NYC Traffic
I will never work in New York City. I could catch a bus three minutes down the street from home. I could hop the train ten minutes away and be in midtown Manhattan in 45 minutes. It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll never do it. I’ve refused job interviews because they were in the city. Not for me. Can’t stand the crowds or the congestion. The morning commute I have now on the Garden State Parkway is bad enough for me, and that’s as far as I’m willing to go.
Ford decided to stage an event to test just how bad morning commutes are for those stupid poor souls who drive into the city.
The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town
. . . the Ford Motor Company staged a race, of sorts, on the major arteries leading into Manhattan, for the purpose of determining which route was most congested during the morning commute. A round of voting on the Web had narrowed down the candidates from thirty to a very worthy five: I-78 in New Jersey, approaching the Holland Tunnel; the Long Island Expressway, leading to the Queens Midtown Tunnel; I-95 North, approaching the George Washington Bridge; plus one sticky patch each from the Connecticut Turnpike and the Hutchinson River Parkway. Ford dispatched a manned Escape Hybrid S.U.V. to each one, with orders to the drivers to stay in the middle lane and stick at or below the speed limit. The winning route would be the one that was slowest, with style points awarded to the car with the best gas mileage — the purpose of this whole exercise being to bring attention to the fuel efficiency of the Hybrid. . .
They focus on the L.I.E. team, which comes in third, behind the two teams leaving from New Jersey. I could have told them that. I see the signs on the highway in the morning regularly. It’s a 30 to 60 minute backup to cross the George Washington Bridge into the city every day. How do people live like that?