Gridlock downtown on Friday afternoon

Submitted by Old_Perspective_6417 t3_zzhsf8 in jerseycity

Went out for the day and coming back to downtown JC at 4 pm was complete gridlock getting off at the Christopher Columbus exit. I know this has been raised before, but it seems like it used to just happen on Sundays. Is this because it's New Year's weekend? Anyone know if or where the mayor or city is on addressing the extreme congestion from cars using JC streets to get to the Holland Tunnel? Doesn't seem good for businesses in downtown JC or residents. Wondering what could be done, other than imploring Google Maps to stop directing people through JC to get to the tunnel or putting up one of those big electronic freestanding signs at the turnpike off-ramp that says "Local Traffic Only"?

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OtherBarry3 t1_j2c21ic wrote

It's been like this pretty much every day this week. Usually this type of gridlock doesn't happen every day so I'm assuming at least some of this is holiday traffic related.

I don't drive or own a car, fortunately/unfortunately I'm the lucky pedestrian that has to walk through the gridlock of NJ drivers that can't be bothered to stop behind crosswalks. At least I don't have to sit & wait in traffic but wow, NJ drivers are terrible.

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Alukrad t1_j2cy2ga wrote

I think traffic cops should be more involved at the traffic lights. People don't care if the light turns red, they still continue crawling forward and blocking the other traffic trying to get through. It's chaos because if you block one road, then that road ends up backing up and blocking another road.

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Lowkeylowthreadcount t1_j2di4r0 wrote

This is the right answer. The selfishness of people driving and honking and causing gridlock traffic because they have to make it through a light is the reason why it gets to the level that it does, especially as of late.

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oekel t1_j2dsr00 wrote

The amount of times i see the last person in a queue of cars at a green light honking is out of control. Like sir, have you driven in Jersey City before? Have you driven in any city? Have you ever driven a car? The people in front need to go first.

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Lowkeylowthreadcount t1_j2e4z0b wrote

It’s such a lack of common sense, it truly baffles me. I live on jersey Ave and ever since that stupid bridge extension opened, there’s been non stop people honking and yelling outside of my apartment. Drives me absolutely nuts

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bodhipooh t1_j2bt4ej wrote

What exactly is it that you think the city can do, legally? The city can't restrict traffic on local roads (Leonia tried that a few years ago and got rightfully slapped down by the State Supreme Court) and we don’t (and, can't) control traffic heading into the tunnel (the mayor already tried fucking with the PA by hassling truck traffic as it was making its way to the tunnel and got in trouble for doing so) - so, what exactly can we do? They have done pretty much everything else and things are worse: they narrowed Marin to single lanes in each direction for a stretch (that made life miserable for residents along that area) then they instituted a bunch of "no turn on red" restrictions that have also added to the backups. And, they added humps and bumps, as well as a ton of stop signs, which some residents definitely don’t like.

Honestly, I think the city strategy is to make life miserable for those who choose to drive, and they are succeeding at that. If you have to drive, choose your times wisely, or learn alternate routes. And, I say this as someone who also had to deal with the 4 PM traffic today. We left DTJC just before 2 and Marin was basically a parking lot, so we detoured and shaved 10 minutes off our original 45 minute estimate. On our return, we did some hustling and also avoided most of the traffic, but it was certainly bad in some areas.

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enron_scandal t1_j2djzkh wrote

I will speak in favor of the added stop signs. When I first moved downtown I saw 4 cars get t-boned in the intersection outside my apartment within 3 months. Since they put in the extra stop signs, I haven’t seen a single accident.

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diplore t1_j2c0je5 wrote

Can't the city enact some sort of pared-down congestion pricing to discourage using city streets to circumvent traffic? I.e. if you enter JC from specific exits and then proceed to enter the Holland Tunnel before a certain amount of time elapses, you get billed a congestion pricing surcharge? If NYC is allowed to move forward with a much more restrictive congestion pricing model, I can't imagine that this would be illegal.

