Long Island Traffic question archived

Anyone know long island traffic patterns during rush hour?

Two questions:
Which is better, belt parkway, long Island Expressway on or Grand Central?

Which bridge tunnel would you take? North (GWB), Straight through it and Midtown Tunnel, or Below city and Verezzano?

It all depends.

If you are going to the north shore, all things being equal it will be better to go GWB to the Throgs Neck, then Cross Island to either Northern Pkwy or LIE. South Shore would be Holland to Battery Tunnel to Belt.

BUT!

There is construction on the Belt for the next millennium or so, so it might be better to take the Verezzano.

It is almost never a good idea to try to go cross town, Lincoln to Midtown.

BUT!

Traffic conditions vary hugely and unpredictably. Check Google Maps and listen to 1010. And be prepared. Within hours, six people are going to post here to tell you how totally wrong I am, and why you should go a completely different way. :wink:

I've been going to the Hamptons since I was a kid (since before the LIE even extended past Eastport!)

One can never guarantee an easy trip, (and I would never give advice I haven't followed myself, but no way can you hold me to it!), I have learned over years of going there first from Connecticut and the last 20 years from Jersey, that the quickest, most reliable way to get there from Jersey is INDEED to:

- Take the Lincoln Tunnel into the City
- Go across town on 34th St., or down to 23rd, or -- last resort choice -- across 42nd St. (The sidestreets can be deadly with double parkers, trucks unloading, etc. At least with the lights on the wider, main cross streets, traffic is somewhat better controlled)
- Take the Mid-Town Tunnel to Queens and go straight out the LIE

But, as Max_W said, it does depend an awful lot on where you're headed.

And there will always, always be traffic on the LIE where it intersects with the Cross Island at Douglaston -- even if you're passing through at 4 AM on a Tuesday. Never seen it without traffic!

I just finally had to give up on the Verrazzano ... Staten Island was always a killer, and the Belt through Brooklyn usually no better. I'd rather be stuck in Manhattan traffic than stuck in traffic on Staten Island!

Just sayin'.

I am going to pile on as another LI question. Heading out to LI a week from today. My boss suckered me into a 5 pm Friday meeting saying it was in NY (damn not NYC). Anywho, from South NJ.......still drive through the city? That is how I usually got there from Maplewood.

Here's another SI trick - take the NJTP to 14A to th Bayonne bridge - you'll need a GPS at this point - because I never remember the street names - and get to Richmond Terrace to Bay Street to the VZ bridge.

We use the juniemoon route. We have tried them all and it has proven to be the most entertaining/ least frustrating.

I used to go from Maplewood to Hauppauge, Deer Park, Shirley, and Riverhead about twice a week. I echo what all said above--there is no reliably good route.

First of all, get yourself a good GPS if you are going to be doing this trip with any frequency. I wish I had one back then. Because you are absolutely going to have to take some quick detours given traffic congestion.

Juniemoon's route is probably the most "direct" (I hesitate to use that term in this context), but it can be a bear getting to the Lincoln some mornings or evenings at rush hour. And crosstown traffic is miserable, especially now that they have closed parts of Broadway which pushes more traffic onto side streets around Herald Square and Times Square. I do agree with the advice to stick to the larger streets--they move far better at all times of day now.

If you go the Gothal's Bridge/SI Expressway/Verrazzano/Belt route, beware the traffic on the SI Expressway. I have never seen it moving well, even at 11 PM on a Thursday night. After a while I learned to get off on the service roads and take them--you have lights and local traffic, but sometimes they moved faster than the Expressway. I often had good luck on the Belt with traffic flowing even in rush hour, but there were also plenty of dead stops for no reason.

I never liked the GWB to Grand Central route--too many chances for really bad traffic--approaching the GWB, then on GCP near the airports are often just miserable.

As said by Max, it also depends on where you are going on the Island. If you are going to the South Shore side, then the Verrazzano route to the Southern State might be best. As Max said, for the North Shore, head for the Cross Bronx. I would not use the Battery Tunnel these days because all the construction in the area makes it an unpredictable mess.

Finally, try to time your trips for non-rush hour periods. If possible, set your meetings for mid-morning to early afternoon so you can try to get on and off the Island before the real hell hits. Get used to using roads other than the LIE like the Northern and Southern State, and use the GPS to find north/south alternate routes so you can jump between the Northern, Southern, and LIE depending on which one is choked up.

Scarlett: When I had to go to LI from meetings in Philly, I used the Outerbridge Crossing. Does that work for you?

Hmm.... mfpark I think it will, that was my plan. Coram looks like it is smack dab in the middle of the island. I am just PISSED because I would have never said yes to LI on a Friday night no less. :wall:

I use Junimoon's route but coming from south Jersey definitely take the Outerbridge or Goethals to the Verrazano to the Belt and to Southern State.

Posted By: max_weisenfeldWithin hours, six people are going to post here to tell you how totally wrong I am, and why you should go a completely different way.

See? But everyone is being really nice about it today! Hooray for civility!

Who's not going to be nice about driving directions?!? (see? we can be nice!)

(But fights outside of Columbia after school ............. that can get nasty.)

Scarlet: If you're coming from South Jersey, I'd definitely NOT take the time to come up to the Lincoln Tunnel.

But leave yourself PLENTY of time. I'd plan on getting there by 3:00 for a 5:00 meeting, to be safe, because ..... you just never know! And you'll probably hit much more traffic than you expect out by Amityville and Huntington -- it's really gotten built up out there.

Take a travel buddy with you, if you can. The HOV lanes on the LIE can be a lifesaver at rush hour, but you'll need at least two people in your car.

And definitely keep that radio set on the news/traffic/weather stations. Be ready to bail out to an alternate route if you run into a traffic clog that no one's even reporting on the radio. (It happens!) Bring a map or GPS if you don't know the area.

My dad's buried in the Holy Sepulchre cemetary out in Coram --- land of endless auto body and brake repair shops! If I were you, I'd try to find an overnight destination that would allow you to just continue going East after your meeting.

Enjoy a weekend in the Hamptons before the drive back! It's busy all year 'round out there now.

Now that we've settled THAT discussion

Heres an add-on question....

Why do I never take the Grand Central? It looks like its about the same as the LIE, and I know the LIE is usually tough, and the Grand Central is no-trucks, so Why do I always decide against it when I see the Exit for it???

Should I be taking it?

Depends on where you need to end up on the Island.

From Wikipedia:

The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a parkway that stretches from the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens-Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, which runs across the northern part of Long Island through Nassau County and into Suffolk County, where it ends in Hauppauge. The westernmost stretch (from the RFK (Triborough) Bridge to exit 4) also carries a short stretch of Interstate 278. The parkway runs through Queens and passes the Cross Island Parkway, Long Island Expressway, LaGuardia Airport and Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. The North Shore Towers is situated on the parkway on the Queens-side along the Nassau County border. The parkway is designated New York State Route 907M, an unsigned reference route.

I am from the south shore of LI - so the Belt to Southern State to Sunrise was preferable. Otherwise I would take LIE (from Midtown tunnel)