jk5598224

Hey folks I am working in Danbury, CT and flying in about 8:30 PM to JFK. The WhiteStone bridge traffic on Sunday night is killing me time wise. It can take an hour or more to go from JFK and cross over the bridge, plus the hour or so to Danbury.

Can anybody suggest an alternate route to either get directly to and over the WhiteStone bridge quicker, or an alternate route to Danbury.

I did take the Throgs Neck bridge route one night and didn't find it to be all that much faster, still quite a bit of traffic before bridge. I think I will try Throgs again this Monday.

I basically took the standard fwy routes to the bridges.

Thanks in advance.

Letitride3c

This might be a bit late but for future reference or others - both WSB & TNB are bad as there's ongoing repairs/construction either on portion of the bridge and/or on the approaches to the bridge, in daylight hours and overnight. Add the NY Mets when they are playing at home (Citifield) and the US Tennis Open nearby, and the bottleneck seemed nearly unavoidable.

Traffic downstairs at nearby streets going thru/coming out of Flushing core business districts also creating a mess with a series of no left turn, no right turn (some for rush hours only) and turns for buses only (infamous for blocking the ENTIRE intersection for everyone sharing the road).

Going northbound from JFK, keep left at the split for GCP or Grand Central Parkway & go toward LGA airport, and take the RFK Bridge (a/k/a Triborough Bridge) and head over to the Bronx side, keep right for the Bruckner Blvd toward I-95/Co-Op City-New Rochelle-CT. This is a BIG detour but could reduce that 45 to 60 minutes bumper-to-bumper traffic starting even before you reach the Whitestone Expwy (photo op for Citifield & US Tennis Stadium to your left, okay just kidding - but, seriously - it's true & a daily ritual for truckers) - might save you 15 to 30 minutes if that alternate route is accident-free, but with some ongoing constructions on the left lane on GCP right at LGA.

Otherwise, a possible shorter route by going thru local streets in Flushing to Parsons Blvd. and then left on 14th Ave & right turn at the next block to the entrance to the WSB approach is complicated, and with traffic & red-lights and buses/delivery trucks, etc. all jamming it - really will not help you a great deal. Plus, a GPS will definitely be very, very helpful in planning the turns.

The problem is that with many local & out-of-state drivers not using EZ-Pass toll lanes at the bridge entrances on either side, mixed in with lane closures due to construction work & the occassional fender-benders & broken down vehicles (out of gas idling for 60 minutes, etc.) it's a nightmare for all and seem to be worst in the summer months - the bottleneck will disappear once you reach the toll plaza and with EZ-Pass, zipped thru very quickly, as you probably realize last few times.

cordelli

If flying into Newark is an option that could save you a considerable amount of time over the delays from JFK. There are times there is no traffic at all from Newark.

If not, I would suggest the route above. Bruckner to the Hutchinson River Parkway to 684 up to 84 to Danbury.

jk5598224

I never considered EWR, but I just checked and UA flights arrives at 10:30 PM, a bit late for me, and AA does not have a non-stop. No non-stops to LGA either from SFO.

So are we saying I should take(try) GCP to the 278E to Hutchinson? Hopefully tonight there won't be a traffic impact with US Open. Usually I fly Sundays.

Thanks so much.

Letitride3c

NY Yankees has a day game today and Mets away, so traffic shouldn't be worsen by it - same for US Tennis Open late today for your scheduled landing. Listen to newsradio 880AM or 1010 wins news if you can to check on traffic on WSB, problem is that sometimes road construction isn't even reported until you are on top of the jams. Those traffic cams covering the area don't always off or sometimes switched off, so can't get a live view either.

To do the above bypass, go north on I-678 Van Wyck & keep left for GCP for LGA to the RFK tolled Bridge, keep right for the Bruckner (I-278) - take the Zerega Avenue Exit (local street, straight w. 2 traffic lights) and then bear left & back on the Hutch to resume your regular route northbound. This is assuming that there is no night construction work on that section of the Hutch tonight, as you already know that traffic around the Cross County Expwy north of the city line isn't fun if there's road work.