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bodhipooh t1_j2d34ij wrote

Jersey City doesn’t have the legal authority to do that. We are not NYC. They [NYC] enjoy a special status (conferred upon them by the State legislature) that gives the city the legal authority to enact laws and regulations that wouldn’t be possible or legal for other cities to do the same. Basically, anything we want to do that’s not strictly local has to be approved or allowed by the State government and legislature. For example, we couldn’t create additional taxes (eg, the recent payroll tax) unless explicitly approved by the State Legislature. We can’t control or restrict access to local roads without the state approving that. And, a plan to impose congestion pricing, or other surcharges, would require state and federal approval, along with the cooperation of the NJTA and (possibly?) the PANYNJ.

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diplore t1_j2dlc56 wrote

My comment was meant to be more high-level, it stands to reason that there would be mounds of political red tape. New York also cannot just deploy congestion pricing at will, either. It had to be signed into law by state legislature as well as the New York State governor, and still requires approval on a federal level from the FHWA.

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ffejie t1_j2dtrsn wrote

Yes, and we've seen how long NYC is taking to get a law implemented (it was signed way back in 2019!) - it will be a long time before JC can get something like this done. With that in mind, I guess that means we should start now.

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pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j2e8lks wrote

The city could ticket everyone who doesn’t clear the intersection when the lights change. Make it a real drag to drive through downtown.

That’s 100% in the city’s right. It would just harm Fulop reputation before he launches his governors campaign.

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bodhipooh t1_j2eh0x8 wrote

They used to do this in years past! No one seems to remember that every year, right around the holidays, the JCPD would post a squad or two by the Grove St station along Marin and would pull over cars to ticket them as they made (what used to be) an illegal left turn onto Marin from Columbus. On years when the turn was not illegal, they would stop and ticket for blocking traffic / not clearing the intersection. As far as I can remember, I think the last time I saw that was back in 2019, maybe 2018. It was a trip to watch two or three cars get pulled over at once, told to go line up by what is now 90 Columbus, and then they would write them up, and do it all over again.

Yes, for sure the JCPD could do a much better job of discouraging aggressive and asshole drivers from terrorizing bothering local residents by not allowing them to run roughshod on local streets. Ask anyone, and they would tell you that drivers in town are insane. A lot of it is definitely out of towers commuting, or using local roads to reach the tunnel, or to get elsewhere. I truly despise driving in town, or even regionally, but sometimes you just have to do it. Enforcement of basic shit like running red lights, ignoring stop signs, people doing 40+ on narrow local roads, etc. can and should be addressed by the JCPD.

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pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j2ekfwd wrote

Sometimes cars sit 2 lights in the middle of the intersection. You can ticket them each time for failure to clear the intersection.

It will piss some people off, but ultimately people will chill out driving because those fines aren’t worth it, especially when it doesn’t even get you to your destination faster.

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Economy-Cupcake808 t1_j2cme94 wrote

JCs war on cars is mainly restricted to the downtown thankfully. We don’t have it nearly as bad as our friends ok the other side of the river.

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JerseyCityGeordie t1_j2dhc7s wrote

It happens because so many people are selfish and feel the unnecessary need to drive when they should be taking a train, ferry, or bus. Zero sympathy for the idiots who choose to drive in JC when there are so many other options.

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kategardiner t1_j2dlx2z wrote

Really depends where you’re going - I’m generally headed to upstate New York and gps sends us through the tunnel. Can go up to the bridge and then try to get on 87 but really limited options in general. Getting to the city via PATH lately has been ok but incredibly crowded and if you’re buying anything getting back with packages is a nightmare. We have legit fedexed things from shops in the city because of it.

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Brudesandwich t1_j2dr3ua wrote

Why would you go through NYC to get to upstate NY? Lol. Take the turnpike to GW and get off in fort lee and trasnfer onto the Palisades Parkway (no tolls if you enter the turnpike from Route 3). Takes you into upstate NY. If you need to be on the eastern side of the Hudson in NY cross over the Tappan Zee or Cuomo bridge, whatever the hell it's called now

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kategardiner t1_j2dx7sc wrote

because sometimes its faster or I have to pick someone up from the city or a host of reasons. it’s what it is. but the point being that not all traffic through the tunnel is people who can use public transit to get where they’re going.

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hayflicklimit t1_j2ddrn8 wrote

It’s amazing to me that every driver downtown is only using downtown as a pass through whenever this happens. It’s not a single local coming or going anywhere except for the one making the observation. Funny how that happens.

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PICHICONCACA t1_j2bw7es wrote

The city is a joke. Along with this anti car movement. You want to take cars off the street? How about you improve public transit first before you take out lanes.

