Actually that was the best time for NYC because crime was at it’s lowest. Currently BLM defund the police and the massive reduction of police and the failure of Democrats to prosecute criminals, Crime is going up again.😊
None of this would have been a problem if they'd routed I-95 around NYC, straight across New Jersey to where I-287 is now. That was the path I-95 was supposed to take, in the original interstate plan. Instead, they routed the nation's busiest highway through our densest city, because of Princeton nimbys and Robert Moses' obsession with urban highways
For matters of efficiency it makes sense to use at least part of the NJT for I-95. The original plan, from the late fifties should have been pursued for I-95. Through Trenton, on a widened, depressed alignment, to either overlay or parallel US 1 to Brunswick/ Piscataway. Would have made it part of the NJT system so they would have had no reason to oppose it. Straight and efficient. Unlike Scudders Falls and the Somerset alignment.
@@lazygongfarmer2044 these highways were built before the instate system existed. They signed them as interstates later using existing routes. I95 was also the only original interstate that was never finished. They recently constructed the missing section between NJ/ PA.
The only time in recent memory that the CBX has been an easy ride was 2020 when everyone was forced to stay home. I was able to get from the Throgs Neck bridge to the GW bridge in under 10 minutes
For me it was late night (around 10) last October. Got off Throgs Neck and was shocked by the lack of traffic. Got on to GWB within 20 minutes because I was trailing my friend that was towing his car. But if I was driving at my normal pace, I'd probably would've been there in 10
Use a Honda CBX, then! Or build a good public transit. With 20 mill people it shouldn’t be difficult to understand that car driving is utter nonsence and trains and busses are a part of the sollution.
One factor that has made Cross Bronx traffic even worse since 2001 is the post-9/11 rule barring trucks from the lower level of the GWB. New Jersey-bound trucks entering from the Major Deegan (I-87) must cut across two lanes of traffic to get to the upper level, and that delays traffic going straight on the Cross Bronx and Alexander Hamilton Bridge, which backs up traffic further east.
I just typed this exact thought on a previous comment. Glad to know someone else understands this. This solves WB traffic. EB traffic is almost always halted by the Jerome Ave and Webster Ave entrances. Cars have insufficient room to maintain speed to merge.
You are right. It is because all the trucks have to merge to the left. This anyone heading to the lower level is stuck i a near standstill. The only silver lining is that it makes driving on the lower level back to NJ quicker and generally safer.
And the opposite is true, trucks going east bound on the GW have to take the upper level and have to cut thru 2 lanes to get to the Major Deegan. How many times I've almost been sideswiped by a truck when they do that.
If your a trucker, most of us take 287 to either 87 or 684 to get into new England due to most trucking companies other than the mega carriers not wanting to pay over $275 in tolls for the gw and the toll north of NYC
Yup, that was always my go to route in the 70's.The CBX was already a nightmare then and when I go back nowadays and get on the CBX I'm well aware of how much worse it is
My cousin was one of the chief engineers who worked for the company that had a lot of NYC projects. The company loved the CBE. They called it “The Neverending Contract.”
I lived and worked in the Southwestern panhandle of Connecticut for 8 1/2 years. I made it a point to NEVER drive on this roadway. If I had to get to NYC proper I took the train. This congestion was one of a plethora of reasons that convinced me to move out. In 2019 when it finally came time to leave, I took I-287 to get out and avoided I-95 all the way down to North Carolina!!
I've never heard anyone actually call it "the panhandle" before. I mean technically it is one, but I've never heard anyone call it that. And really, it's more of a pothandle.
NJTPK is one of my favorite roads in America. The configuration is extremely effective at handling large volumes of traffic. Wish we had more freeways like it.
But it has to be a toll road with few exits. The 401 in Toronto is similar but it's a freeway with express and local lanes with frequent exits and entrances. And it's always congested too.
I left at 5 in the morning from Stamford, CT a few months ago to visit home and I thought I would avoid congestion (I always took the tappan zee bridge bridge since I was too scared to drive in NYC until I got the courage to try) I would avoid the traffic. Even then it still was stop and go traffic. Great video, explains my experience
Was this before or after the New Tappan Zee Bridge, because nowadays with the new bridge even during rush hour, I get across the bring no problem with no traffic
In 1986 I was climbing up from rock bottom after returning broke to NY and forced to live with my mother in Co-op City. I got a job and bought a new car for my commute to New Jersey before I moved there later in the year. The third day I had my brand new car (with less than 100 miles on it), I broke down on the Cross Bronx on the way to work near the Jerome Avenue exit (ironically, three blocks from my own childhood home). Thanks to the kindness of a stranger behind me who gave me a push off the exit ramp to a gas station from which I called for help, the traffic resumed its crawl, as opposed to its standstill. And from my home three blocks away I watched as the Cross Bronx was built back in the early 60s. I'm sorry for those displaced, especially since the road hasn't made life better--either for its drivers or the residents of the Bronx. And the narrator is right--much of the clog is due to inadequate or no shoulders on which accidents and breakdowns can get out of the way of traffic.
Lol dont have a breakdown. Its like that on the autobahn, you could even get ticketed for running out of gas on it. Its time some of this thought started prevailing over users in maybe instructions on how to and how not to use this road
@@MN12warbird What really ticked me off was that my AAA membership was worthless because they refused to tow me since the car was new and didn't have permanent license plates. Fuck the Auto Club of NY. But wait, it gets even better! I had it towed (at my own expense) to a dealership in the NE Bronx (not where I bought it) to repair under warranty. It took them TEN DAYS to get the parts to fix! Note this in NYC with a brand new car and not an old flivver somewhere in rural Wyoming. Once I got the bugs worked out, it was a great car and lasted over 120,000 miles. But what I had to do to get there. . .
@@nevadasestamibi Still good ppl in NYC. My car overheated due to bad thermostat on the ramp from the Harlem River Drive to Upper Level GWB and a guy handed a bottle of Prestone out the passenger window of he car he was passing by in.
If only there was a way to move freight long distance in a narrower point of space that doesn’t take up highway space, something cleaner and more efficient at this… and if only there was also a way to move a lot of people around faster and on schedule with no grid lock… jee i wonder what form of transportation would that be…
You mean that thing with 2 huge locations near each other that drops off goods to waiting trucks for their "last mile" delivery? And that other thing where it's getting rebuilt along the same space that people will use? Yeah someone should work on that
@@this51manWhat, where you only need to deal with local freight on local roads and get to avoid long distance shipping creating traffic? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
There is no such system. You can only improve congestion by increasing lanes. Building "other" forms of transit simply wastes money to buy expensive trains that don't transport people where they want to go. The Cross Bronx Expressway is filled with trucks going from a large variety of points to a large variety of points. Even a high speed train would not do anything for such traffic.
@@christianlibertarian5488 Building lanes induces demand, first, and second you lose efficiency as you add lanes - you still have to get to one or the other side to exit. Getting long distance travellers off a 60 mph road onto a 150+ mph option really does help. So does pulling intermodal freight out.
They built the Cross Bronx right through my neighborhood (Clay Avenue and 174th St). Property values plummeted and the middle class moved out. Eventually we moved out too as we waited for Co-Op City to be open. Thanks Mike for the history of this road. I learned a lot.
I'm glad to have found your channel. I love architecture, but civil engineering and the way our networks operate are always fascinating topics, especially in the metropolis of New York. Great content.
@@Ryfael In the Bronx it’s spelled “Throggs Neck” but the bridge is spelled Throgs Neck Bridge. Robert Moses decided to spell the bridge with just one G but the town in the Bronx is spelled with two G’s.
@@mattycooldude6462 That's has nothing to do of taking down the Thrid Avenue Elevated line down also. I had saw a video of the old 8 Third Ave Elevated line passing above Express Highway and the trucks and buses and cars did not hit the Thrid Avenue Elevated line and it went under neath the Thrid Avenue Elevated line with out no problems at all. They built the Thrid Avenue Elevated line higher enough so the trucks and buses and cars pass under the Thrid Avenue Elevated line just fine.
I don't use the Cross Bronx unless I absolutely can't avoid it. When traveling to and from points upstate, I cross at the Tappan Zee Bridge (yes, I still call it that) and take 87, the Cross County, and the Hutch to the Whitestone. If taking 95 between Jersey and New England, get off just before the GW and take the Palisades to the Tappan Zee, and 287 back to 95, or GW to the Major Deegan to Cross County or 287 rather than the whole horseshoe. Anyway, your video is the perfect explanation of why I put too much thought into this.
I'm on the NJ side of the Hudson, Rockland guy. If I need to go to LI, I never take GWB. Exactly the route you mention. Before covid I was doing a bunch of international business travel. If I couldn't get a flight out of EWR, I'd have to go to JFK, mostly early morning 9AM out of JFK. Every driver who'd take me to JFK wanted to take GWB to Cross Bronx because the GPS would suggest it. I'd override everytime and thell them TZB - 87 - Hutch - Whitestone. The one time I let the driver make the call and there we were, sitting in the parking lot of the Cross Bronx. No good way to avoid the Van Wyck but the Cross Bronx, I avoid like the plague.
