87 you can run 65+

[Ellwood]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Check with the New Jersey forum on what works there with current construction and traffic patterns. Remember to gas up before hitting NJ to avoid waits and higher pricing. The rest of it looks pretty straightforward.

We were in NJ yesterday and gas was $1.99, which is a lot lower than VT.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by Ellwood

We were in NJ yesterday and gas was $1.99, which is a lot lower than VT.

Isn't there a big refinery somewhere right around northern NJ and the Philadelphia area? I guess that could be a reason, but what with state taxes and price wars I've kinda given up on keeping track. Did they have to pump your gas? I remember NJ and Oregon requiring that.

[tkln]

They do have to pump your gas...NJ has always been significantly cheaper though I'm not sure of the reason why. We have family in NJ, and when we lived in NYC and visited them, it was the highlight of the trip to get cheap gas on the way home lol...

[GeoffD]

I do a similar drive occasionally in the opposite direction.

Leaving DC at dawn on a Sunday, you won't have rush hour traffic issues. From North Jersey, your options are the Northway or the Taconic. I have ski friends who do the drive every weekend. The drive time is the same. The Taconic is less miles and better fuel economy. I-87 is a flip your brain off, engage cruise control, and drive. The way you describe yourself, you're going to want I-87.

You're driving through the highest congestion area on the east coast. I always have Waze running on my smartphone for that kind of drive and listen to it when it tells me to pick an alternate route. The route your NAV is telling you to take will be the fastest 80% of the time. It could also put you in a 2 hour traffic delay if you don't use a traffic-aware smartphone application. Google bought Waze. There's a reason why they did that. It's the best solution.

New Jersey has cheap gas. Plan to make a fuel stop there. If you follow that route, the northern end of 17 in Mahwah has gas stations on it that will be the lowest you will see between there and Bennington. They all tend to have a cash price that is much cheaper than a credit price. If you care, have cash on you.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by tkln

They do have to pump your gas...NJ has always been significantly cheaper though I'm not sure of the reason why. We have family in NJ, and when we lived in NYC and visited them, it was the highlight of the trip to get cheap gas on the way home lol...

New Jersey has a much lower state gasoline tax than anywhere else in the region. 14.5 cents per gallon. New York is 42.4 cents. Vermont and Massachusetts are 24/25 cents. Bennington and Rutland have pretty good gas prices because they have higher volume gas stations and some competition. Everybody I know who does that drive every weekend avoids New York gas stations and rural Vermont gas stations.

[CatwomanofV]

You can take 95 (or any other route) to Baltimore and then get on 83 to Harrisburg. Then take 81 to Binghamton. Take 88 to the New York Thruway and then get off at the Albany exit. (It won't be a toll). Then get 87 north. Get off at Troy and take Route 7 all the way into Bennington. This route, you avoid tolls and most traffic. (We one took 95 all the way down to D.C. and man, it took us 12 hours because traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike was AWFUL!) The only time you will hit lights will be on Route 7.



Cat