Driving from ma

[SFRN97]

We are planning on driving in April and I am halfway through the for folks driving sticky but was wondering if anyone knew of any online trip planner that you can plug in your time of departure and it maps it out with roughly the time you would be at. We are planning on leaving hopefully around 12:00 noon and I am not sure if this will place us smack in the middle of rush hour in the worse spots? TIA

 

[goofy4tink]

I don't know if there are any such planners, but I do know that my ds left central Mass by 4:00am, on a Thursday, and managed to miss all the 'hot' spots during heavy traffic times...NYC, DC. In fact, he called me from Va and asked where was all the traffic I had talked about!! Not sure if leaving at noon is a great idea, but others may very well have different advice.

 

[GranddadTom]

SFRN97 We talked on a previous post. I forget what day of the week you are leaving – yes, it matters. Easter is April 8th. Many school systems are off either the week before or the week after. So tell me you are going down after April 8th. If you are heading down the week before Easter, all I can say is “Good Luck”. You’ll be on the road with a few million of your best friends – all of them heading for Florida. And things will be slow the whole way. But I’m going to assume you are leaving on a weekday after the 8th. As a rule of thumb, I like to avoid Southern Connecticut/New York City before 10:00 am and between 3:00 and 7:00 pm. I don’t get real excited about Hartford, Philadelphia, or Baltimore because you can live with their delays. The other major hurdle is Washington and Rt. 95 south of Washington. On a work day, you must not be there between 3:00 and 8:00 pm (on a Friday, 9:00 pm). So what happens if you leave at noon? By 3:30 pm you’ll reach NYC. This is getting tight by my rules but you should be able to squeeze through in time. If all does go well, it’ll take another 4 hours to get to Washington. Take an hour break in Delaware for some food and you should be ok for getting through Washington. Just to be on the safe side for NYC, you might want to try to leave by 11:00 am.

 

[SFRN97]

SFRN97 We talked on a previous post. I forget what day of the week you are leaving – yes, it matters. Easter is April 8th. Many school systems are off either the week before or the week after. So tell me you are going down after April 8th. If you are heading down the week before Easter, all I can say is “Good Luck”. You’ll be on the road with a few million of your best friends – all of them heading for Florida. And things will be slow the whole way. But I’m going to assume you are leaving on a weekday after the 8th. As a rule of thumb, I like to avoid Southern Connecticut/New York City before 10:00 am and between 3:00 and 7:00 pm. I don’t get real excited about Hartford, Philadelphia, or Baltimore because you can live with their delays. The other major hurdle is Washington and Rt. 95 south of Washington. On a work day, you must not be there between 3:00 and 8:00 pm (on a Friday, 9:00 pm). So what happens if you leave at noon? By 3:30 pm you’ll reach NYC. This is getting tight by my rules but you should be able to squeeze through in time. If all does go well, it’ll take another 4 hours to get to Washington. Take an hour break in Delaware for some food and you should be ok for getting through Washington. Just to be on the safe side for NYC, you might want to try to leave by 11:00 am.

If DH can get an extra vaca day we will be leaving on Wed Apr 11 if not definetly Thu Apr 12. The 12th will not be an issue leaving at 11:00a but the 11th maybe since DH works nights and he is never sure what time he will be home and I would like him to get some sleep before will leave. Thanks for the advice may have to wait and see if he can get the 11th off?

 

[GranddadTom]

I think you'll be fine on either of those days. You'll see a lot of traffic returning to the Northeast but not so much going in your direction. A trip planner like you are looking for would be hard to do because people drive at different speeds and stop for different amounts of time. Driving in the Northeast is so much more difficult than driving in the South. Once you are clear of Richmond you can pretty much set your cruise control on 75 and go with the flow. Just try to make sure you are not the fastest one in the pack so you don't get a speeding ticket. One thing that has always facinated me is how many cars you see over and over again on a trip like you'll be making. Enjoy the trip, you don't get that many years with the little ones and they go by fast.

 

[Wetherdad]

Like it had already been said....you didn't say your exact dates of driving, so I can't be 100% accurate. And I can not think of any trip planner as you never know what you may or may not encounter (accidents, construction, detours) That being said, I have made the drive from north central massachusetts to orlando many times. I was a motor-t operator in the Marines so I know how to condition myslef for long stretches of staying awake while driving: this is what works for me: we have found the best time to leave is about 6pm. By leaving at this time you essentially will miss the worst of the traffic along the eastern seaboard. The route I take is as follows:

I90 west
I84 west
I684 south
Saw Mill pkwy south
I87 south
over the tappanzee bridge (to avoid the GWB/NYC traffic)
I287 west
Garden State pkwy south
New Jersey tnpk south
I295 south
I95 south
I495 south (around DC)
I95 south
I4 west

typically on this drive with numerous stops for bathroom breaks I stop about 7-8am the next day when I get to N. Carolina for breakfast and then my wife will take over driving for about 2 hours while i take a quick nap then I will take over the driving and finish out the trip. I have also found that if you run into delays stopping overnight in Jacksonville has always been convenient. I would also highly recommend that you drive with fastlane/ez-pass as it makes getting through the tolls that much faster and easier.