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My new favorite street
I have finally conquered North Cambridge! Arr! This makes my new favorite street Walden Street: it goes from Porterish to Concord Ave. by the Twin Rotaries Of Doom, which gets you over towards Belmont and Watertown without actually experiencing the joy that is Mass Ave. and Alewife Brook Parkway at the 2/3/16 interchange. Google Maps thinks it's even noticably shorter going this way, which is useful. Not stupidly narrow, not overwhelmed with traffic, not too many lights.
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As far as I'm know I'm still the only person to go out of my way to go through Union Square, though. (When coming from my house I claim that Summer -> Union Square -> Columbia is the best way to get to either Central Sq or MIT. No one else seems to like it, though.)
Sometimes I find back routes by looking at the map and taking roads that connect my point A & B. Sometimes (especially around rush hour) I find them by following other cars. (Like the left turn from Mass Ave that gets one to Broadway if one bails from 2 East on Lake Street in Arlington.)
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The One True Route from Davisish to Central/MIT is the same as it always was. Get yourself to Park and Somerville, probably going down Cedar, turning left on Elm, and left on Somerville Ave. Turn right on Park, cross the commuter rail, and turn left on Beacon. You're on Hampshire St. when you cross into Cambridge. For Central Square (or Brookline) turn right on Inman St., just past the fire station; for MIT, go straight, and you come up behind Tech Square.
Like I said, I'm the only person who prefers it.
I find that traffic from Summer->Bow Street->Somerville Ave->Webster flows quickly all times except Saturday afternoons. Also Washington ->Webster via a right turn is also good.
I definitely don't recommend going through Union Square to get to Everett; that's just goofy. From your house I would take Summer to Central to Broadway because the left turn from Highland onto McGrath tends to get backed up. (I agree that it seems like 99 should be a more useful route to get to the Gateway Center than it actually is.) And I don't go through Union Square via Washington St from the direction of McGrath; that direction takes forever.
I can't think of a compelling reason you wouldn't prefer to go up Highland than go through Union.
At 8:30am and around 3pm on school days Highland is a bad road. To get to Kendall at other times we'll usually take Highland to the second exit from McGrath, under the railroad tracks next to the Target, turn right after the old folks home, and then jog across Cambridge St. I don't consider McGrath to be a good way to get to Kendell because of the perpetual congestion around Lechmere.
Beacon Street/Hampshire Street is a road that gets horribly bottlenecked at all times of day, and both directions during rush hour. If I'm driving from my house to MIT between 5pm and 7pm I'll definitely get there faster if I go through Union than if I take Beacon, and on Friday/Saturday nights Beacon also gets bottlenecked because of Inman Square.
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Although the 2E-->Mass Ave by way of Lake Street route is HOSED during rush hour. Bailing at Pleasant Street and taking Mass Ave and going the reverse direction on Lake St takes about as long to get to my house at rush hour than fighting up Lake.
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I believe that. But they're still better options than going through Alewife to get to my house.
I used to use Union...
When I lived on Ibbetson near Somerville Ave.
I was biking to MIT.
I wasn't afraid to violate a 1-way system for half a block to get onto the Cambridge end of Webster Ave.
I couldn't take the same route home. Biking back through Union involves the 5-lane traffic light of doom. (Or maybe only 4 lanes.) Or egregious 1-way violations on blocks which are actually heavily traveled and have no suitable traffic light protection.
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