Worst commutes in NY sports for Long Islanders
Last Friday I experienced my worst drive to Yankee Stadium. Ever.
It took me more than two hours to go the 45 or so miles, a drive that usually takes me less than an hour. And the only reason I made it there that quickly was because I abandoned the parking lot named the Grand Central Parkway around LaGuardia, backtracked to the 59th Street bridge and drove through Harlem and back-doored my way to the Stadium. Funny thing is, I maneuvered the roads with ease because of the run I did from Yankee Stadium to Shea two months ago.
Anyway, when I mentioned this online to Anthony today, he wondered what the worst commutes are for Long Island sports fans. Here's what we came up with:
1. Going to Jets camp in Florham Park, N.J.: Jets fans won't have to deal with this until training camp next year. But I'm going on Friday and I'll make sure to report back on all the fun involved in going that deep into the Jersey suburbs.
2. Going to Giants Stadium for a Monday night game: It's rush hour and you're going to hit traffic everywhere you go. Enjoy!
3. Leaving Giants Stadium after any NFL game: Even though it's Sunday evening in the fall and no one is on the road, it's going to take you two hours or more to leave Giants Stadium and get back to Long Island.
To/from Yankee stadium mid-week day game: You'll hit the tail end of the morning rush on your way to the stadium and when you leave it's full-fledged evening rush.
To/from Shea during the U.S. Open: They suggest taking mass transit to Shea for a reason. To avoid the Grand Central Parkway.
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Comments (2)
All good choices. I personally would make #3. the worst one (especially for Jets games. Oh, if only there was some abandon lot, say in Manhattan, maybe even on the West Side, that wasn't being used and a stadium could be there with LIRR acess. Wait a minute...)
I would probably add these few too (Nowhere near as bad as your choices, but still), if no particular order:
-Any September Midweek Baseball Day Game (too many school buses)
-Picking the wrong spot to park at the Collessium (like the morons who park by a fence or in the far southwest that's rarely used)
-Any big Hofstra event (The debate could be interesting)
-A Conn Sun midweek game (seriously, you need to reaccess your life in you're waiting 2:30 hours in traffic for the WNBA)
-Never been to it, but I'm sure driving to watch the NY Marathon is an awful move.
-Big Football game at St. Anthony's (There is only like 1 road in and out of there).
9/01/1978 (this is not sports related..but you jogged my memory).
30 years ago yesterday.
Friday before Labor Day weekend.
A tractor trailer with toxic chemicals overturned on I-95 in Eastern CT at 10:30AM.(NB lanes)
Backed up traffic on I-95 and other arteries well into NY and NJ for the entire day and evening.
It was my last day on a summer job I had at Picatinny Arsenal in Dover NJ (exit 34 I-80) before returning to a strike impaired job that I had left in Cleveland.
Left Dover NJ at 4:30PM with a cooler of beer in the back seat that had been perfectly chilling all day (hey, before any MADD mothers have a seizure, we used to drink beers in open convertibles back then).
Was headed for Exit 29 off of the Southern State. (parents house b4 I returned to Cleveland).
Arrived at parents house over 6 hours later at 10:45 PM with beer bottles refilled with recycled beer and Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street forever etched in my mind as the Song of the Summer 1978.
Told myself I would never live in the NY area again.
You people are nuts.