Photo: iheartpandas

Cape Cod has a lot of claims to history, but perhaps one of the least known is tied to the nation’s very first rotary. As common as rotaries are today across the nation, the first one just happened to go up in South Yarmouth.

Charles Henry Davis was the co-founder of the National Highways Association. He moved to South Yarmouth around the turn-of-the-century and soon amassed a large fortune from a mining company in Kentucky.

Davis added to his fortune with royalties tied to Henry Ford and his automobiles. Not long after arriving on the Cape, Davis purchased some land around the Bass River.

Here, he built a massive estate for his family. He also built the nation’s very first traffic circle in the 1930s.

While Davis

Photo: matthrono

Commuter rail service may be headed to the Cape. Local officials launched a study last fall to look at connecting up Buzzards Bay to Boston with year-round, commuter rail service.

Currently, rail service ends in Lakeville/Middleboro. The proposal would involve extending it all the way to Buzzards Bay in the future. An advisory group has been studying different options for expanding train service to Cape Cod.

It’s not a new idea. Town officials have been trying to get commuter rail service from Boston for years. The town even joined the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority five years ago.

Previously the MBTA said it wasn’t feasible to add a Cape connector service to Middleboro. However, others view it as something

Photo: Theresa O'Connor

Drivers along Route 6 will want to keep an extra eye out for new road signs in the coming weeks. State Department of Transportation crews will begin putting up new exit signs with new exit numbers later this month.

It’s part of a larger project happening across the state. Already, exit numbers on Routes 140 and 195 have been replaced. Route 25 is also in line for new signs.

It’s all to comply with a federal mandate. The idea is to make it easier on drivers, easier on emergency responders and to make the exit signs more uniform across the nation by using mileposts for all highway exit numbers.

The federal mandate requires Massachusetts to renumber its exit signs so that they actually reflect the number of miles to the

For an easy, relaxing trip from Boston to Provincetown there’s a simple solution that doesn’t require getting stuck in traffic, no matter the time of day.  The Provincetown Ferry is not only a great choice in traveling between the two locales, but it’s also a shorter distance than hitting the road.

To take the ferry you actually have two choices and both are located at MacMillan Wharf on Commercial Street in Provincetown.  The first option is a ferry run by Boston Harbor Cruises.  Regarded as one of Cape Cod’s first modern ferries, the large catamaran takes about an hour and a half to travel between Provincetown and Boston.  It carries up to 600 passengers at a time.

The Boston Harbor Cruises ferry is air-conditioned, plus it features free WIFI, satellite

There’s nothing like spending your summer vacation on Cape Cod.  Of course, the popularity of the region is notorious for bringing an unwelcome visitor: traffic!  If sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic isn’t your idea of the perfect vacation, we have some tips on beating the crowd.

One of the main contributors to Cape Cod traffic is the location of the region.  Cape Cod is actually an island, and you haven’t been able to get there without going over water since around 1917.  That’s the time when the Cape Cod Canal was finished.  The canal split the Cape from southeastern Massachusetts.  It also gave ships a way to pass from the south to the north.

What this means for drivers is that there are only two bridges for traffic into the Cape, the Bourne

Getting to Cape Cod doesn’t have to mean a long drive in the car.  Sit back and enjoy the ride, without all the traffic, aboard the CapeFLYER.  This passenger rail line currently runs each Friday and weekend during the summer months, starting Memorial Day weekend and ending Labor Day weekend.

The rail service started in 2013, and has steadily expanded with new stops in places like Wareham, and possibly may even feature expanded year-round weekend service in the future.  The ride from Boston to Hyannis takes a little more than two hours and covers nearly 80 miles of track.  On Fridays, the ride takes a little longer due to additional stops.  Also, Cape Cod limits passenger trains to 30 miles an hour, which adds some additional travel time.

Once you

Have you ever wondered what it was like to stumble upon some of America’s oldest towns and villages?  What about exploring Cape Cod as it once was, long before the tourists moved in.  Embarking upon your own personal journey of Route 6A, or Old King’s Highway, offers up a virtual history lesson that you can’t experience fully by simply opening up a book.

Lined partially by white picket fences on one side, Old King’s Highway winds through communities like Brewster with its traditional Cape Cod-style homes and waterfront estates, the boater’s paradise of Orleans, and the charming five villages and renowned beaches of Dennis.  These communities are so rich in history that it’s not unusual to spot a home, or even a church, that’s on the National