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DRIVING; Ah, Boston To Princeton, The Rolling Parking Lot
By GLENN RIFKIN
Published: January 17, 2003
IF there were a contest to name the worst drive in America, I would know what to
enter and I would expect to win. Surely there cannot be a more congested,
dangerous and unpleasant set of roadways than the pastiche of highways that take
travelers from Boston to New Jersey....The trip is about 250 miles, and most of it is on highways supposedly built for convenience and speed. But it always takes at least five hours, for an average speed of 50 miles per hour. And on holiday weekends it can take seven hours -- that's averaging only 36 m.p.h.
To experience this pleasure, take the Massachusetts Turnpike west from Boston; at Sturbridge take Interstate 84 west through Hartford, Waterbury and Danbury, Conn.; then, in New York, it's south on I-684 through Westchester County into White Plains; west on I-287 over the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Garden State Parkway South and into the heart of New Jersey. In 31 years, I've made this trip hundreds of times.
Things usually go fairly smoothly in Massachusetts, though I have sat in two-mile backups at the Sturbridge toll plaza. Then comes Connecticut, whose name, I'm convinced, comes from an old Indian word meaning ''road work ahead.'' I've never made it through Connecticut without stopping somewhere in bumper-to-bumper traffic because of road repair.
Though Hartford, when approached at the wrong time of day, can be a traffic nightmare, it is Waterbury that holds a special place in the traffic jam hall of fame. Is it a reduction in the number of lanes that causes the inevitable tie-up? Is there some automotive significance in the giant cross (a relic of the defunct Holy Land U.S.A. theme park) visible on a nearby hillside? Is it simply Connecticut's way of saying, ''Take that, you snobby Bostonians and rude New Yorkers''?
How about an alternate route? On a map, it looks logical to avoid Waterbury by taking I-91 south from Hartford to I-95 and then go west through Stamford, Conn., and Westchester. But if there have ever been 30 consecutive minutes when none of that congested stretch of I-95 was a parking lot, I was not there to witness it.
Out of Connecticut, the driver finds respite in a 30-mile stretch of I-684 through Katonah and Armonk in New York. But the sweeping curve onto I-287 is a jolt back to reality. Suddenly and without warning, there is an overwhelming volume of cars, all screaming toward the Tappan Zee Bridge.
There is no mercy here. Don't bring beginners around here or they may return their permits. This is also a place where road work never ceases. Five-mile backups to the Tappan Zee seem almost inevitable. Even the breathtaking sweep of the bridge as it spans the Hudson River near Nyack, N.Y., does nothing to soothe the pain that by now is physical as well as emotional, afflicting the back and the knees. Car time has
been close to four hours.Heading south at Nanuet, N.Y., onto the Garden State Parkway and past the ''Welcome to New Jersey'' sign, there is reason for optimism: an easy-access rest stop... I have made this drive for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, bar mitzvahs and a lifetime's worth of family gatherings. I swear I'm never doing it again -- until my mother comes out to the car, bursting with love and welcome, and says, ''You made good time!''
This isn't to say that I'm not looking forward to seeing all the N family, but I am a bit scared of making the trip with the lil guy.
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