Any drive is an easy drive if you regularly have to be on 95 in the NYC area! DH was offered a job in Orlando 18 mos. ago and he and I went down to house hunt, etc. We kept hearing on the radio how bad the traffic is on I-4 during rush hour as we were on I-4 during rush hour. We kept saying, "What traffic??? This is nothing!"
Our worst traffic is always from Bridgeport to the George Washington Bridge, and we'll go at any hour to cut down on how much they're will be! But a thought to keep in mind for New Englanders headed south: to avoid NYC, you can always take I-84 from Danbury CT over the Newburgh Bridge over to the NY Thruway and then go south down into Jersey. It's a scenic ride and there's a lot less traffic than on the parkways or 95. Of course, we rarely take our own advice and almost always go straight down 95, unless we know we're going to hit a peak time.