New York City - Driving

I drove a straight truck in NYC for 6 years. There are a lot of low bridges but those are usually on the side streets. But they are usually not marked till you get right to them so your pretty well screwed because you have no other choice than to back up in some cases. There is a low bridge on the BQE on the northbound side that says it is 12'2". Thats wrong. It is higher but a big truck wont fit under it in the right lane. I saw a newbie get stuck under there and then try to power his way thru which only wedged him in tighter. A big truck WILL fit under it in the far left(hammer lane altho you will never be able to drop the hammer there). There is an exit before it that says all big trucks must exit but dont beleive it. You will get lost. After all those years in NYC I still got lost from time to time. In lower Manhatten, around Wall St. area, they can only use short trailers because the streets are short and narrow. But really anywhere in Brooklyn,Manhatten, Queens and the Bronx it is a challenge to manuver. Staten Island is a little easier but not by much.

I never had a problem with crime and I delivered in the worst parts of town. I delivered auto parts and they dont put junk yards in the best part of town. If you handle yourself right you prob. wont have a problem. Walk fast, dont look around like a tourist, dont talk to anyone and if someone tries to talk to you ignore him or, if he persists, tell him to take a hike, dont even look at him and keep moving towards your destination with purpose. Dont dally around Remember, no one in NYC wants or needs to talk to you unless he wants what you have, AKA a criminal. Be cold and unfeeling. No one there is your pal or your buddy. If he is trying to be, he is trying to get something from you. Trust no one and you should be OK.

Traffic is sometimes terrible, sometimes not so bad. It is 6 miles from the Throgs Neck Bridge to the George Washington Bridge and at times I have done 55 to 60 mph across the Cross Bronx Epwy and made that trip in under ten minutes. Other times it has taken me up to an hour and a half to do the same run. One day there was a terrible accident and it took 2 1/2 hours. The day before Thanksgiving it took 2 hours to go 2 exits, about 1 mile. Bad thing is once you get stuck in that jam your not getting out. It helps if you know some go arounds but a lotta times they are no better than your original route. LIE, Long Island Expressway, There is a trick to it. You MUST get on it (eastbound) BEFORE 2:30 in the afternoon or after 7:00 at night. Anytime in between you will sit in some of the worst traffic on earth! Get on it at say 4:00 and you wont break out till exit 68 and there are only 73 exits!

Bottom line, if they send you to NYC, stop and get a Hagstrom map book of the 5 boroughs. You'll be glad you did!

 

As for driving through on I 95 not that bad. The City it's self is a pain in the Rear. I was stationed there at the tip of Manhatten for 2 years on Governors Island. But if I was given my choice I-95 through NYC or the Atlanta area, Hello NYC. And I was living in Georgia, born and raised there. I hate Atlanta Drivers, worst of the worst.

 

( I'm from the east coast). Unless you like pulling your hair out, having a nervous breakdown every few minutes, dealing with the arrogance, dealing with the attitude, the nightmarish traffic, the bad roads, the low bridges, the narrow streets, a good chance of having your windshield washed whether you like it or not, and just all the b.s with the stinkin' traffic....I would avoid it, especially since you're just starting out. If you don't mind the headaches, go for it. Constant accidents, constant traffic tie-ups, absolutely no respect for truck drivers, . You have to know where you're going otherwise you'll be in deep doo-doo. To me it's just not worth it.

I'll take my chances and run Colorado in 5ft of snow before I'll go back east. !!

 

whatta need?

yeah thats a good first post!!!

 

I've run NYC a fair amount. Very few problems but I do have funny story about the traffic cops on foot. In was in the Bronx driving toward a drop I had to make. I was driving my Ex hood 379 Pete in my avatar, and 48 ft reefer. I was on 3rd ave heading in the right direction. The street I needed was 3rd st. I was going past 100th st...99th st...98th st......you get the idea....so I get to 5th, then 4th, and think okay next turn is mine. NOPE, the next intersection is 2nd st....WTF? Anyways in order to turn around and head back the way I came from I went around a big (NYC) block by making 3 rights. The last turn I needed to make was a left to get back onto 3rd ave to head where I'd just came from. I am sitting first at the intersection that has no lights and a fat black woman cop. She sees my left blinker on and hand signals to not try turning left, I assume cuz I will hold up too many 4 wheelers behind me while I would be waiting for oncoming traffic to clear. Anyways, she signals for everyone in both directions to enter thru (both ways)...So I delay movement, then start out in granny, while trying to buy a few extra seconds for traffic to clear so I can turn left anyways. Luckily traffic does clear and I turn (against Oprahs wishes).....I get to the next intersection, and it turns out Oprah 1 radios ahead to Oprah 2 to "pull me over", as now O2 gives me hand signals to pull it cubside...so I do. She comes walking up to me and axes me fo my registration. I give it to her and she walk back to the end of my trailer to review it I guess, much like she would do if she had a squad car LOL. So she come back and gives me some trash talk sass about what I did wrong, but lets me go. Ya had to be there I guess.

 

NYC, sidewalk deliveries in Manhattan,the market at Hunts Point, the docks in Brooklyn, and some tanker deliveries in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Never again. Traffic is terrible, the people are crazy{for the most part}, it cost a fortune at the bridges, and most of the streets are way to narrow, and way to many low bridges. If you gave me a choice between delivering in anywhere in NYC and a root canal without anesthesia, I would take the root canal.

 

sounds like my dh. hates driving in NYC, when he is driving in NYC, he is on the phone to me, and I am doing map quest, trying to help him out.
He told me , he told dispatch, no more NYC. just hates it.

 

MapQuest will get you lost. Anywhere along the I 95 corridor from DC to Boston is a good place to be from, far away from. But NYC gets the prize in my opinion.

 

well, he was lost, and it took hours, to get him out of there, like 4 hours. since then , get goes a different route, thank goodness.

 

I've only been there once. I couldn't get anyone on the phone at the shipper for better directions, so I went in with some half-##* directions, and believe me, that was a BIG mistake!

I was rolling down Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn, which was not bad at all. I was expecting to see John Travolta strutting down the sidewalk listening to the Bee-Gees on his walkman.

I thought that NYC was no problem at all. I thought everyone overrated the difficulty of driving there, until I realized I was going the wrong way and needed to turn around.

It took me about two hours to get turned around and find the shipper! None of the bridge hieghts were correct, people walking in the streets, cars parked everywhere in the way, etc.

And at any moment, I expected to turn down a street and end up getting stuck--horrible sinking feeling.

Next time I will have turn-by-turn directions from a person at the shipping office before I even attempt to go back!