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An hour and 20 minutes isn't that bad? The farthest I have ever had to commute in my life was 45 minutes and there were days back then I was ready to drive right off the road. Nothing is a bigger waste of time than commuting. My commute for the job I have now is 10 minutes...and that doesn't include the 2 days a week I work from home
its all relative. my commute isn't bad compared to a lot of people in my area and other areas of nj commuting to nyc. im certainly not dancing with joy over my commute but I recognize that in the world of the nyc commuter its "not bad."
I drive from Nutley to Brooklyn everyday, leave at 6am and it takes me around 45 minutes tops, 35 minutes if I leave at 530am. take rt 3 to Lincoln tunnel to midtown tunnel, or Holland to canal street to Williamsburg and manhattan bridge. If you leave before 6 its a cake commute, no traffic at all.
people here must have some pretty sweet commutes because i drive from nj to brooklyn daily and it isnt that bad. i live in holmdel and it typically takes about 1 hour 20 minutes for my commute. there seems to be a mythical nightmare commute conjured up by people that i havent experienced. my commute is very expensive though. you may have to deduct more than you would expect.
union county is a little different because you risk having more local traffic or just slow driving on the roads that it will take you to get to the goethels. for me, its all GSP & TPK (or 440) so its smooth highway driving.
if you are looking for a higher black people ratio and still better commute, then you probably could do better on long island. you also wouldnt have all the tolls you would from nj.
Staten Island is a hellhole 75% of the time traffic wise. I would know - I'm a former Union County to exit 13 off the SI Expy commuter and it totally sucked at rush hour with the added construction. And no, the problem was not NJ - it was SI. I can't even count the number of days I would cross the bridge, make it maybe 1/4 of a mile and come to a dead stop and slow moving crawl until I got to my exit or halfway to it depending on conditions and construction. Even not at rush hour it can suck, but I could make it there in 25-40 mins at odd times.
Staten Island is a hellhole 75% of the time traffic wise. I would know - I'm a former Union County to exit 13 off the SI Expy commuter and it totally sucked at rush hour with the added construction. And no, the problem was not NJ - it was SI. I can't even count the number of days I would cross the bridge, make it maybe 1/4 of a mile and come to a dead stop and slow moving crawl until I got to my exit or halfway to it depending on conditions and construction. Even not at rush hour it can suck, but I could make it there in 25-40 mins at odd times.
are you doing that commute today? its funny how people in these threads always tell me how terrible it is when im the one currently doing this commute 4-5 days a week. im not sure when you were doing that trip, but its actually better than it used to be. I remember when I did it as a high school kid around 16 years ago. the traffic was much worse back then.
are you doing that commute today? its funny how people in these threads always tell me how terrible it is when im the one currently doing this commute 4-5 days a week. im not sure when you were doing that trip, but its actually better than it used to be. I remember when I did it as a high school kid around 16 years ago. the traffic was much worse back then.
Just ended within the last month. Did it for the last three years. And I'm glad I'm done since they're now beginning to work on redoing the Goethals. Had to deal with that minor construction, as they just started, for the very tail end. It wasn't bad though, just some literal rerouting. The worse is the SI Expy traffic when they randomly close lanes, sometimes 2, or when they create new lanes and take some away. They seem to finally be making genuine progress though, so that was nice to see.
Last edited by JerseyGirl415; 05-30-2015 at 03:48 AM..
Just ended within the last month. Did it for the last three years. And I'm glad I'm done since they're now beginning to work on redoing the Goethals. Had to deal with that minor construction, as they just started, for the very tail end. It wasn't bad though, just some literal rerouting. The worse is the SI Expy traffic when they randomly close lanes, sometimes 2, or when they create new lanes and take some away. They seem to finally be making genuine progress though, so that was nice to see.
for most of my commuting history, the worse part of my commute either way was the couple of miles coming home between the vzb and the end of the bus lane. now you have sporadic issues due to construction that can a bit unpredictable. but now im also using google maps which helps me get around it with minimal added time.
