The Belt parkway is a nightmare! (New York, York: taxi driver, dangerous, vehicle)
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The problem isn’t belt parkway, its the drivers.
Used to drive through the belt, bqe and then fdr to get to work, almost everyday I saw an accident along the way. Had to say 3 different prayers on the 3 highways.
yea what's up with that???? is there a reason most of the left lane slow pokes are uber/lyft drivers???? Are they told to drive in the left lane??
It's been going on long before ride shares arrived on scene.
You've plenty of people living in NYC who don't know how to drive on highways or interstates. They learned in Podunk, Iowa with single lane roads (one in each direction), and that's all they can manage. Oh and their merging skills stink as well.
NJ drivers don't play that stuff, and as a native Staten Islander learned early and fast about driving in Jersey. Thankfully the NJT and Garden State often are multiple lanes wide for long stretches, so can leave people in dust, then get back over if needed.
Worst time of year to drive around NYC area is Thanksgiving... People who don't drive all year (and have shaky skills at that) somehow feel the need to drive on that day. Worse many get vehicles that they cannot handle so they creep along.
I remember once avoiding the Belt by using Linden, then Kings Hwy to Utica, and Utica to Flatbush then getting on the Belt from there. My friend was surprised I knew how to do that.
I remember once avoiding the Belt by using Linden, then Kings Hwy to Utica, and Utica to Flatbush then getting on the Belt from there. My friend was surprised I knew how to do that.
Linden after Kings Hwy on a Saturday, smh
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Here's the biggest difference between NJ and NYC drivers, on any highway in NYC the min a moron slows down you see massive amount of brake lights. In NJ, if one mofo brakes everybody goes around or tries to go around and hardly anyone brakes.
Take a look on the 278 on staten island, how many morons brake before they reach the bottleneck area and how many brake before they even hit the toll both. In NJ, nobody does a full stop at a toll booth. Even with the new camera toll booths on the Verranzano you still see all these morons braking and driving slow through the empty toll booths. Braking unnecessarily is the reason why traffic jams are common in NYC. If everybody keeps moving, I don't care if you're driving 35-40mph atleast we're moving. But on the BQE or Belt there are sections you just live on the brakes because people just keeps stopping.
The problem is the Belt Parkway is not designed for any decent number of vehicles. You cannot have stops and yields to get onto the parkway. They need real merging lanes, which many of the entrances onto the parkway lack. You will find the same pattern regularly as you drive---you might pick up some speed and as soon as you get to where there are on ramps, you slow again because if you yield or stop you will never get on the parkway at times so people just go. This, plus the stop and go, causes many of the accidents. It is really idiotic.
To be fair, when I drive upstate, you'll find when there's a lot of traffic on 17, it is literally from people not being able to maintain speed going uphill. So it's not just like "city" people can't drive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Midwesterns45
The drivers are out of control, there’s always accidents. Some idiots drive at 45 mph in the left lane then you have the crazy 90 mph drivers weaving in and out of traffic. There are frequent slow downs too so if you’re not paying attention then you’re at risk of rear ending.
Do police even pull cars over? I know there is a barely a shoulder from the Verrazano to sheepshead bay so I don’t see how that can be done so easily.
Yes, I know from experience they pull people over. They actually pull people over all of the time. Anyone who drives on there regularly can tell you that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 5-all
The Belt has been like that for many years. The part that was redone is better but then it narrows again and you're back in misery. Better hope you don't have to drive on the Belt on a day when a tractor trailer gets lost, finds its way onto the Belt and gets stuck under a bridge.
I've been stuck on the Belt Parkway as we waited for a huge tractor trailer to be backed out first to get off of the highway. I was two hours late to work.
I've also driven by just as someone smashes into an overpass with a truck. And I've also seen the aftermath.
I've driven on there when someone ran across of it (IN FRONT OF MY CAR AS WELL AS OTHERS AT NIGHT) and I almost had a heart attack. I've driven on there multiple times to only look to my right and see someone on a bicycle. I've seen road raging to the extreme. I've had someone slide into bumper. I've had multiple people almost crash into me. Oh the memories.
I do not know how people do the Belt almost daily. When I was laid-off and received a job offer that required me to travel on there almost daily, obviously I took it. It was a great job for me to learn---and after three years, I could NOT take the traffic anymore.
Belt was a nightmare even in the 1970's and 1980's. I often took it to get from Jersey City to Riis Park. Eventually I learned it was more satisfying, safer, and usually faster to grind through Brooklyn on Ocean Parkway instead.
Almost all highways in NYC were worst back in the 70’s and 80’s. People complaining now do not know how much better it is now than it used to be. I think NYC started following Federal standards for roads including how wide the lanes are whereas before they were much narrower.
The signage has also been standardized too. NYC road signs used to be a joke. Little tiny signs that only sprang up just right before the exit, often times misleading or confusing as hell.
If you drove back then, you would consider what we have now a piece of cake. If you drive now and somehow transported back in time to that era, you would go nuts.
NYC highways were built before there were such standards and were not built to accommodate the type of traffic today.
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