A proper regional rail system is the solution. Connect the various commuter railroads for through-running, run frequent all-day trains on predictable schedules, build crosstown routes like the IBX, perhaps even convert the lower or upper deck of the GWB to rail, given that it's massively overbuilt for the roads its dumping traffic onto. And set up proper feeder bus routes in the suburbs, coordinated with the train schedules and with the fare included in the train fare.
It exists already in Chicago its called the el. Maybe if the bronx had elevated service that ran above the alleys or straddled the highway the way it was planned into as part of our citys design retrofitted onto what the bronx are working with, it could provide a useful solution. It aint impossible. The bqe also a jammed expressway and they managed to put in a bi level ledge system that occupies the same space. Stacking or more tunneling are your options. Observe new highways under construction in even more denser asian cities like metro manila or Tokyo. How are they able to get 20+ or 30+ million ppl around. Imagine that if nyc was even more populated with 15million more additional residents. A city of such size would need appropriate infrastructure to serve its own imposing needs.
@@MN12warbird Stacking highways will not solve any problems, it would simply induce more demand. Tokyo moves people around with a truly massive rail system that covers literally every corner of the region with frequent service. The New York-area transit system is truly dwarfed by Tokyo. Tokyo also has a *lot* of transverse lines, not just lines that go "downtown" (if there is such a thing in Tokyo, it's extremely multi-nodal, much more similar to Los Angeles in that sense)
@dijikstra8 i disagree. Boston stacked theres in a deeper tunnel and buried it under a highway cap in the big dig. The problem isn't inducing more traffic with stacking, the demand for travel is already present. Its that theres just no room to put it all. A similar problem faced by the phillipines and EDSA which has been reconstructed recently and over the years growing in size and capacity as well as growing more modes of use from its location. Train lines were built using the same right of way adding more capacity, inside the same space. It should be worthy to also note metro manila is doing all this within just a fraction of the space already cramp ny current is. Ny city planners should pay attention to how other countries solved the same problem within a denser city space...
@@MN12warbird The problem is that creating more space means that more people will take the car over other modes, and the new space will quickly be filled. The highway is an inherently inefficient mode of transport that does not belong in a dense city like NYC. A single lane of traffic can carry about 1,500-2,000 people per hour given ideal conditions. In the case of a congested highway like the Cross Bronx Expressway that number dwindles to a much lower capacity. By comparison, a single subway line can carry 60,000 people per hour/direction. To carry the equivalent of a single subway line, a highway would need to be 30-40 lanes wide in *each* direction, that's a total of 60-80 lanes! And that's assuming perfect conditions and that there are no diminishing returns from more lanes, which there most certainly are.
Problem with building a feasible North/South bypass around NYC, aside from I-287, is the terrain. A lot of people do not realize that surrounding NYC and Northern Jersey is a densely forested area with lots of hills, mountains, and ravines. And now with so much population and urban sprawl in North Jersey, almost all the good land to build new roadways is already privately owned. NJ-17/I-87, we always found to be the most efficient bypass for our purposes.
Being from The Northeast Bronx and knowing that roadway well, a friend of mine asked me if there's a faster way to the Throggs Neck Bridge than taking the Cross Bronx from the GWB. I told him to get off at the Deegan and take it south to the Bruckner. He's been doing that for over 20 years now and has no regrets as it has saved him so much time.
It's a well-known detour for when the Cross Bronx Expressway is backed up due to an accident or a disabled car or rubbernecking, but it's quite a detour. I live in Washington Heights (Fort Washington Ave, just south of I-95) and I also live in Fort Lee, NJ part of the time (again, just south of I-95) and I am EXTREMELY familiar with the Cross Bronx Expressway, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Turnpike, and the entire I-95 corridor (as well as all the other highways in the tristate area). Although I didn't drive growing up and I don't drive now, I remember what this and other highways were like when I was driving or riding through as a passenger in a car. To be perfectly blunt, the Cross Bronx Expressway from the Alexander Hamilton Bridge to the Bruckner Interchange is a DEATH TRAP!!! ☠️☠️☠️ Also, I'm sick of ignoring f*****g c***s referring to the Trans Manhattan Expressway as part of the Cross Bronx. It's not the Cross Bronx underneath the GW Bridge Bus Station or underneath "the apartments" and the GWB does NOT connect NJ to the Bronx!!! The Bronx (as well as the Cross Bronx Expressway) do not begin until after you've crossed the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River!!! 😠😡🤬
Going east that's usually the best bet. Going to the GW its tough. I've sometimes taken E Tremont or Fordham and University depending on exactly where I was at that moment.
I used to use the cross Bronx waaaay back in the 1970’s. Spent many hours in traffic at 2am. Had to exit once due to an accident and got lost somewhere around Jerome. Such fun.
As a Long Islander, it's incredibly easy to feel trapped here because of city congestion. Getting to the mainland is impossible without crossing the city (or taking the Port Jefferson-Bridgeport ferry which tends to be slower anyway). Going north to New England or south towards southern NJ isn't as bad since you can easily avoid the Cross Bronx and the BQE, but if you need to get to I-80 it is a living nightmare. Take the city streets with stops every block, or the forever congested Cross Bronx? It's a pick your poison situation. It really sucks, and it sucks even more that there isn't currently a good way to improve it.
Unfortunately, NYC has 5 different rail systems that don't really cooperate with each other. LIRR, PATH, MetroNorth, and NJ Transit should really all be one system. Then you only need to coordinate Amtrak, subway, and this new system. This doesn't get into the fact that Long Island still doesn't have a direct CT connection even though that is the one bit of highway that would really help get traffic away from the city
@@Demopans5990 Like the city, too many people opposed highways that would've given Long Islanders that direct CT connection. The one bit of highway that you're referring to is for cars only and thus wouldn't work with a crossing.
Great video Mike and very accurate to my experience. NJ has worked very hard to keep traffic moving up the 95 corridor, but there is nothing to be done about the Cross Bronx, although it does get better east of the Major Deegan when going north. When driving a car to New England from NJ, I've crossed the Hudson on the GWB and then taken the Henry Hudson Pkwy north to the Cross County to the Hutchenson River Pkwy to the Cross Westchester (I287) to get to I95 north in CT. I95 isn't always the best through Fairfield County CT, so I'll stay on the Hutch to the Merritt (CT15) and connect back to 95 east of New Haven. No good for truckers since most of these roads are autos only and a bit of a challenge for someone who doesn't know the area. But it does make for (mostly) a pleasant trip. BTW, Mike -- Throgs rhymes with frogs, not rogue (:
I always take the parkways through Westchester up to the Merritt. Unless I am pulling a motorcycle that is, because trailers aren't allowed on the parkways.
I lived in the Bronx for my entire life, up till 2yrs ago The Cross Bronx has been a disaster, so much that if I need to use it to travel to NJ, I do it very early in the morning or very late at night. One thing I didn't see mentioned is the sheer number of entrances and exits there are from the GWB to co-op city. This is where the congestion always stops. Closing or reducing the number of entrances and exits in very close proximity would go a long way to prevent some of the issue. Interstate highways are limited access roads, but in some cases they are used to travel 1 or 2 exits to avoid street congestion and red lights. The actions of the previous mayor over the last several years have not helped this and other congested highways. ( Van Wyck / BQE ) Congestion pricing will only serve to pad the city's coffers , vision zero and similar anti -vehicle policy changes by the city's DOT make it worse.
Robert Caro dedicates a whole chapter to this expressway in his biography of Robert Moses: "The Power Broker." Its effects on the Bronx neighborhoods were truly devastating. To Moses, each new bridge and expressway served to alleviate congestion on the routes to Long Island, especially the Triborough bridge. However, we now better understand that highway expansion only worsens the problem through induced demand and urban sprawl. I'm just thankful he never succeeded in his plan for a 30th street expressway across midtown Manhattan.
The Cross Manhattan and the LOMEX both should have been built. The worst congestion in the country, due to the missing links. The Cross Manhattan ideally should have been a pair of bored tunnels, with no access from Midtown. It would have been a New Jersey - Long Island link. The LOMEX (I-78) should have been either depressed or cut and cover.
@@davestewart2067 Building new links does not solve the congestion problem; it worsens it. In NY, the construction of car infrastructure has always brought about worse traffic, far outpacing both population growth and Robert Moses' estimates, because it increases car-dependency among commuters and routes more regional traffic through the city. It's a high price to pay for all the disruption to the city, especially at the city's core in places like Canal Street.
