Question:

Philadelphia area Q: Commute time from Conshohoken to Malvern during rush hour?
I'm moving to the Philadelphia area in two months. How long would the commute be from Conshohoken to Malvern in your experience with the highway business during rush hours? I'd be living in Conshy and working in Malvern so I'd have a reverse commute, but I've heard I-76 is awful in the morning and I'd have to also take 202. Thoughts?

Answers:

A-Best: It all depends if you want to go to the Borough of Malvern and it's immediate area, or the great big area called "Malvern" that equals zip code 19355. If I was going to the borough of Malvern, I would go down Fayette Street to Matson's Ford Road to Upper Gulph Road, which becomes West Conestoga Road to Irish, over to Russell/Old Lancaster Road to Route 202 to Route 30 (Lancaster Pike). It is about a 40/45 minutes ride on all back roads at rush hour. If you are going to one of the office complexes in zip code 19355, I would start out the same way and then turn off onto one of the following: Old eagle School Road, West Valley Road, Valley Forge Road, Cassatt Road (to Route 252 or Swedesford Road, or Duportail Road on so on). That can either be 35 minutes to an hour at rush hour, but it is all back roads, with alternate routes (unlike the limited access highways. Once you get stuck on one of them, you are stuck for the duration).  

A: One of the problems with the Philly area is as many people reverse commute as regular commute, so traffic is bad both ways during rush hour regardless. That said there are enough back roads in the area, that you can most likely do this without doing the Schuylkill. And depending where in Malvern you'll be working, you may find it easier to head down to Lancaster Avenue and take that out to Malvern. But I'd say it's probably 25 minutes in good traffic and 40 in bad.