According to smber, Worcester is a city in the state of Massachusetts in the northeastern United States. The city has a population of 206,000 and is the second largest city in the state and also in the New England region, after Boston. The agglomeration has 978,000 inhabitants (2021).

Introduction

Worcester is located just west of the much larger Boston conurbation and is therefore not as well known. The city is located 60 miles west of Boston, 60 miles northwest of Providence, and 40 miles northeast of Springfield. The immediate agglomeration is not that big at 20 by 20 kilometers, but it has almost grown attached to the Boston agglomeration. Worcester is located in an area with a lot of forest and hills. There are several water reservoirs around the city. Like many cities in the region, Worcester has lost population, from 203,000 in 1950 to 181,000 in 2010, a small increase since 1980.

Road network

I-290 in Worcester.

Worcester is on I-90, the state’s main east-west axis, which is a toll road. I-84 ends just west of the city at I-90, and I-395 comes from the south and merges into I-290 that connects downtown as well as most of the city. I-190 runs north from Worcester to Leominster.

Congestion

The motorways around Worcester have 2×3 lanes and that is usually sufficient to cope with the traffic. Long queues are therefore not very common.