Any video about NYC highways wouldn’t be complete these days without some “urbanists” citing “The Power Broker” to rail against Robert Moses and bleating about “induced demand”. 🙄
@@UnnDunn If your grandparents had not lost their house they lived in for more than 30years, due to Moses, you might feel differently. They got screwed out of most of the money they had invested in it. They never recovered financially. F*** Robert Moses
@@UnnDunn Reading carbrains trying to find solutions is pretty hilarious though. Nothing is going to fix traffic in NYC except for less people driving.
It is actually feasible to eliminate the Cross Bronx Expressway by sending all Traffic south on the Major Deegan to the Bruckner Expressway. This way you could skirt around the southern end by the industrial neighborhoods of the Bronx and link back up by the Whitestone and Throggs neck Bridge. It should have been built that way to begin with.
I'm from the Bronx and I drove the Cross-Bronx Expressway in the 60's. It was hell. Besides the heavy traffic, the entrance ramps were terrifying because you would be dumped out of a tunnel directly into a traffic lane. Good thing the cars were always going slow. Also, if your car broke down, you couldn't leave it because it would be stripped in seconds.
Ah yes, the Cross-Bronx Expressway. Robert Moses great "gift" to the Bronx. From the man who never drove a car, but wanted roads and highways everywhere. When it came to displacing people and neighborhoods, he always said, "You can't make an omelet without breaking an egg." And so it was with the CBE. One has to realize that the CBE was not built to Interstate standards with wider emergency lanes, first and foremost, because of the restrictions of already built-up, densely populated space, and second because it was started before the 1956 Interstate Highway Act was passed in 1956, although construction continued until the early 1970s. It was an expensive endeavor to build, which was explained in the video, plus sections of it that required heavy excavation blasting through rock. As a resident of the Bronx, I witnessed the construction of the Bruckner Expressway and the CBE/Bruckner Expressway Interchange. But I also saw the hastening of devastation brought about by the CBE on my beloved borough. Robert Moses did no favors for the Bronx. I'd had my share of time on that infamous road. One memorable incident I had was in the late 1980s, when I was a truck driver, driving a nine-car carrier, a tractor-trailer. I had the EXTREME misfortune to have my truck break down, in all places, in the tunnel/underpass at Hugh Grant Circle. It happened in the late afternoon, and I was sitting in the right lane, stopped. Everybody had to squeeze left into the two open lanes to get past me. Man, were people MAD at me!! Could I blame them? I'd feel the same way! For people familiar with the location, this is in the area by Parkchester. The road at this point required serious engineering, as underpinning was required of the #6 elevated 177 St/Parkchester subway station above, and it remained fully operational while construction of the road took place beneath it. Look it up in Google Maps.
Cross Bronx was congested as far as I could remember, but after 9/11 it got a lot worse. Since 2001 the trucks are not allowed on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge. So, New Jersey bound trucks entering the I-95 from the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87) have to quickly make their way to the left two lanes, causing back ups not only on I-95, but also in both directions on I-87. At the same time, trucks coming off the bridge and heading south to Queens, Bronx Terminal Market, or north to Northern Bronx and Westchester County also have to cross two lanes to make the exit, backing up the traffic across the bridge and well into New Jersey. Another reason for congestion is a gap in the freight rail network that makes it difficult to shift at least part of the freight from trucks to trains. The only freight rail crossing across the Hudson south of Selkirk, NY, all the way near Albany, is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's rail car float operation between Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and Greenville Yard in New Jersey. It usually makes two trips per day taking 12 to 15 cars at a time across the New York harbor.
Yes the Major Deegan Exp hasn't been the same since after 9/11. 24/7 congestion and now the Harlem River Drive is constantly backed up from 155th Street and sometimes all the way down by 145th Street
I must say you're a lot calmer about the CBE than I am. The last time I was stuck in traffic on this road I wanted to tear my hair out! Excellent explanation and presentation! subbed. :)
Having read Robert Caro's excellent bio of Robert Moses (The Power Broker), I REALLY appreciate this video, Mike. That book is one of my favorites, and there's an extensive explanation of the Crotona Park fight, and the devastating results for residents. Top notch content!
I am now reading this book too, and I really understand why people were so very (very) angry with Robert Moses. It's really a balancing act: The Cross Bronx Expressway was needed, but at what (human) cost? Current construction could not be completed quickly in conventional channels. However, there is now a reason for those channels, which now leads to the problem the Cross Bronx Expressway (and other roadways) now face: capacity and maintenance!
@@TheTimeForChange44 That Crotona park thing displaced thousands of people, and there's a fair argument that it was utterly needless. The way Caro describes it, it looks like Moses' ego figured in it heavily. He didn't like being opposed.
@@Thunderbuck Yeah, I am getting Moses' not liking being opposed in reading the book! I haven't gotten to the Cross Bronx Expressway part yet; it's a focus as to why I want to read Caro's book! I just heard so much anger about Moses and the project as a kid! So thank you for your input on both!😄
Soon they downgrade into a avenue with rapid and pedestrian transportation. They'll have to reroute I-95 away from NYC or have go through I-87 and I-278.
In the summer of 1967, I drove the company station wagon, an electronic parts supplier. Leaving Syosset, Long Island at 10am, getting to Clifton NJ and was there for the shortest time possible, so I could beat the rush hour starting at 2:30pm. The CBE was a nightmare then.
Is I-287 a feasible alternate route for vehicles carrying hazardous materials to use instead of I-95? I think that’s another concern when capping freeways. For example, in Phoenix, I-17 is the designated truck route for I-10 from the Stack (just southeast of 27th Avenue/McDowell) to the Split (just southwest of Sky Harbor Airport), and vehicles carrying hazardous materials are not allowed on the section from 7th Avenue to 7th Street due to the downtown tunnel. The tunnel has the clearances for vehicles that are 16’ tall, but hazardous materials are enough of a concern for ADOT to have an alternate route for trucks.
Yeah I-287 can handle hazmat. It would be a long detour but theoretically those vehicles could cross the Hudson River on I-287 and take I-87 south back into the city.
I live in NJ and I totally agree I-278/BQE is actually worse (though with better scenery). And I travel I-287 everyday, so I can testify how bad this quasi-beltway can get! Its especially bad through the Woodbridge-Edison section, and up around South Bound Brook, and then again near the I-80 Interchange.
I drove it once as a trucker at 2 or 3am and I think I'd have rather it not moved. That much congestion going full speed in a tight squeeze through the dark like that was probably scarier than anything I'd driven up until that point. 278 was way better going back in the daylight, and you still get a great view of New York downriver. But I was going to 80 to pick up in Allentown PA. It probably wouldn't have been faster to take the whole horseshoe back around to 95 in Jersey if I had to go to Philly or something.
1:18 - Love the vids! Having driven this route countless times in the past, it's nice to see how they've updated the roadways and sandblasted and cleaned most of the stone bridges that were beyond nasty pre-2014. BTW - I know native NYers are cringing at the pronounciation. It's pronounced like "Frogs Neck"...
I live on Long Island and this is one of my only ways out and it’s always a miserable experience. They need to build that bridge to Connecticut that they were supposed to build but all the rich people got upset over it. That would alleviate so much traffic
As a lifelong Bronxite, I appreciate your take on why the CBX is always jammed. Please know that some of the old timers spit at the name of Robert Moses forever. One of your stills, though, showed a kid flying a kite, which appears to be from the 70s South Bronx. I would have appreciated some context there, as the CBX was a literal line of demarcation for the Bronx, with every neighborhood south of it falling into a sorry state. I remember the bad old days well. Glad to see it come back to life recently.
Why not to remove the highway entirely and return the Bronx to its original plan? Highways are induced demand generators, if there’s a road people will choose to use it, and if there isn’t, they will find an alternative like public transit or other route. Prioritizing the comfort of drivers to enjoy a highway in the middle of the city over the lives of the people who live in the city and the economic and social fabric of the neighborhood seems like a weird choice.
Why not go back to horses and carriages? It's true that when they built this road, they disrupted neighborhoods. But now, the people of the Bronx depend on this highway just as much as those from outside the city. In other words, it has become a significant part of the economic and social fabric of the area. Do you think if they let the citizens of the Bronx vote on this, they would vote to remove it?
This would *technically* work, if the proposed alternatives were built first. And the way the land situation is, and the government, nimbys etc., it ain’t happening
We don’t go back to horse and carriages for the same reason we need to take out urban highway. The people of the Bronx are suffering from the inefficiencies and environmental effects. Best thing you could see out of the reconnecting communities project is to cap it, limit it to two lanes of trucks and one for SOVs (or alternating to demand). Maybe then you could stick light rail or electric bus rapid transit over top so that actual residents of the Bronx retain their mobility instead of being stuck in vehicular traffic.
Because buses and truck traffic needs the highway too. Those goods you buy on Amazon or other websites aren't delivered to your home by Star Trek transporter. All this talk about public transit replacing roads ignores the fact that (a) buses run on roads, and (b) trucks run on roads. Even if no cars existed.
