Route from Providence RI to Salem
 

What would be the best route, by car, from Providence to Salem? We don't want to stop in Boston but that seems to be the most direct route. Would it be worth avoiding the city traffic and taking the 95 or is that just as bad? Roughly how long will the journey take if we set off at about 9am on a weekday?

Personally I would take 95 to 128. DH often takes 95 to 93 through the big dig and back to 95/128 north of the city. I find that route to often have more traffic (except early on a weekend day) and if you aren't careful about what lane you are in you could be shooting off an exit where you don't want to. In any case you will be going against the traffic once you are out of Providence until you pass 495,then things pick up until the first 93 junction. Then it's busy until past the next 93 junction (95 does a kind of semicircle around the city while 93 goes through it).

That said, 95 is often very busy, and if there is an accident or road work or even a policeman with a radar gun, things can get very slow. This is much worse on 93, IMHO.

Oh, time wise, if there is no traffic, about an hour and a half, either route and and accident can add an hour or more.

And you can get traffic reports on the 3's (9:03, 9:13 etc.) on 1030 am radio, WBZ. If you hear of a big problem on 95/128 N., take 93 through the city (as long as things sound good there).

good idea cw! by the time you make it to the 95 split, you may have info on whether to go thru Boston or the 129/95 belt due to that mornings traffic patterns

Thanks very much emalloy and cw. That's very helpful.