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Thursday, August 19, 2004
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 Thursday, August 19, 2004
started 8/19/2004; 12:44:41 AM - last post 8/20/2004; 12:28:26 PM
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Doc Searls - Thursday, August 19, 2004 
8/19/2004; 4:44:41 AM (reads: 4606, responses: 4)
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Why bother? 
| | We drove last night from one end of Long Island to the other — Montauk to Brooklyn, stopping for dinner with friends in Bridgehampton. We began the long last stretch around 10pm, aiming for Newark Airport in New Jersey. We went late in the evening to avoid traffic, but you never know, so I stayed tuned to WCBS/880 and WINS/1010, New York's two news stations, which both broadcast frequent traffic reports. |
| | We took 27 West to the Southern Parkway, then the Belt Parkway around Brooklyn to the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, which charges $8 for passage to Staten Island. |
| | All the way, the radio stations said our path was clear. They reported no delays on any of New York's bridges and tunnels, with only a few brief tie-ups here and there. |
| | But when we got to the other side of Staten Island, the Goethals Bridge was closed, as it apparently is every night from 9:30pm to 5:00am for road work. In other words, the main route — or, as we say in New Jersey, the fucking interstate! was closed. Cerrado. Geschlossen. If you're not familiar with the territory, or lack a map, you're fucking SOL. |
| | Which is fine, given the need to fix bridges, but why nothing about the closure on the radio? |
| | So I'm sitting there, pulled over to the side of the road, listening to the chirpy traffic on WCBS and WINS thinking, Excuse Me? The Goethals isn't a fucking BRIDGE? The main road between Staten Island/Brooklyn and New Jersey doesn't fucking matter? Why say nothing about it? How long does it take to say "The Goethals Bridge is closed until 5am, so take 440 North or South"? Does the fact that it's a scheduled closing make it an irrelevant piece of information? Are the only listeners worth the label those who already know this information? AAARRG. |
| | Fortunately, we had a map and found our way to 440 North off the Island, through Bayonne (ugly as I remember it 40 years ago), up to the Turnpike and over to the Best Western in which I type this now, at 2am, over wi-fi provided, incongruously, by an otherwise dumpy motel. |
| | And now we fly home. See ya on the West Side. |
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Len - Re: Wednesday, August 18, 2004
8/19/2004; 6:46:01 PM (reads: 1029, responses: 3)
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As upsetting as this may be it's not going to happen, the Geothals has been closed overnights since April and will be until November. If they braodcast this along with every other recurring problem such as commercial vehicle restrictions at the Holland Tunnel, toll plaza regulations for the George Washington Bridge, lane construction on the Tri-borough, New Jersey Turnpike long term lane closures, well, you get the idea, we'd never get to the real traffic report (and they do report the closure, just not every traffic report.) Sucks for you but that's the way it is, they only have so much info that can be crammed into the 1 minute report (I don't think and all traffic all the time station would do very well.) Shoulda checked 1010wins.com traffic before you left.
I had a similair situation happen to me, always seems to be on the west coast, usually around San Francisco. I run smack dab into the middle of a traffic jam on say, the 101, that isn't on the traffic report because it happens at the same time every day and so they don't report it. Now that sucks.
Oh yeah, if someone is driving somewhere and they don't they don't the road or don't have a map, they deserve whats they gets. You can get a brand new Rand McNally US atlas for 5 bucks at Wal-Mart and the rental car company gives out local maps for free.
That being said, the Port Authority (who run the bridge) could do a better job of helping people to get around it.
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David Williams - Re: Wednesday, August 18, 2004
8/20/2004; 7:09:21 AM (reads: 538, responses: 2)
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Doc,
As a current Long Islander...
1) There is the "Outer Bridge Crossing" as well ..dumps you about the same place in NJ as the Goethals.
2) the LIE is ALWAYS closed during the summers, usually at the most busy time, for expanding the HOV lanes... (Like--Friday nights)
3) The Cross Bronx ALWAYS sucks...no matter what the traffic says or doesn't say-- ALWAYS
4) I feel your pain
~Dave W
PS -- missed you at Linux World San Fran--tried to catch up with you so we could talk a bit more about Northern NJ ( ;-) ) ... or Linux..maybe
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Len - Re: Wednesday, August 18, 2004
8/20/2004; 1:39:43 PM (reads: 735, responses: 1)
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Yeah, the LIE is the main reason I could never live on Long Island (and tend to avoid it whenever possible which is a shame because parts of it are quite nice.)
And the Cross Bronx is evil evil evil. Avoid it at all costs!
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Doc Searls - Re: Wednesday, August 18, 2004
8/20/2004; 4:28:26 PM (reads: 843, responses: 0)
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In the middle of last Sunday, the LIE was a red carpet, from the Midtown Tunnel to where we got off, at 27 in Suffolk County. But yeah, a lot of the time it does suck. I've been stuck or slowed, many a trip from JFK to midtown in recent years.
I haven't been on the Cross Bronx since the 70s. In '69, right after I got out of College, I used to take it to the Sheridan Expressway and then South to the Bruckner (which was an alternate via the Deegan if the CB was closed) to Hunts Point Avenue through the South Bronx to my job hauling frozen produce between trucks, freight cars and freezers at Hunts Point Market.
One day, on the shoulder of an elevated section of the Bruckner/Sheridan intersection, a guy had to abandon a Corvette. That was decades before cell phones. All you could do was wait for a cop. This guy didn't, and maybe it wouldn't have made much difference. When I passed by the same spot at lunch, the wheels and doors were gone. When I went home that night, all that remained was the chassis. The next morning, the chassis was gone too.
I don't know if stripping cars has the same appeal today as it did then, but watching a car virtually melt away in the course of a day was a strange thing to see.
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