Very insightful video, thank you. In my personal experience driving on the CBE, the exit from the west-bound CBE to the northbound Bronx River Parkway is my single least favorite place to drive in the entire world. The traffic backs up to block an on-ramp, and can easily last for 30 minutes before you even get onto the exit ramp. The exit ramp is designed to be single lane, but wide enough that drivers always form two lanes, and it then get stopped by a red light. After that you need to get all the way to the right immediately to get onto the BRP. Brutal design.
I forgot how recessed this highway actually is, so capping it off seems pretty feasible. Best way out of congestion might be to just implement some serious congestion pricing and limit access to just trucks for a few lanes. Given recent federal grant habits, I wouldn’t be surprised if they cap it off and add either electrified light rail (surprisingly missing in NY) or a BRT corridor on top if it is capped
And who is going to pay for it? Are you willing to pay more taxes for it? Look how much it cost to bring the LIRR into the new station, 10 years and 50 billion over budget. How many years and billions on the 2nd ave subway. Imagine that for 3 public bathrooms it cost 5 million. How much is a cap going to cost? Now add all the street closures to put the construction equipment and all the material that would be needed. Plus the delays on public buses, trains, subways, etc. Something more workable would be to run tractor trailers on the i95 only during the night until 5am then only cars, vans, etc.
@@PatricioGarcia1973 cost control is such a horrendous issue on NYC infrastructure projects. A lot of the transit cost overruns come from stupid design choices.
@@PatricioGarcia1973 You're going to pay for it, and I'm fine with that. There are certain projects that are essential and urban revitalization and green spaces are among those that I don't mind one bit dipping into your wallet to make this place better.
That's a dream transit expansion right there. With no good alternatives on transit across Long Island Sound between Bronx and Queens, it would induce a ton of demand. Maybe Inwood-University Heights-Fordham U then turn South on White Plains Rd to serve the new Penn Access station and #6 at Parkchester, under Long Island Sound to College Point then a major connection to the #7 at Flushing, then continuing south along Main or Parsons to Jamaica. Christ. The network effects would be immense. Bonus points if its automated with a high off peak frequency to maximize the connections to all the Mahattan-bound lines.
I've only been on it once, driving from Pittsburgh to Newport, RI on a Friday in 2003. We sat there for a long time and the traffic continued into Connecticut.
I live in Eastern Long Island and I am often on this disaster. Congestion pricing (if enacted) will make this road impassible. Long Islanders will often go through Manhattan to avoid this road. They will be less likely to. IN ADDITION, Long Island badly needs a Chesapeake Bay Bridge type project that would connect the William Floyd Parkway to I-91 in New Haven, as well as I-95. Long Island is not the sleepy bedroom community it once was 50 years ago. On its own, it would be a major metropolitan area.
I think at this point a tunnel or bridge over the sound will be nearly impossible. NY State probably would not want to fund it and neither would Connecticut. Though I feel CT would be the harder of the sells. I would say to sweeten things though any crossing should include 3-4 railroad lines as well, connecting the New Haven Line and Shoreline East to LIRR as well as freight. Maybe even some Amtrak, As a tunnel three tubes. Two car tubes and one rail tube.
I live in Nassau County, love Long Island but going on road trips off of the Island is often a nightmare and may one day be the catalyst for me leaving altogether. The Belt Pkwy is no joy ride either along with the Southern State, Northern State and LIE.
Dumping congestion that would have gone around manhattan right in the middle of midtown is exactly what congestion pricing was designed to fight. Better regional rail for Long Islanders is the best option.
@@lemmingsgopop Yea right. Let’s see I left Long Island last night to stay in a hotel in the suburbs of DC. Left at 7:30 PM. Arrived at midnight. Visited my client for 6 hours today. Stopping for an early dinner (while writing you this reply), and will be home by 10:30 PM tonight. Try that with trains. Keep in mind I live in the Port Jefferson area of LI.
@@billm47645 I'm from Long Island and travel to DC often because I go to college here. Ronkonkoma -> Penn -> Union Station (DC) only takes about 6 hours, which is not bad at all.
6:20 I have a lengthy question. If you are a car or truck coming from eastbound I-80, can’t you just get on northbound I-287 from an interchange (if there is one), continue on 287, then merge with I-95? Or, cars and trucks coming from the New Jersey Turnpike northbound, can’t they just get off of Exit 129 on the turnpike up around Woodbridge, pay the toll, and continue northbound on the Garden State Parkway all the way into New York to reach the Garden State Parkway Connector, where they merge on I-287 and then merge onto I-95 too? Additionally, cars or trucks (ideally trucks) can get off at Exit 129, continue northbound on the Garden State Parkway, and then merge on eastbound I-80 via an interchange? (If there is one, that is) I feel like this would greatly reduce traffic, but I do also realize that these routes take a bit longer due to the length of the interstate(s) and parkway(s). Around the Fort Lee I-95 toll, cars could also get onto the Palisades Interstate Parkway, continue northbound, then take the Route 9W exit (assuming they are okay with stopping at traffic lights), continue northbound on 9W, then merge onto I-287 where 287 merges with I-95, or the New England Thruway. Although this route would take longer, and truck prohibition plays a significant role in all of these routes. Off topic, but for anyone who doesn’t know why I-287 is so long and “far” from New York is because it is a bypass route. As you probably already know; most bypass routes have exits that lead to certain cities. Take the Capital Beltway in Washington, DC (I-495) or the Baltimore Beltway in Baltimore, MD (I-695) for example. Both of these beltways form a circle around the priority city, but also can do a great job in providing quick access to other cities surrounding the main city. Just like I-287. To me, I-287 is a partial bypass of Newark, but is mainly a bypass of New York. It is long because of the cities, towns, and villages that sit along the I-287 corridor.
Perhaps NYC should consider a Big Dig Project. A tunnel project from Elizabeth,NJ thru Jersey City into Manhattan,link up with the Major Deegan north cut across the Cross County Parkway and tie into 95 north between Pelham and New Rochelle,NY.
5:04 "some" is generous, my dad took the lower level to Henry Hudson for work and there's always people trying to sneak into the backed up Cross Bronx, blocking the exit to the Henry Hudson. Probably like 5% of the cars would actually take the HHudson exit in my experience. If I needed to go to New England, I would always go up to the Tappan Zee (whatever it's called now) to avoid the Cross Bronx entirely.
I used to commute to Connecticut from New Jersey and I avoided the CBE whenever possible. Occasionally, I took a chance and every time it was at least 30 minutes, usually more, to transit. Except for one day in March 2020, when I went from the GWB to the New England Thruway in 5 minutes. I never realized how short the Expressway was until then.
I live in Fairfield County, CT and often travel through NYC heading further down the coast. My favorite way is the Merritt/Hutchinson River Pkwys; Cross County Pkwy; Saw Mill River Pkwy; Henry Hudson Pkwy; G.W. Bridge. There’s definitely still congestion but it’s bearable. Much of it’s also very scenic, and the best part: no trucks! As long as you can handle the wicked merge onto the bridge toward I-95 you’ll be fine.
My first time through that area was on the cross bronx, now I take those parkways and it is indeed a wicked merge onto the bridge. I missed the bridge my first time going through there
I’ve been on it before. We only took it when we lived in CT & had to go to Newark, but when going to Florida we went the tappan zee to the garden st parkway
Being a truck driver and having to drive through there to get to queens is frustrating and on top of it the road is really rough it’s definitely over due for a paving
It's been a long-time fantasy of mine to see that road (the others in NYC) get repaved and while they're at, maybe put down some reflective lane markings.
@@bikeny NYC doesn't do much repaving. The money now goes for more (unused) bike lanes, speed bumps, speed cameras, and stop signs installed every few blocks. It's the war on cars. You're supposed to walk everywhere. Maybe even from Jersey to the Bronx, because NJ Transit broke down again. Get used to it.
Great explanation! My grandparents lived at the Webster Ave. exit and I grew up in Jersey. Unless we were making the trip at 2 or 3 am the Cross Bronx was always a mess. Also trucks have to use the upper level of the GWB which means if they are coming from or going to the Major Deegan they have to cut across all lanes of traffic, slowing things down even more. What a mess!
Robert Moses wasn’t the nicest person at times lol. Kinda glad most of the highways he planned didn’t go through. Anyways, the crossbronx usually always gets jammed up westbound because of the GWB. (Especially when the deegan, west side highway and other roads are jammed getting onto the GWB). If you’re smart, you’d know not to take the cross Bronx when it’s crazy like that lol. There are 65 other ways you can take that move faster. Have had random times where I’d be stopped not moving at 1am on this interstate lol (westbound).
Robert Moses was a belligerent bastard who did a lot of damage to Niagara Falls NY with his parkway that severed the city off from the falls and the Niagara Gorge. His handling of the Niagara Power Project in Lewiston NY was also controversial especially when seizing a portion of the Tuscarora Indian Reservation to build the huge power reservoir. He also had very little consideration towards farmers, home owners and businesses that were in the pathway of both the new I-190 and the parkway that were both blasted through communities.
