Tag: Manhattan

Actual experience with NYC’s congestion relief zone tolls, a pro and a major con

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A screenshot from the NYC 311 website showing information about excluded roads

If anyone is wondering how it’s going now that it’s implemented, I thought I’d leave a few thoughts here.

I drive to work daily. I live in the central Bronx and work in south Brooklyn by the Verrazzano Bridge. My commute takes me down the Westside Highway into the HLC Tunnel or down the FDR and across the Brooklyn Bridge, then down 278. So, I don’t go into the CRZ daily, but the change in traffic patterns affects me because I use the same roads for a leg of my trip as people who do.

The implementation of the toll has been both good and bad for me, but more good than bad, if I can get a billing issue fixed.

Pro:

Improved Commute Times

Initially, traffic was heavily reduced to the point that I was getting from the central Bronx to the Verrazzano in about 45 minutes. After about a week, traffic evened back out as people figured out new commutes and/or decided what they could no longer afford in order to get to work every day.

My commute time to work is about the same as it was before. I leave my residence in the Bronx around 7:20 AM and it takes me about an hour to get to my place of employment in south Brooklyn. Some days it’s 50 minutes and some days it’s 70 minutes, bust it’s usually about 57 minutes. That is consistent. The return trip is where I’m seeing massive gains. It used to take me an hour and a half to two hours to get home most days. Now, my trip home is about 50 minutes to 70 minutes.

I’m saving time on my way home mostly because of reduced traffic going into the Hugh L Carey tunnel that connects Brooklyn to the southern tip of Manhattan. Without traffic backing up onto 278, I can either roll through the tunnel quite rapidly or continue up to 278 to the Brooklyn Bridge, continuing my trip north on either the West Side Highway or the FDR.

Basically, I’m saving about three and a half to four hours a week on my commute times. That’s a huge bonus for me because it gives me more time in the evenings to relax by myself or with my wife before jumping into the regular routine of getting ready for the next day.

Con:

False positives on toll cameras

The biggest issue I’m facing right now is being incorrectly billed for trips into the CRZ that I didn’t make.

Despite my staying outside of he CRZ on my daily commutes, I noticed on my EZPass billing that I was being charged the CRZ $9.00 toll every single day. Why? I followed the rules. I didn’t want to be tolled so I didn’t go into the toll zone. Not that I have any reason to leave the highways on my daily commute anyway. Was someone spoofing my plate?

Nope. Turns out that EZPass is incorrectly billing anyone who uses the HLC the CRZ Zone Toll automatically, no matter if you turn onto the West Side Highway and continue out of the congestion zone or not. As soon as you exit the tunnel, they’re tolling you for both the tunnel and the CRZ.

This isn’t supposed to happen. The West Side Highway and the HLC Tunnel are excluded roadways. The only time you should encounter the CRZ toll in relation to the HLC Tunnel is if you exit the tunnel and turn onto Trinity Place, which is a local road with a right exit just before you hit the West Side Highway.

I had a long conversation about this with an EZPass employee who at first was trying to tell me, based on information from her supervisor, that using the HLC makes you subject to the CRZ Toll. I had to point out that the plan as presented by the city and on the 311 website says otherwise. She wound up putting in a ticket for me to have the charges removed from my account, but it could take up to 21 business days for me to see whether or not that happens.

EZPass is illegally tolling people who are following the rules and they don’t even seem to be aware in general that moving from the excluded HLC to the excluded West Side Highway is supposed to be congestion relief zone toll-free.

How was this flaw overlooked during their supposed testing phase? And why would EZPass employees not have an understanding of how tolls are supposed to be applied in relation to the Congestion Relief Plan? Do I have to call back every month to dispute charges? Or will this get fixed? We’re only 21 days into this new program, but these seem like pretty big flaws.

Summary

I was very opposed to the CRZ toll when I first heard about it. It wasn’t until about a month before it was implemented that I realized that it would probably make my commute faster since I have to travel past Lower Manhattan. If I had to pay $9 when I occasionally visited my mother or went shopping in Lower Manhattan, I was ok with that. And I’m still ok with that, as long as EZPass stops billing me for not going into the CRZ.

Enjoying the sun and warmth while it’s still here

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Hopefully this isn’t the last warm weekend we’ll see, but everyone was out enjoying the sun like it was. It was pretty warm if you stayed out of the shade. It was a great day for walking, cycling, and seeing the sites.

We took a ride around the park, avoiding the top bit of the loop with that ridiculously steep hill, and took a few minutes to appreciate the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir before heading home. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon.

I picked up a tripod for my iPhone to record with, but I haven’t found the right time or place to use it yet. Maybe next weekend.

Washington Square Park, September 21, 2024

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4K available in the settings if your device can support it.

I rode into Washington Square Park and decided to loop around just to see what was going on. Early evening late afternoon around 4 PM or so. I can’t remember the last time I saw the park so full of people. I guess everyone was out trying to enjoy the last Summer Saturday of 2024. The camera angle is a little high because I was on a bicycle. I’m still trying to get the angle right.

New York City bike lanes aren’t turn bays

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A line of cars using the 12th Street “protected” bike lane at 3rd Avenue in Manhattan as a left-turn bay

For some of these people, I wonder if they just didn’t know. There is an NYU dorm on this block and there was a lot of traffic being caused by people dropping off their kids who are about to start Fall Semester. I imagine a lot of them are from Upstate or Central New York and maybe don’t understand the significance of bike lanes. I get into this place sometimes, mentally, where I just assume that other people know things that I take for granted because they’re common.

