Pensacola to Tucson

My husband and I will be making our third annual roadtrip from Massachusetts to Tucson in early October. We like to vary our route each time and this year we will start by heading down to Pensacola to visit family. From there, we will head west on I-10, but want to cross a lot of Texas on US 90/90Alt, which we will pick up west of Houston, around the Gonzales area.

I'm looking for your thoughts on how best to avoid traffic congestion through Houston. Would highway 8, a toll road south of the city, avoid the worst of the congestion? It connects with 90Alt earlier than we planned to pick up that route, but we would take it if it would actually be faster. Thanks.

The best way to avoid congestion is go through at off-peak times. Then it shouldn't really matter what way you go. I personally wouldn't take a toll road that also adds quite a few miles.

Other than at major morning (6:00 to 9:00) or evening (4:00 to 7:00) rush hour times, you're just as well off to stay on I-10 right through the heart of Houston. This also saves you from having to catch an exit. Just get in a 'middle-ish' lane and keep up with traffic - and keep an eye out for major interchanges. I wouldn't even bother with the in-town loop, I-610. If, on the other hand you want to transit the city during one of the rush hours, then, I'd probably use Loop-8 to the north. Although most maps show it as just another surface street in the northeast corner of the city, I have driven it and it is Parkway quality with just a few intersections with traffic signals. I would not try to use either US-90 or Alt-US-90 out of the city, but rather stick to I-10 until you are well clear of the suburbs at which point there will be many opportunities to get off and use US-90 which runs parallel to I-10 all the way to San Antonio.

AZBuck

Thanks for the replies. That's just the kind of first hand experience I was looking for. While we always try to avoid rush hours, we aren't always successful in doing that. Being accustomed to Boston area traffic, we have sometimes been pleasantly surprised by what is considered heavy traffic in other areas of the country. But I expect that Houston can be pretty congested. It sounds like staying on I-10 right through Houston will be our best bet. If we get stuck in traffic, we can just use it as an opportunity to take some photos of the city while not traveling at high speed.

By the way, I found the Texas Escapes website that you have mentioned in the past to be very helpful in planning what we would like to see on the way.

Not having been there, but studying a map, I think I might take the north 610 loop. It isn't much longer, and it looks like I-10 has a major merge downtown with I-45.

Thanks, glc. Looks like that may be a good option.