I-287 is definitely better if you're coming from Western NJ (or further west) and heading to New England. Another alternative if you're coming from the south is to switch from I95/NJ Turnpike to the Garden State Parkway at Woodbridge (at least for cars, I forget if trucks are allowed on GSP).
Hey Mike thank you for all the amazing content! Can you do a drive video on Linden Blvd (Brooklyn & Queens) And a drive Video on either Nostrand Ave or Flatbush Ave (Brooklyn) Hope You have a blessed day and rest of your week! 😊
My perspective as a transit nerd and Bronx resident (near the CBE since 2017)... I think that capping, dramatically higher tolls, and dedicated mass transit right-of-ways are the main feasible solutions. Capping can reconnect our streets and (hopefully?) mitigate pollution. Higher tolls can discourage unnecessary passenger trips in personal vehicles, divert traffic to alternative routes, and raise funds for fairer projects and investments. Dedicated transit right-of-ways (across the Bronx... just look at the Bx12 SBS cross bronx service which has the highest ridership of any bus line in the city... as well as converting at least part of the GWB since that bottlenecks anyway to facilitate NJ connections) will give local residents much better travel options while reducing inefficient passenger vehicles. Improving Amtrak intercity capacity and lower ticket costs would also help with getting rid of some of the thru traffic between the Mid Atlantic and New England.
WB traffic on the CBE is caused in large part to all the trucks entering from SB Deegan that have to merge all the way left to take the GWB. It has to be done right before the bridge that becomes the Trans-Manhattan EXPW. Think about it and you will see what I mean….
This video is excellent, so informative! Loved seeing my regular exit in some of the clips (Webster Avenue). Was really interesting to learn that the Cross Bronx Expressway and the BQE are the two sole cross-city routes. I really did feel like I noticed more out of town license plates on Easter, sometimes I forget that it is a major expressway for travel out of state. Concerned about how congestion pricing will impact this already highly congested highway. Thankfully, traffic does not feel terrible for me on most days, but maybe I am just used to it.
Nonsense. The LIE goes from midtown Manhattan to the east end of LI. Isn't that a major cross-city route? (Unless you think Queens isn't part of NYC. But how would Mileage Mike, who is not a NYC native know that? Can't he read a map?) Of course the LIE is just as congested as the CBX. The LIE is called the "world's longest parking lot."
@yesisthebest because the same amount of traffic that was using the highway when it was 3 lanes in both directions is trying to fit in a 2 lane in each direction highway.
Former Long Islander here in Florida. Lived on LI until July 2018. Been driving since December 1978. I've driven innumerable times over the Cross Bronx. Sometimes without any major problems, others times ugh!. Once, in the early 1990s, I had an unbelievably great trip. I left the Meadowlands around 4:30 PM. Went up the Turnpike to the GWB, across the CBX to the Throgs Neck Bridge, down the Cross Island Pkwy to the LIE, east to Route 106/107, then up to the Milleredge Inn. Travel time...just over an hour. I had no delays along the entire trip! How? Just lucky. And yes, I've also read "The Power Broker."
Great vid Mike! Thinking the only way to expand would be totally elevated like Tokyo’s highways, with additional Express Lanes with minimal exits. Last time I drove CBE must have been 20 years ago at about 1-2am. Light traffic was able to easily do 70mph plus, and still was getting passed by dump trucks, trash trucks, all on their way to work! Again, thanks!
When I traveled often from PA to New England I would take the Garden State Pkwy up to I-287, across the Tappan Zee bridge, and pick up 95 in Westchester County. I had the misfortune of taking the Cross Bronx once, and never again.
New York can't, but New Jersey can, by building and rerouting I-95 west of NYC. In other words: build a better connector to the Palisades Interstate Parkway and expand that to six lanes to I-287, expand exit lanes and build a fly-over, and build HOV/HOT lanes above it to help pay for it.
Cars at least have the parkways as an alternative route (Garden State and Palisades between I-80 and I-287, then east across the Gov Cuomo bridge.) It would help truckers if either were upgraded for truck use (most likely the GSP).
You got options depending on where you're coming from and going. Example. Coming over the gwb and going to Westchester, Conn etc. Get off onto 87, go up to Saw Mill, cross county parkway to the hutch etc to get around the Cross Bronx and the toll at New Rochelle. Going out of town to Jersey on the other hand can be a real treat. If you're going down 87 ,. You're going to see exactly what you seen in this video on exit and ramp for the cross Bronx and the bridge. If you get on the cross Bronx earlier. Well you're in that traffic that's usually there. If you can, I'd recommend trying to get on the Henry Hudson south and try to get up on the bridge that way to leave NYC over the bridge. Moral of the story is unless you have to use it get off it and avoid it as much as possible
It's a pain depending on the time of day going across the Cross Bronx Expressway. Sometimes after exit 4 if you're going eastbound it will clear up. If you're going westbound and you see traffic lineup from the Yang Yang going towards the GW bridge I would highly suggest take a alternate route to the GW. There are other parkways if you're not a truck that you can use to get across The Bronx you can also use some surface street. If you have to go across town try to use a Fordham Road until The Bronx River Parkway becomes Pelham Parkway until you meet up with the I 95 my Pelham Bay Park if you have to go towards New England or Connecticut. One rule of thumb on highways like this for me is use it when it is necessary to get to your destination. Same thing with the NJ Turnpike Well that is a different discussion entirely with that. Another good alternative is the Bruckner expressway to I 95
Bring the 8 Thrid Avenue Elevated line back the way it was. That's is missing right now is the Thrid Avenue Elevated line passing the cross Bronx Express Highway.
Excellent analysis, I was a teenager when the Cross Bronx was built . I remember the sections that were open one at a time with the next to the last section ending at Webster Ave. making things interesting. You had to then take Tremont Ave or 167th street to get to University Ave to go across the Washington Bridge into the Heights to finally connect with the GWB. I remember as early as 1968 that it was disaster during the daytime. Now it's a disaster all the time. History will show that Robert Moses did a disservice to the City. He almost got away with it again with the proposed Cross Manhattan Project. For a while, the Manhattan Bridge, the Rearview Expressway and the Throngs Neck Bridge were identified as Interstate 78.
Great video. I used to be a transporter for a cable resource company based on Long Island. I would have to drive to City Island, and into Jersey every day. And back. The cross Bronx is the WORST. Very interesting about Robert Moses. I think it’s time I read the Power Broker. Thank you! Subscribed !!
Parents left Queens for Maryland when I was 3 but I've learned how Robert Moses designed the CBX as his socially engineered weapon against the Bronx in the '50's. I think the only logical solution is to tunnel deep under the city to add capacity. It's all hard bedrock under NYC so a tunnel is as practical for vehicles as is for the subway system. Always was to be honest and Moses knew it.
@@DTD110865 Thats a JOKE because Moses helped do the same thing in Maryland using I-70 and ripping up 14 blocks of West Baltimore. [See channel video]. Then BRAGGED about it in his book.
@@LawrenceMarkFearon That park was known for being nothing but a damn murder pit, and I-70 was never finished . If Mises had anything to brag about , I-70 would've actually made it to I-95.
@@DTD110865 Moses made it a murder pit gutting the community of it's cohesion like many racist white supremacists city planners. Only reason 70 didn't connect with 95 is because Sen. BARBARA A. MIKULSKI and the Community shut that mf down. Or Moses would've blasted 30 blocks to get 70 cut through the city.
The one thing I can add is the roadway on the cross bronx expressway was resurfaced and that's made a significant difference. Because every time I made the crossing into the Bronx before the resurfacing . I just knew that I would need to get a front wheel realignment on my car.
Extremely simple solution is to expand and improve transit service. I’m sure most trips made on CBE are local, not through traffic. If people have an alternative a lot of them will take it, riding the train may not be the most fun thing in the world but driving on cbe in rush hour is far far worse
Judging by the number of NJ license plates I see in CT and the number of CT license plates I see in NJ, I challenge your assumption that most traffic is local. CT, NYC, and NJ are one big metropolitan area. Vehicles go in every possible direction within that area.
@@stevenlitvintchouk3131 That would only mean building more track. The NE seaboard is the only place where Amtrak is somehow profitable, and that is partly because they own the actual tracks. Only problem is to somehow lay miles upon miles of high speed track. Maybe ask the French or the Chinese
Many years ago I did a weekly commute from the Jersey Shore to Westchester; in place of the GW, I occasionally took the NJTP to the Palisades Parkway, then the Tappan Zee Bridge (or whatever it's called!). Not sure it was faster, but it avoided the traffic aggravation!
