Tag: NYC

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.

Tour de Bronx 2024

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I think the last time we took part in this event was in 2019. Or 2018. Probably 2018, because we did the Bronx 10 Mile Run in 2019 so we probably trained for that instead. Last time, we chose the 25 mile route and wound up out by Pelham Bay Park, but we haven’t been doing as much riding so we went with the 10 mile route this time instead. We’re forever trying to find time to get back into the shape we were in before COVID lock-downs happened.

The Tour de Bronx was very good for a free event. There were a lot of conflicts between the emails they sent out and the event website, like whether people could use Citibikes, how many free event t-shirts were available, and even what time the event was starting. Start times for the three routes weren’t announced until around 2 AM the day of the event. That’s poor planning. Plus, the roads were open to vehicle traffic. Weirdest of all, the 10 mile route was only 7.5 miles.

However, there were trailing vehicles, including a pickup truck and an ambulance. There were route marshals at key junctions, the route was marked on the road with spray paint, and the route was available to follow in the Ride With GPS app. There were also free refreshments at the end of the course. Plus, the weather was perfect for riding and the other riders were friendly and helpful. We even made two new friends that we’re looking forward to seeing at next year’s Tour de Bronx.

Hopefully next year we’ll be back to doing the 25 mile route.

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 Bronx

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The event was kind of sad and empty. I did my Summer Streets Bronx ride on the last day of Summer Streets at almost the last hour (Sunday August 25th at 1 PM), so maybe attendance was down, but I also did my Summer Streets Manhattan ride on the last day of that event at literally the last hour and the route was jam packed with people until past the end of the event.

In comparison, Grand Concourse was pretty barren and most of the people who were there were clustered around the two southern event hubs listening to music and sitting around in camp chairs while their kids chalked the road or looked at their phones. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s nothing that can’t be done in one of the nearby parks or on the corner of the block like you’d see on any regular Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.

One of the few interesting things to see along the Grand Concourse route.

It seems like people in the Bronx missed the point. Or it could just be that there was less to see along the route, which was truncated from the original planned route of of 165th Street to Mosholu Parkway to just East Tremont to Mosholu Parkway, so there was less interest. Grand Concourse just isn’t that interesting, especially compared to riding your bike down the center of Manhattan, right through the Financial District, and then onto the Brooklyn Bridge if you want. At least not to me, anyway. I wasn’t too thrilled with the Bronx 10 Mile run route, which covered a lot of the same ground back in 2019. The Tour de Bronx bike ride was really fun, though, because you got to experience more of the borough, and to me it feels like Bronx Summer Streets should have offered at least a taste of the same.

It was hard to say no to the Bronx route since we live nearby. Still, I kind of wish we’d driven down to Brooklyn and checked out the last day of Summer Streets for that borough instead, but I guess that will have to wait until next year.

In the meantime, there are plenty of bike routes in and around the city to enjoy. The old rail trail running north out of Van Cortlandt park is a good example, and I’ve still never ridden along the south Brooklyn waterfront.

30 years isn’t enough, but more than I expected

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I guess this case was too high profile for DA Bragg to sweep under the rug.

Assamad Nash should never see the light of day again. He is the poster child for why New York’s bail “reform” law is not only a failure, but is actually harmful to residents. People with long rap sheets should reach a tipping point where they are just permanently incarcerated. There is no reason for Christina Yuna Lee to be dead, and she wouldn’t be if Assamad Nash hadn’t been repeatedly released.

Went out for a ride today for the first time in quite a while

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It was nice to get out and ride around in the city a bit. I actually prefer it to the greenways sometimes because it’s more engaging and there’s more to look at. Sadly, I paused my workout while taking photos and forgot to restart it when I was down by Pier 36, but that just gives me an excuse to redo the route next weekend.

I definitely need to find more time in the week to exercise. I feel a lot better after spending the day outdoors. I’m also thinking about getting another gym membership. The issue would be finding a way to fit it into my schedule. Something like Harbor Fitness might work. There’s a location close to where I work.

NY Fire Department responds to fire on Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn

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A car on Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, NYC erupted into flames this afternoon around 3:00 PM near the garrison headquarters building. NYFD was very quick to respond.

The exact cause of the fire is unknown to me, though I imagine he had to have left something flammable in the car. It wasn’t that hot at the time though, especially in the shade where the car was parked.

The fire melted the tires off and burned the car down to the frame back to the trunk, so it had to be burning hot and it took the NYFD a while to get the engine block to stop burning. I wonder if it had something to do with aftermarket modifications to the vehicle, or if the fire was deliberately set.

I guess I won’t ever know, but I was asked to provide a copy of the above video to an investigations team, I suppose to find out if it was a criminal act or an accident.

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.