Binghamton Bar Crawl + BU Commencement + Mother’s Day = Tons of Extra Traffic

The overwhelming traffic we sometimes experience on the Vestal Parkway is about to taper down for the summer months, but before that happens, it's going to get extremely congested for a few days at the end of this week.

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This weekend is Mother's Day weekend and if you were planning to take your Mom out for a meal at an establishment on the Vestal Parkway or in the downtown Binghamton area and haven't called to make a reservation, you might want to do that, like now.

While it's not generally difficult to get into a restaurant in the vicinity of the Vestal Parkway or downtown Binghamton, this weekend could be near impossible because it also happens to be graduation weekend at Binghamton University.

According to Binghamton University, commencement ceremonies will take place this Friday, May 12 through Sunday, May 14. This means that the area surrounding the Vestal Parkway will be very congested and with the Vestal Parkway Greenway construction project underway, travel times could be substantially longer during commencement weekend.

Additionally, remember that the annual Binghamton bar crawl typically takes place the Thursday before graduation weekend, which is this Thursday, May 11. The Binghamton bar crawl is one last hurrah before the commencement ceremonies and will bring hundreds of students to the downtown Binghamton area starting during the evening hours of Thursday, May 11 with the festivities continuing to the early morning hours of Friday, May 12.

Over the course of the next few days, hotels will be filled to capacity and stores and restaurants will be jammed and travel time will be greatly delayed.

If you need to travel in the downtown Binghamton or Vestal Parkway area this week or weekend and find yourself getting frustrated, remember that this is only temporary and just think of what a massive boost this weekend lends to our local economy.