Nashua sits just north of the Massachusetts line where the Nashua River meets the Merrimack, and the F.E. Everett Turnpike runs north-south through the city as its main highway. Heading south, the turnpike crosses the state line and continues as US 3 toward Lowell, Burlington and Route 128. Heading north, it continues toward Merrimack and Manchester as a toll road. NH 101A follows Amherst Street west toward Amherst and Milford, NH 111 crosses the city east-west toward Hudson and Hollis, and NH 130 heads west toward Hollis and Brookline. The Daniel Webster Highway runs along the east side as the main commercial corridor.
Traffic peaks on the turnpike at rush hour, when thousands of commuters head south to jobs in Massachusetts, and on Amherst Street and the Daniel Webster Highway, which fill with shoppers. New Hampshire has no sales tax, so shoppers from across the line drive up to the big retail corridors on weekends. The bridges over the Merrimack to Hudson are choke points at commute times.
Boire Field, the municipal airport, serves small aircraft on the west side, and most travelers fly out of Manchester-Boston Regional to the north or Logan to the south. Local buses run along the main corridors, but nearly everyone drives.
The older neighborhoods near downtown sit on a tight grid of older homes and narrow driveways, while the west side and the north end have newer subdivisions with attached garages and wide streets.