To bad Borough President James J. Lyons proposal (reroute through the north side of Crotona Park and save 1000 homes) wasn't accepted because Moses threatened to resign and take away the federal money. Now if Moses resigned NYC would have a much better and more up to date subway system, less pollution from cars and trucks and the Dodgers would still be in Brooklyn (instead of the Barkley Center).
I was driving one Friday night to my vacation home in the Pocono from Long Island. I decided to leave at 10:30 pm to avoid most of the traffic. I was moving quickly west on the LIE (I-495). Then making incredible time of on the Cross Island, and flew over the Whitestone Bridge until I nearly crashed into the rear of semi once over the bridge in the Bronx. Two lanes were closed for construction, causing an enormous backup on the CRX-BRX. It literally took 3 hours to get onto the GWB, then another 2 hours west on I-80 through more road construction in NJ all the way towards PA. I finally pulled into my driveway at 3:30 am. Plus, due to exhaustion, I had closed my eyes and only because of shear will work up just missing taking out my garage door.
Every poorly designed roadway in NYC was designed by Robert Moses. No future vision by this man, short entrance & exits are common throughout NYC. He thought 40mph would be the max speed I guess.
The best alternative to this if you’re trying to access New England from New Jersey is taking the turnpike to the parkway and then crossing the Tappan Zee and eventually exiting on to either 684 or the Merritt Parkway.
We had to traverse this area last month northbound. Southbound we took the HH and cross county pkwy through Yonkers then the Degan along the Harlem river. So it took us a combined total of about 1 hour 20 minutes to get between Port Chester to the NJ side of the GWB southbound. Northbound it took about an hour and we took 95 that direction.
Solution: Build a tunnel under Hudson and East Harlem Rivers from NJ to connect with routes 95, 87 outside NYC and go under ground to Queens and Long Island in both directions. Also connect mid Long Island to Connecticut by tunnel too.
Definitely not a bad idea. But building tunnels under these great masses of water is one challenge, blasting through the type of rock that NYC is built on is another challenge. The 2nd Avenue subway line was an ambitious project, something like this would be a much much bigger, And much more ambitious.
I have driven the Cross-Bronx Expressway quite a few times and it is not fun. My suggestions: 1. Impose congestion pricing high enough to price enough traffic off the Cross-Bronx to improve its flow of traffic. This is relatively inexpensive. At a minimum the resulting revenue could fund a deck over the road. 2. Consider a bored set of tunnels from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River to run under Manhattan and the Bronx, with a tie-in to the New England Thruway around Co-Op City Tunnels this deep (or deeper) have been or are being built to cross fjords in Norway on highway E-39. But retain the tolled Cross-Bronx for commercial vehicles with HAZMAT loads over dimensional loads. Sweden is building a tunneled western bypass motorway to divert traffic from the severely congested Essingeleden motorway (Currently E-4/E-20) - and - Madrid and Boston have built deep motorway tunnels in their cities.
The only real solution is to discourage passenger car travel through the city by providing European class regional rail between NJ and Westchester/Conn. Very expensive and the cost would not be fully born by those benefiting from it. Any increase in vehicular throughput will just induce more demand. Moses was GD prick, but frankly the Crotona Park option is a small fraction of the total length of the CBE. The Bronx would still be the exact same Bronx it is today had Moses relented.
Thanks for the video presentation. I lived in NYC for over 45 years with 13 of those years in Whitestone Queens. I know the CB Expressway well. Now living in FL and don’t miss that at all. Still love NYC.
The CBX is far too important to tear down, it has lots of thru-freight traffic that doesn’t really have an equivalent alternative route. There are other highways in the Bronx to tear down, but the CBX should be capped.
@@daniel_teplitsky07 hard to believe, but there is another route. Interstate 287. Only the people who absolutely have to drive through should use 287, while the rest should use public transit, bring what can be brought off the roads off the roads, or just have them not come into the city altogether
@@transitcaptain 287 is very roundabout, and it has spots with bad traffic too, so it might end up taking longer (saying this as a Jersey resident). I’d recommend tearing down highways with little freight traffic and little core-bound commuters. The CBX has lots of freight traffic already, and will get about 20% more (not that much in practice, but still too much to be a candidate for removal). I-287 is already used as an alternative for some truckers. Cap the CBX, and focus on demolishing the BQE between the Williamsburg Bridge and Battery Tunnel, as well as the GCP from the BQE to Kew Gardens Interchange.
I used to drive commercial truck down from Mass to Connecticut (I-95) to Edison N.J. the CBX is an extension of I-95 in the Bronx to The G W Bridge and into Jersey. There were certain times of day you have to be by this area or using it would be total gridlock. The problem is, too many other interstate junctions with 95 & the CBX, they bring way too much traffic there. While I-287 is a considerably a better by pass, it goes way out of the way.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Giuliani and Bloomberg made the Cross Bronx worse in my opinion. They got rid of all the graffiti. Now we have nothing to read while stuck in traffic.
😂
😆😆😆😆😆😆 that’s so true.
Lmao that’s a good 1.
Lol
Actually that was the best time for NYC because crime was at it’s lowest. Currently BLM defund the police and the massive reduction of police and the failure of Democrats to prosecute criminals, Crime is going up again.😊
None of this would have been a problem if they'd routed I-95 around NYC, straight across New Jersey to where I-287 is now. That was the path I-95 was supposed to take, in the original interstate plan. Instead, they routed the nation's busiest highway through our densest city, because of Princeton nimbys and Robert Moses' obsession with urban highways
That routing was southwest of New York in New Jersey. Would have only provided a free alternative to the New Jersey turnpike.
No interstates should be tolled, anyway
@Patrick D. they already have a free route in sw jersey i295
For matters of efficiency it makes sense to use at least part of the NJT for I-95. The original plan, from the late fifties should have been pursued for I-95. Through Trenton, on a widened, depressed alignment, to either overlay or parallel US 1 to Brunswick/ Piscataway. Would have made it part of the NJT system so they would have had no reason to oppose it. Straight and efficient. Unlike Scudders Falls and the Somerset alignment.
@@lazygongfarmer2044 these highways were built before the instate system existed. They signed them as interstates later using existing routes.
I95 was also the only original interstate that was never finished. They recently constructed the missing section between NJ/ PA.
The only time in recent memory that the CBX has been an easy ride was 2020 when everyone was forced to stay home. I was able to get from the Throgs Neck bridge to the GW bridge in under 10 minutes
And that's the solution: Let people that can do their jobs from home, work from home. That would eliminate 40% of the traffic.
Same, 10 minutes from 3rd Avenue to Co-Op
For me it was late night (around 10) last October. Got off Throgs Neck and was shocked by the lack of traffic. Got on to GWB within 20 minutes because I was trailing my friend that was towing his car.
But if I was driving at my normal pace, I'd probably would've been there in 10
Use a Honda CBX, then!
Or build a good public transit.
With 20 mill people it shouldn’t be difficult to understand that car driving is utter nonsence and trains and busses are a part of the sollution.
100%
One factor that has made Cross Bronx traffic even worse since 2001 is the post-9/11 rule barring trucks from the lower level of the GWB. New Jersey-bound trucks entering from the Major Deegan (I-87) must cut across two lanes of traffic to get to the upper level, and that delays traffic going straight on the Cross Bronx and Alexander Hamilton Bridge, which backs up traffic further east.
They should allow trucks on the lower level of the GWB again. It’s 2023 now.
I just typed this exact thought on a previous comment. Glad to know someone else understands this. This solves WB traffic. EB traffic is almost always halted by the Jerome Ave and Webster Ave entrances. Cars have insufficient room to maintain speed to merge.
You are right. It is because all the trucks have to merge to the left. This anyone heading to the lower level is stuck i a near standstill. The only silver lining is that it makes driving on the lower level back to NJ quicker and generally safer.
That shit is so weird. Every time I see it, it drives me crazy. Tractor trailers damn near diagonal trying to merge.
And the opposite is true, trucks going east bound on the GW have to take the upper level and have to cut thru 2 lanes to get to the Major Deegan. How many times I've almost been sideswiped by a truck when they do that.
If your a trucker, most of us take 287 to either 87 or 684 to get into new England due to most trucking companies other than the mega carriers not wanting to pay over $275 in tolls for the gw and the toll north of NYC
What is the GW toll now? Last time I was on it was $40 for a 5 axle truck. That was 2015 or so.
@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 2023, $100 for gw and $7.50 for 95 North of NYC
Was thinking of the pa pike when I posted
@@lancehammons5918 Well, you figure getting off the Jersey Turnpike at 287 might save a few bucks on tolls as well.
That's a stay away at all costs,complete utter mess,no win.
Yup, that was always my go to route in the 70's.The CBX was already a nightmare then and when I go back nowadays and get on the CBX I'm well aware of how much worse it is
My cousin was one of the chief engineers who worked for the company that had a lot of NYC projects. The company loved the CBE. They called it “The Neverending Contract.”