The other option is after the RFK Bridge, keep left for I-87 North, Major Deagan Expwy, passing the new Yankee Stadium up to Yonkers, catch the eastbound I-287 and then north on the Hutch up to Danbury. This route might be the longest in terms of distance but time-wise, might be better as it should bypass any major road work, constructions & take you north of the NYC & Westchester routes where traffic should be thinning out past midnight into the 1 am hours.

Hope this help give you some more ideas & options to consider, regards.

craz

if you only want non-stops it wont help but check out BDL (Hartford,CT) you take the I-91 South a few mins and then onto the I-84 West right to Danbury

You probably should be able to do a SFO-IAD-BDL so you can grab a widebody into IAD and I believe UA uses mainlines (319/s) IAD-BDL

Blumie

BDL certainly is an option, but it absolutely will be longer to take a connection to BDL and drive then to fly non-stop to JFK or EWR and drive.

I have an aversion to EWR (and to the entire state of NJ). I like Letitride's suggestion.

jk5598224

I tried the suggested route if GCP to RFK bridge to Hutch. While I didn't save too too much time, lots of traffic near LGA and a accident on 287E I can certainly see how this could be a preferred or alternate route. There was NO backup at the toll either. Thanks for the suggestions.

I have tried flying to HPN in the past, and with the ORD delays, up and down, it ended up being more tiring than non stop and driving an hour longer. Looking at BDL it seems to go through PHL for the time I would want to fly.

I wish the legacies would put a few non stops to HPN, seems like a great alternative.

themicah

From the Triboro/RFK I generally prefer taking the Deegan (I-87 N) to the Cross County to the Hutch rather than the Bruckner (I-278 E) to the Hutch. But I usually have a passenger check the traffic on Google Maps on my Blackberry as we get close and pick the less congested route.

Analise

Google maps provides real-time traffic information?

themicah

Yep. Just click the "traffic" button in the upper right corner of the screen on a desktop computer. Or click "show traffic" or "layers:traffic" on most mobile devices (Blackberry, Palm, Android, etc.). Then steer clear of the red and red-black roads.

Analise

Wow, never knew that! How accurate have you found it to be?

I'd love to have this information on our drives to/from Maine. Will it give us real-time info up and down that corridor?

themicah

We've found the real-time info to be pretty good. Just yesterday, for example, we were caught in a jam on NY-22 between Brewster and Patterson. Our GPS (which doesn't have traffic) indicated that a detour would take us almost 10 miles out of the way, but Google Maps showed that the jam ended at a traffic light just a mile down the road so we stuck with it and the jam cleared right where Google said it would. It's not perfect, particularly on NYC-area roads where sudden phantom jams can appear and disappear before anybody has a chance to figure out where they begin and where they end. But it's helpful.

As for Maine, take a look at your route online and see if it's covered. Assuming you take mainly interstates and major US/state highways, I'll bet it is.

Letitride3c

Glad your drive home after landing @JFK worked out okay & at least avoided the backup at the toll.

I last checked the NYC traffic cams this Monday evening around 11 pm and the approaches to the WSB sure were seriously backed up - the detour and alternate routing was the WAY to go.

This planned MESS on the WSB along with ongoing TNB between Queens/LI and Bronx & points north are ongoing, and god knows when they will actually finish their projects - and restore "normal" traffic flow.

cordelli

Google has the advantage over most of the others (except Verizon) in that it is collecting real time information from the people using the application.

So if for example you are on a route where the people in front of you have opted in and have a device that supports it, they will be sending information to google for them to combine with the other sources out there and can make for a very accurate picture of the traffic.

Verizon offers something similar (they both use a company called airsage to crunch the numbers) the difference is verizon collects it from every Verizon GPS phone out there, Google has fewer collection points, and people can opt out of Google. But if you are using the "My Location" feature in google on your device, you are reporting traffic information to them.

TomTom won FCC approval years ago to start something like that in the US, but has not rolled it out yet.