East Providence, RI to Auorora (Toronto), Ontario

Hello All,

I will be traveling from East Providence, RI to Aurora (Toronto) Ontario on Friday 20th Sept. I only have one day to do this trip. Also, this is a one way trip. I would love to do some sightseeing, but I do realize that any sightseeing I do, it will be out of the window of my car going 60+ MPH. Looking at google, map, without having any expert opinion, I was thinking to take 146 out of East Providence to I-90 and then I-90 all the way to Buffalo airport and home from there.

I've following 2 questions:

Traffic?
I've never driven east of Rochester, NY on I-90. I always read terrible stories about bad traffic on I-90 going east towards Boston area. I am wondering what sort of traffic to expect as well as where does it get worse?

Do I have to take I-90?
I've driven I-90 west all the way to Cleveland and found it to be okay in terms of scenery, especially, in the State of New York. Once in PA and OH, there is not much to look out the window. Perhaps, going east will be different. However, I am wondering if I can take an alternate route which would give me the opportunity for different scenery. I am happy to see just greenery or falling leaves, if that is happening already.

I might be able to leave Thurday evening around 6pm and drive for an hour (maybe 2) and stop for the evening and then start again early morning before sunrise.

I-90 in Boston can see some nightmarish traffic, but I don't think that should really be an issue for you at all. Presumably, you'll be getting on via highway 146 at Worcester, but even if you were going back to I-495 it would be pretty unlikely that you'd see anything too bad. That's especially true since it sounds like you'd be doing that part of your drive in the evening, after rush hour.

I-90 is your only real freeway option, but there are lots of places you could get off the Interstate for a while. US-20 runs parallel to I-90, and would be one option, if you want to get onto a 2 lane road - and avoid some of the tolls of I-90. It will be a little slower, and I don't think you'd have time to run US-20 the whole way, but it could provide a nice change up for a few hours of the drive.

Providence to Toronto is 545 miles via that route, which is the fastest. I don't think you will have time to get off the Interstates.

You won't have any traffic issues on I-90 west of Worcester. The only delays to anticipate would be at the border in Buffalo. You may be able to minimize these by taking I-81 north and crossing over near Kingston. However, this will add about 60 miles.

Thank you for all the feedback.

My last conversation with the dealer indicated that I should be on the road well before 4pm. If this does happen, then I will be able to drive a bit this evening before stopping for the night.

In the case above, any specific section of 20 you would suggested I would drive?