I lived and worked in the Southwestern panhandle of Connecticut for 8 1/2 years. I made it a point to NEVER drive on this roadway. If I had to get to NYC proper I took the train. This congestion was one of a plethora of reasons that convinced me to move out. In 2019 when it finally came time to leave, I took I-287 to get out and avoided I-95 all the way down to North Carolina!!
Congratulations on making it out!!! I love my hometown, but when it's time to go it is time to go!
You beat the COVID exodus.
Good for you
You need to time your travels properly to avoid major cities during rush hours.
I've never heard anyone actually call it "the panhandle" before. I mean technically it is one, but I've never heard anyone call it that. And really, it's more of a pothandle.
NJTPK is one of my favorite roads in America. The configuration is extremely effective at handling large volumes of traffic. Wish we had more freeways like it.
I always marvel at the New Jersey Turnpike for exactly that! 2nd for me is the PA Turnpike...pricey but effective also
But it has to be a toll road with few exits. The 401 in Toronto is similar but it's a freeway with express and local lanes with frequent exits and entrances. And it's always congested too.
As a New Jerseyan, its interesting hearing that people LOVE the TurnPike lol
Too bad it gets high winds sometimes and has to close it for motorcycles.
I left at 5 in the morning from Stamford, CT a few months ago to visit home and I thought I would avoid congestion (I always took the tappan zee bridge bridge since I was too scared to drive in NYC until I got the courage to try) I would avoid the traffic. Even then it still was stop and go traffic. Great video, explains my experience
Even if there is no traffic, the roads are pretty rough.
maybe try 3 am huh?
Was this before or after the New Tappan Zee Bridge, because nowadays with the new bridge even during rush hour, I get across the bring no problem with no traffic
@@dennis3351 I sat at the GWB for 3 hours at 1-4 am, last year, so nope.
In 1986 I was climbing up from rock bottom after returning broke to NY and forced to live with my mother in Co-op City. I got a job and bought a new car for my commute to New Jersey before I moved there later in the year. The third day I had my brand new car (with less than 100 miles on it), I broke down on the Cross Bronx on the way to work near the Jerome Avenue exit (ironically, three blocks from my own childhood home). Thanks to the kindness of a stranger behind me who gave me a push off the exit ramp to a gas station from which I called for help, the traffic resumed its crawl, as opposed to its standstill.
And from my home three blocks away I watched as the Cross Bronx was built back in the early 60s. I'm sorry for those displaced, especially since the road hasn't made life better--either for its drivers or the residents of the Bronx. And the narrator is right--much of the clog is due to inadequate or no shoulders on which accidents and breakdowns can get out of the way of traffic.
If you left it, it would have been stripped bare, tires in all within hours
@@cavilier Yes, indeed--even back then the Bronx was too far gone.
Lol dont have a breakdown. Its like that on the autobahn, you could even get ticketed for running out of gas on it. Its time some of this thought started prevailing over users in maybe instructions on how to and how not to use this road
@@MN12warbird What really ticked me off was that my AAA membership was worthless because they refused to tow me since the car was new and didn't have permanent license plates. Fuck the Auto Club of NY. But wait, it gets even better! I had it towed (at my own expense) to a dealership in the NE Bronx (not where I bought it) to repair under warranty. It took them TEN DAYS to get the parts to fix! Note this in NYC with a brand new car and not an old flivver somewhere in rural Wyoming.
Once I got the bugs worked out, it was a great car and lasted over 120,000 miles. But what I had to do to get there. . .
@@nevadasestamibi Still good ppl in NYC. My car overheated due to bad thermostat on the ramp from the Harlem River Drive to Upper Level GWB and a guy handed a bottle of Prestone out the passenger window of he car he was passing by in.
If only there was a way to move freight long distance in a narrower point of space that doesn’t take up highway space, something cleaner and more efficient at this… and if only there was also a way to move a lot of people around faster and on schedule with no grid lock… jee i wonder what form of transportation would that be…
You mean that thing with 2 huge locations near each other that drops off goods to waiting trucks for their "last mile" delivery? And that other thing where it's getting rebuilt along the same space that people will use?
Yeah someone should work on that
@@this51man -- I believe what's meant is the Cross Harbor tunnel. The Selkirk hurdle factors in here too.
@@this51manWhat, where you only need to deal with local freight on local roads and get to avoid long distance shipping creating traffic? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
There is no such system. You can only improve congestion by increasing lanes. Building "other" forms of transit simply wastes money to buy expensive trains that don't transport people where they want to go. The Cross Bronx Expressway is filled with trucks going from a large variety of points to a large variety of points. Even a high speed train would not do anything for such traffic.
@@christianlibertarian5488 Building lanes induces demand, first, and second you lose efficiency as you add lanes - you still have to get to one or the other side to exit.
Getting long distance travellers off a 60 mph road onto a 150+ mph option really does help. So does pulling intermodal freight out.
They built the Cross Bronx right through my neighborhood (Clay Avenue and 174th St). Property values plummeted and the middle class moved out. Eventually we moved out too as we waited for Co-Op City to be open. Thanks Mike for the history of this road. I learned a lot.
I'm glad to have found your channel. I love architecture, but civil engineering and the way our networks operate are always fascinating topics, especially in the metropolis of New York. Great content.
Thanks
Mike, thanks for sharing your travels. Thanks for covering this. It's always jammed except during the early morning hours and even then it's packed.
Also never heard that version of the "throgs neck" pronunciation
😂
@@Ryfael In the Bronx it’s spelled “Throggs Neck” but the bridge is spelled Throgs Neck Bridge. Robert Moses decided to spell the bridge with just one G but the town in the Bronx is spelled with two G’s.
@@mattycooldude6462 That's has nothing to do of taking down the Thrid Avenue Elevated line down also. I had saw a video of the old 8 Third Ave Elevated line passing above Express Highway and the trucks and buses and cars did not hit the Thrid Avenue Elevated line and it went under neath the Thrid Avenue Elevated line with out no problems at all. They built the Thrid Avenue Elevated line higher enough so the trucks and buses and cars pass under the Thrid Avenue Elevated line just fine.
I don't use the Cross Bronx unless I absolutely can't avoid it. When traveling to and from points upstate, I cross at the Tappan Zee Bridge (yes, I still call it that) and take 87, the Cross County, and the Hutch to the Whitestone. If taking 95 between Jersey and New England, get off just before the GW and take the Palisades to the Tappan Zee, and 287 back to 95, or GW to the Major Deegan to Cross County or 287 rather than the whole horseshoe. Anyway, your video is the perfect explanation of why I put too much thought into this.
It’s also cheaper. The toll on the Tappan Zee is like half that of the GWB.
Everyone else calls it the Tappan Zee as well. I think the only people that use the Cuomo name are his kids and some of his old Mafia compadres.
I'm on the NJ side of the Hudson, Rockland guy. If I need to go to LI, I never take GWB. Exactly the route you mention. Before covid I was doing a bunch of international business travel. If I couldn't get a flight out of EWR, I'd have to go to JFK, mostly early morning 9AM out of JFK. Every driver who'd take me to JFK wanted to take GWB to Cross Bronx because the GPS would suggest it. I'd override everytime and thell them TZB - 87 - Hutch - Whitestone. The one time I let the driver make the call and there we were, sitting in the parking lot of the Cross Bronx.
No good way to avoid the Van Wyck but the Cross Bronx, I avoid like the plague.
A proper regional rail system is the solution. Connect the various commuter railroads for through-running, run frequent all-day trains on predictable schedules, build crosstown routes like the IBX, perhaps even convert the lower or upper deck of the GWB to rail, given that it's massively overbuilt for the roads its dumping traffic onto. And set up proper feeder bus routes in the suburbs, coordinated with the train schedules and with the fare included in the train fare.
It exists already in Chicago its called the el. Maybe if the bronx had elevated service that ran above the alleys or straddled the highway the way it was planned into as part of our citys design retrofitted onto what the bronx are working with, it could provide a useful solution. It aint impossible. The bqe also a jammed expressway and they managed to put in a bi level ledge system that occupies the same space. Stacking or more tunneling are your options. Observe new highways under construction in even more denser asian cities like metro manila or Tokyo. How are they able to get 20+ or 30+ million ppl around.
Imagine that if nyc was even more populated with 15million more additional residents. A city of such size would need appropriate infrastructure to serve its own imposing needs.
@@MN12warbird Stacking highways will not solve any problems, it would simply induce more demand. Tokyo moves people around with a truly massive rail system that covers literally every corner of the region with frequent service. The New York-area transit system is truly dwarfed by Tokyo. Tokyo also has a *lot* of transverse lines, not just lines that go "downtown" (if there is such a thing in Tokyo, it's extremely multi-nodal, much more similar to Los Angeles in that sense)
@dijikstra8 i disagree. Boston stacked theres in a deeper tunnel and buried it under a highway cap in the big dig. The problem isn't inducing more traffic with stacking, the demand for travel is already present. Its that theres just no room to put it all. A similar problem faced by the phillipines and EDSA which has been reconstructed recently and over the years growing in size and capacity as well as growing more modes of use from its location. Train lines were built using the same right of way adding more capacity, inside the same space.