If I was looking at seriously doing that myself I'm thinking around Kenilworth Cranford Roselle & Roselle Park NJ. From there it's local roads to the section of I-278 off of US 1&9 by Linden. Over the Goethals to SI.Often in SI the E might back up and you go off on service roads most of the way.
for most of my commuting history, the worse part of my commute either way was the couple of miles coming home between the vzb and the end of the bus lane. now you have sporadic issues due to construction that can a bit unpredictable. but now im also using google maps which helps me get around it with minimal added time.
Yeah the problem in SI is definitely construction. This construction on the expressway has been ongoing for years now - at least four. Like I said, I FINALLY began seeing actual progress within the last few months - just as I'm done commuting. Hopefully the changes they're making to the highway - looks like they're adding lanes, changing exits - will lessen traffic overall.
IMHO Staten Island has very poor infrastructure. A lot of the roads were built before the VZ Bridge and bridge connections to NJ were, so the island was experiencing far less traffic and had a lower population. Now, with the bridges and higher population and density, SI's roads are too tight. Buses can can barely make it down many roads within the island, and many turns they make are close calls. The roads are often very narrow and there are a ton of one-ways. IMO there are far few too many left turn only lanes, so a line forms because that one person has to wait the entire light cycle to make a left since the road is too narrow for two lanes or for others to even pass that person. I have a lot of negative things to say about SI, unfortunately, and most of them have to do with infrastructure. It's poorly built, but it's not really the fault of the island because the bridges, especially the VZ, caused unprecedented booms in population and traffic. I mean, the Goethals and Outerbridge are so narrow because they were built as one lane bridges in each direction. Look at old pictures of the bridge, from its earlier days. There were two lanes, not four. I don't think people expected SI to turn into what it is, as a gateway to LI from NJ and the rest of the US mainland and also of course a gateway to Brooklyn most importantly. Now they're having road and bridge troubles.
Yeah the problem in SI is definitely construction. This construction on the expressway has been ongoing for years now - at least four. Like I said, I FINALLY began seeing actual progress within the last few months - just as I'm done commuting. Hopefully the changes they're making to the highway - looks like they're adding lanes, changing exits - will lessen traffic overall.
IMHO Staten Island has very poor infrastructure. A lot of the roads were built before the VZ Bridge and bridge connections to NJ were, so the island was experiencing far less traffic and had a lower population. Now, with the bridges and higher population and density, SI's roads are too tight. Buses can can barely make it down many roads within the island, and many turns they make are close calls. The roads are often very narrow and there are a ton of one-ways. IMO there are far few too many left turn only lanes, so a line forms because that one person has to wait the entire light cycle to make a left since the road is too narrow for two lanes or for others to even pass that person. I have a lot of negative things to say about SI, unfortunately, and most of them have to do with infrastructure. It's poorly built, but it's not really the fault of the island because the bridges, especially the VZ, caused unprecedented booms in population and traffic. I mean, the Goethals and Outerbridge are so narrow because they were built as one lane bridges in each direction. Look at old pictures of the bridge, from its earlier days. There were two lanes, not four. I don't think people expected SI to turn into what it is, as a gateway to LI from NJ and the rest of the US mainland and also of course a gateway to Brooklyn most importantly. Now they're having road and bridge troubles.
i always get a kick out of the people that are afraid to drive next to people on the goethels or obx. sometimes i get next to them just to mess around.
im also getting to appreciate what you are saying about staten island since im using google maps. it takes me in all these crazy routes all over staten island. they are typically low traffic once you get off the main roads.
there was a nice period of time after they made those bus lanes and before they started the new bigger project. but i really cant complain about the traffic since i feel most days i do pretty good. if i leave the office around 5:05pm, im usually home 6:15-6:20. if i jump on 114 of the parkway at about 8:30am, im looking for parking 9:30-9:45. this is south brooklyn, so im going to a less busy part of brooklyn.
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