I loved that they added protected bike lanes to CC drive. But then they got stupid with the new traffic pattern.

All of this whole the idiot mayor ignores the rest of the city. Traffic is bad in other parts too. You know why? Because our NJ transit sucks.

Between the food delivery double parking when they are driving or when the bikes just cross traffic, the Ubers picking and dropping off people at the worst possible location in flowing traffic. The street closures because of construction or repairs. All of this Makes driving awful. But not where near as awful as waiting for a bus in the cold and rain.

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Brudesandwich t1_j2c2b4z wrote

But the mayor doesn't run NJ Transit so what you do think he can do realistically? NJ Transit is a STATE agency so you need to look towards state politicians who are FOR funding public transit, especially between NJ cities. The bike lanes and Via are options that the mayor and city has direct influence over. He'll just look at what is happening with the turnpike extension plan. Spend $10Billion on widening it that would serve a relatively low amount of people as opposed to using that money that would drastically improve our infrastructure and could connect to other cities. People are partially blaming the mayor but he has no control over the Turnpike extension at all.

Secondly, the rest of the city barely votes and it's not just opinion. Every election is a low turnout, especially outside of downtown. The lowest voter rate is always either Greenville or Westside, Downtown is always the highest. You don't see a correlation here? As much as people like to complain about being overlooked in other sections, barely anyone in these sections is an active participant in the process.

The traffic problem here has very little to do with bike lanes and ubers.

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Ainsel72l t1_j2chzpi wrote

And when you actively vote out the mayor's councilman, the Ward lines get gerrymandered, and you lose the councilman you voted for (yes, I know, the HC Board of Elections was responsible, but conveniently JC paid their legal bill). That's always encouraging - and for the record, I always vote. Not that it counts for much, obviously.

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Economy-Cupcake808 t1_j2cm0uq wrote

What the mayor can do is lobby for better service from the state, and not make life miserable for the majority of JC residents whose primary modem of transport is car.

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Brudesandwich t1_j2d7ly1 wrote

I mean he has, what more can he do?

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moobycow t1_j2dlhni wrote

Magic, why hasn't he tried magic yet to solve the traffic problems?

I wonder at people who think that a mayor of a small city next to NYC can do fuckall to fix this sort of thing. Oh sure, Fulop has made it miserable for people who drive. As if adding lanes or roads has fixed a single traffic problem in any city ever.

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oekel t1_j2dts75 wrote

Downtown is already filled to the brim with cars. Prioritizing access for more drivers at this point is a dead end. We need to prioritize safety and other transport options instead.

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JeromePowellAdmirer t1_j2ckbdt wrote

I'll take my "waiting in the cold and rain" when it comes with an extra $600+/month of disposable income

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faktastic t1_j2dsxz8 wrote

I’ve noticed a lot of traffic comes from the hoboken side into DTJC/the tunnel. I guess JC just serves as a crossroads for many areas that have no public transit between them, eg from Union/West NY/Weehawken towards the city, Bayonne, Staten Island - places where you really have to have a car.

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hardo_chocolate t1_j2dwg5o wrote

There is construction by the Holland Tunnel that requires a complex merge on 12th street; this creates a double whammy during rush hour. It appears that the JCPD and the PAPD might not have really (wanted to) tackle the problem proactively.

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PsychologicalAd1153 t1_j2dvsi0 wrote

MONMOUTH ST approaching COLUMBUS DR by Dixon Mills: when did that right lane become a RIGHT TURN ONLY lane? I never had a reason to turn right onto CC, but if they fix that to make it striaght and right turn that would fix that little street.

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moobycow t1_j2dz9te wrote

It's been right turn only for years. Also, Monmouth already backs up to CC from Newark with just one lane going straight. It's all full up, allowing another lane to go straight doesn't add more capacity where it bottlenecks, it's the equivalent to expanding the TPK to get more people through the tunnel

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Mkali19 t1_j2cbl78 wrote

It’s because they changed the lanes

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Economy-Cupcake808 t1_j2cma5o wrote

No it’s holiday traffic. Inbound holland gets totally fucked at weird times around this week. Two days ago it was like 40 minutes into the city at 5pm while jersey bound was 10 minutes.

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