Maybe they were all playing follow the leader, with the “leader” being a TLC vehicle driver who should have known better. I hope he enjoys the ticket he’s going to get from the 311 report I filed.

Also, shout out to the guy who was making a statement by sitting on his Citibike in the bike lane, blocking the cars.

Summer Streets Manhattan Ride

Bradley Farless1 Comment

Summer Streets is an event in New York City where stretches of road are closed down from 7 AM to 3 PM to regular vehicle traffic and are opened up to pedestrians and cyclists for recreational use. It started out on just a small stretch of 4th Avenue, but year after year more roads and longer stretches of road are made available for Summer Streets use.

I almost missed it this year, but my wife reminded me about it when she went out riding last weekend and accidentally rode into the Summer Streets route and wound up riding the length of Manhattan down to and over the Brooklyn Bridge. This current weekend was the last weekend for Summer Streets in Manhattan so I made sure to get out there, even if only for a little while, to enjoy having the whole road open to ride around on.

Whole road is kind of an overstatement, though. There were so many people out there on bicycles and walking and running that it was actually a bit crowded. It was still a lot of fun, though, and made me wish that Summer Streets took place every Saturday from 6 AM to 7 PM all Spring, Summer, and Fall long.

I do have one more chance for Summer Streets next weekend, but it will be here in the Bronx on Grand Concourse. I’ve done a few organized runs up and down the route that has been selected for use, so it won’t be a new area for me, but I’m going to do it anyway because it’s rare to have a long run of space to use for cycling in such a dense urban area. I’m grateful for the greenways and bike paths in parks here in the city.

That being said, it’s kind of exciting to ride up and down blocks in Lower Manhattan. There’s a lot to look at and experience when you’re out riding on your bike and it’s not as dangerous as it used to be if you stay on the side roads or in the bike lanes on major avenues.

We finished up our Manhattan Summer Streets ride with a trip to Chinatown to have a late lunch / early dinner at Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles on Doyers Street. It’s a great place and if you haven’t been, I highly recommend it.

Sunday afternoon in Washington Square Park

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On the weekends, we’re almost always going out to do something active: chores, exercise, visiting family, eating out, etc. Yesterday, I had this idea in my head that I just wanted to get to a nice spot in a park and chill for a while. I could sit and read for a bit and take in the scenery. Instead of feeling pressed to do something, I could just lean back and relax and take in the sights and sounds around me, and that’s what I managed to do.

My wife and I parked in the East Village and rode our bikes over to Veselka for brunch. Afterwards we rode over to Washington Square Park to look at the vendors and then we found a quiet spot in the shade, situated sort of behind the music stage area, to just sit and relax. The air was fresh, the breeze was cool, and it was pretty cool to be able to take in different types of music while reading on my Kindle. My wife spent her time sketching.

Fun facts:

  • The house that Robert Neville stayed in (from the movie “I Am Legend”) is located on the periphery of the park near the arch.
  • Washington Square Park was used as a “Potter’s Field”, or burial site for poor people until about 1820 and over 20,000 people were buried there in mass graves, mostly victims of Yellow Fever
  • There is a 350 year old elm tree near the northwest entrance of the park that was used to execute ~20 thieves by hanging

Overall, it was a relaxing success of an afternoon.

Typical New York City driving

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Southbound on the FDR in Manhattan

First, the black Honda sedan pushed me out of my lane and into an on-ramp. Immediately after, an Access A Ride van slowed way down from about 50 to 20 and after I changed lanes to pass, pushed into my lane from the right. I had to cross halfway into the left lane to get around him.

And this is pretty normal for New York City drivers.

Pizzeria at 36 St. Mark’s tells 2 Bros customers to F— Off

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I’ve never eaten at either spot, but can you imagine the drama that had to happen before the Pizzeria at 36 St Mark’s put up that sign? It must have been something to see.

Also, it’s just good manners to not sit down at a restaurant and eat food from a different restaurant there.

By the way, Udon West is open again, but under another name: Udon St. Mark’s. The place looks exactly the same inside and has the same menu as before as far as I remember. Maybe it’s a little cleaner, but it’s the same ambience. I kind of wonder if they didn’t have a fire and just needed time to renovate.

In any case, I’m glad they’re not temporarily closed for renovations forever like Two Little Red Hens on 2nd Ave and 86th St.

A short walk in downtown Manhattan

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I left work early today for an appointment in the Financial District. There’s no parking down there so I parked on the Lower East Side and, rather than take the bus, I decided to walk to get some exercise and to enjoy the sites and sounds of the city for a change.

Usually I’m rushing from place to place, but I planned a nice buffer between leaving the office and my appointment and I got lucky with parking, so I had almost two hours to spend on myself before I needed to check in at the dentist. I was thinking about something my wife told me about how I never take time to just walk around alone and enjoy myself.

I got lucky and found some really interesting art.

It’s a shame that most of it is painted on temporary barriers, but I guess that will make way for something new when they come down.

This art is located at 33 E 1st St, New York, NY 10003 (along Houston St) in First Street Green Cultural Park.