Originally Posted by
EWR764
I lived in Manhattan for 10 years, work there, have friends who live/work there, running the gamut from airline agnostic to hardcore brand loyalists. For locals who know how to get around, there really does not seem to be a dramatic preference of one versus the other when it comes to EWR and JFK. I think the perception is both are mildly inconvenient. LGA is a different story, historically the local Manhattan market has a strong preference for LGA over both EWR/JFK, but the construction there is a major, albeit temporary, headache.
In my estimation, it's the inbound NYC traffic which looks at EWR as substantially less convenient than JFK to Manhattan. That's why Kirby's comments make sense to me.
From NE commuting to Manhattan at times, I can definitely tell you I wouldn't want to go to EWR just to get to Manhattan, keep waiting in the traffic and pay that petty $20USD for the bridge/tunnel fees. I'd agree with EWR764 that if you take train/subway anyway. For Uber/taxi, I'd like to get from LGA/JFK, because there's one less bridge that you have to worry about, and it's usually busy at any hour. Definitely I'd love to go to LGA all the time, but for some West Coasters, you'd think it's still going to save time to get to JFK when non-stops are everywhere vs connections to LGA. The longest flights to LGA are probably SLC/DEN/PHX-LGA, but anything farther would definitely require a connection to get to LGA.
When you commute to Manhattan often enough, the last thing you wanna do is to wait in the traffic going through the toll roads/highways.