Providence to Needham daily commute, working 2-11p outside of traditional rush-hour hours?

Submitted by Training-Seat- t3_109f21x in providence

Reposted because I left out some important details in my previous post

Hi!

Midwest newbie here who will be moving to the New England area in a few weeks for my job which is in Needham. Boston is quite expensive and I see Needham is about 40 miles away from Providence.

Is this in any way an attainable daily commute? Is there a subway system or train that I could take to save on gas? Thank you in advance, as I’m unfamiliar with the area and am evaluating all of my possibilities for what I need to do. I won’t be working the traditional 9-5, but rather 2pm-11p, so I won’t be on the road during peak traffic hours, for what it’s worth.

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_j3y2s4h wrote

Yes that’s outside of rush hours for sure. You could do that in 45 minutes that time of day depending on where in needham you where the office is. I’d start to get to know 109 and Rt 1 back ways instead of 95 as backup options. After 3 it starts to get slow again (going out of Boston) so you should be good!

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Voyager977 t1_j3xxfav wrote

As a former Rhody native who commuted from Providence to Boston, Cambridge, Waltham, Westborough and Framingham I can say with certainty the commute is do able. Not via public transit, but by car np. My only suggestion would be to have/get a car that you are very comfortable in and make use of any occasional “trapped” time in your commute by filling it with audiobooks, etc.

It’ll likely take 50 - 70 minutes on an average day and depending on deep into Prov you start and how deep into Needham off 128 you need to go. Welcome to the Ocean State! Over 410 miles of coastline, coffee milk and hot weiners!!!

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j3yk00k wrote

public transportation is a non-option with getting out at 11 but everything i said about traffic goes out the window.

going up will be heavy but easy in the afternoon 95% of the time

coming home will be easy outside of the occasional lane closures. If you look that up in advance, you can bypass a lot of it with Rt 1 from Dedham (next town over) all the way to the RI state line.

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_j3yc6ai wrote

You'd be surprised at how random the traffic patterns are in Boston. Sometimes you just get dealt with an absolutely terrible hand (I don't commute, this is just my experience on occasional drives during the work week with random congestion). 11pm is no problem, but 2pm could vary.

This is what I would call an expert commute-- the kind of thing that is much easier to navigate when you have a year under your belt to contextualize it. At the very least, you should come out here and drive it once at noon to test your tolerance-- how tolerable really depends on the person.

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Jumpy_Ring8409 t1_j3z3nea wrote

I think you should be fine. My boyfriend works 1-12 at a restaurant in Boston (we live in providence) he leaves around 11/11:30 and leaves work around 12/12:30 at night. The only traffic he ever hits is the occasional construction traffic around midnight/ 1 am. He never really has any issues.

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SquatC0bbler t1_j43dgpg wrote

Hey! I'm a MA native, currently living in the Midwest, who will be moving to Providence this month! This commute is gonna be worse than what you're used to in the midwest, but it'll definitely be bearable around 2 and 11!

2PM going inbound, you'll probably be fine. Especially since you're not getting onto I93 at Westwood. 11PM there won't be many on the road. Will likely be around 50 min each way, but give yourself a 15 min buffer or so.

Welcome to New England!

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