It should be worthy to also note metro manila is doing all this within just a fraction of the space already cramp ny current is. Ny city planners should pay attention to how other countries solved the same problem within a denser city space...
@@MN12warbird The problem is that creating more space means that more people will take the car over other modes, and the new space will quickly be filled. The highway is an inherently inefficient mode of transport that does not belong in a dense city like NYC.
A single lane of traffic can carry about 1,500-2,000 people per hour given ideal conditions. In the case of a congested highway like the Cross Bronx Expressway that number dwindles to a much lower capacity. By comparison, a single subway line can carry 60,000 people per hour/direction.
To carry the equivalent of a single subway line, a highway would need to be 30-40 lanes wide in *each* direction, that's a total of 60-80 lanes! And that's assuming perfect conditions and that there are no diminishing returns from more lanes, which there most certainly are.
@@MN12warbird the big dig is a big failure.
Problem with building a feasible North/South bypass around NYC, aside from I-287, is the terrain. A lot of people do not realize that surrounding NYC and Northern Jersey is a densely forested area with lots of hills, mountains, and ravines. And now with so much population and urban sprawl in North Jersey, almost all the good land to build new roadways is already privately owned. NJ-17/I-87, we always found to be the most efficient bypass for our purposes.
For me I prefer the Palisades Parkway to I-87, but 17 works too & it permits truck traffic.
Being from The Northeast Bronx and knowing that roadway well, a friend of mine asked me if there's a faster way to the Throggs Neck Bridge than taking the Cross Bronx from the GWB. I told him to get off at the Deegan and take it south to the Bruckner. He's been doing that for over 20 years now and has no regrets as it has saved him so much time.
Interesting
It's a well-known detour for when the Cross Bronx Expressway is backed up due to an accident or a disabled car or rubbernecking, but it's quite a detour. I live in Washington Heights (Fort Washington Ave, just south of I-95) and I also live in Fort Lee, NJ part of the time (again, just south of I-95) and I am EXTREMELY familiar with the Cross Bronx Expressway, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Turnpike, and the entire I-95 corridor (as well as all the other highways in the tristate area). Although I didn't drive growing up and I don't drive now, I remember what this and other highways were like when I was driving or riding through as a passenger in a car. To be perfectly blunt, the Cross Bronx Expressway from the Alexander Hamilton Bridge to the Bruckner Interchange is a DEATH TRAP!!! ☠️☠️☠️ Also, I'm sick of ignoring f*****g c***s referring to the Trans Manhattan Expressway as part of the Cross Bronx. It's not the Cross Bronx underneath the GW Bridge Bus Station or underneath "the apartments" and the GWB does NOT connect NJ to the Bronx!!! The Bronx (as well as the Cross Bronx Expressway) do not begin until after you've crossed the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River!!! 😠😡🤬
Going east that's usually the best bet. Going to the GW its tough. I've sometimes taken E Tremont or Fordham and University depending on exactly where I was at that moment.
I used to use the cross Bronx waaaay back in the 1970’s. Spent many hours in traffic at 2am. Had to exit once due to an accident and got lost somewhere around Jerome. Such fun.
That was back in the day when the South Bronx was a dangerous decaying slum area. You were very brave.
@@r.pres.4121 still is
As a Long Islander, it's incredibly easy to feel trapped here because of city congestion. Getting to the mainland is impossible without crossing the city (or taking the Port Jefferson-Bridgeport ferry which tends to be slower anyway). Going north to New England or south towards southern NJ isn't as bad since you can easily avoid the Cross Bronx and the BQE, but if you need to get to I-80 it is a living nightmare. Take the city streets with stops every block, or the forever congested Cross Bronx? It's a pick your poison situation. It really sucks, and it sucks even more that there isn't currently a good way to improve it.
Unfortunately, NYC has 5 different rail systems that don't really cooperate with each other. LIRR, PATH, MetroNorth, and NJ Transit should really all be one system. Then you only need to coordinate Amtrak, subway, and this new system. This doesn't get into the fact that Long Island still doesn't have a direct CT connection even though that is the one bit of highway that would really help get traffic away from the city
@@Demopans5990 Like the city, too many people opposed highways that would've given Long Islanders that direct CT connection. The one bit of highway that you're referring to is for cars only and thus wouldn't work with a crossing.
Great video Mike and very accurate to my experience. NJ has worked very hard to keep traffic moving up the 95 corridor, but there is nothing to be done about the Cross Bronx, although it does get better east of the Major Deegan when going north. When driving a car to New England from NJ, I've crossed the Hudson on the GWB and then taken the Henry Hudson Pkwy north to the Cross County to the Hutchenson River Pkwy to the Cross Westchester (I287) to get to I95 north in CT. I95 isn't always the best through Fairfield County CT, so I'll stay on the Hutch to the Merritt (CT15) and connect back to 95 east of New Haven. No good for truckers since most of these roads are autos only and a bit of a challenge for someone who doesn't know the area. But it does make for (mostly) a pleasant trip. BTW, Mike -- Throgs rhymes with frogs, not rogue (:
I always take the parkways through Westchester up to the Merritt. Unless I am pulling a motorcycle that is, because trailers aren't allowed on the parkways.
I lived in the Bronx for my entire life, up till 2yrs ago The Cross Bronx has been a disaster, so much that if I need to use it to travel to NJ, I do it very early in the morning or very late at night. One thing I didn't see mentioned is the sheer number of entrances and exits there are from the GWB to co-op city. This is where the congestion always stops. Closing or reducing the number of entrances and exits in very close proximity would go a long way to prevent some of the issue. Interstate highways are limited access roads, but in some cases they are used to travel 1 or 2 exits to avoid street congestion and red lights.
The actions of the previous mayor over the last several years have not helped this and other congested highways. ( Van Wyck / BQE ) Congestion pricing will only serve to pad the city's coffers , vision zero and similar anti -vehicle policy changes by the city's DOT make it worse.
It's all about the Benjamins!
Robert Caro dedicates a whole chapter to this expressway in his biography of Robert Moses: "The Power Broker." Its effects on the Bronx neighborhoods were truly devastating. To Moses, each new bridge and expressway served to alleviate congestion on the routes to Long Island, especially the Triborough bridge. However, we now better understand that highway expansion only worsens the problem through induced demand and urban sprawl. I'm just thankful he never succeeded in his plan for a 30th street expressway across midtown Manhattan.
The Cross Manhattan and the LOMEX both should have been built. The worst congestion in the country, due to the missing links. The Cross Manhattan ideally should have been a pair of bored tunnels, with no access from Midtown. It would have been a New Jersey - Long Island link. The LOMEX (I-78) should have been either depressed or cut and cover.
@@davestewart2067 Building new links does not solve the congestion problem; it worsens it. In NY, the construction of car infrastructure has always brought about worse traffic, far outpacing both population growth and Robert Moses' estimates, because it increases car-dependency among commuters and routes more regional traffic through the city. It's a high price to pay for all the disruption to the city, especially at the city's core in places like Canal Street.
Any video about NYC highways wouldn’t be complete these days without some “urbanists” citing “The Power Broker” to rail against Robert Moses and bleating about “induced demand”. 🙄
@@UnnDunn If your grandparents had not lost their house they lived in for more than 30years, due to Moses, you might feel differently.
They got screwed out of most of the money they had invested in it.
They never recovered financially.
F*** Robert Moses
@@UnnDunn Reading carbrains trying to find solutions is pretty hilarious though. Nothing is going to fix traffic in NYC except for less people driving.
It is actually feasible to eliminate the Cross Bronx Expressway by sending all Traffic south on the Major Deegan to the Bruckner Expressway. This way you could skirt around the southern end by the industrial neighborhoods of the Bronx and link back up by the Whitestone and Throggs neck Bridge. It should have been built that way to begin with.
I'm from the Bronx and I drove the Cross-Bronx Expressway in the 60's. It was hell. Besides the heavy traffic, the entrance ramps were terrifying because you would be dumped out of a tunnel directly into a traffic lane. Good thing the cars were always going slow. Also, if your car broke down, you couldn't leave it because it would be stripped in seconds.
Isn’t that the interstate that goes through the worst slums of the Bronx?
@@r.pres.4121 It's hard to pick the worst. But it sure goes through some rough neighborhoods. Not a place for amateurs.
I've heard that if you belong to AAA Road Service, they won't come help you if you're stuck on the Cross Bronx. I don't know for sure if that's true.
Ah yes, the Cross-Bronx Expressway. Robert Moses great "gift" to the Bronx. From the man who never drove a car, but wanted roads and highways everywhere. When it came to displacing people and neighborhoods, he always said, "You can't make an omelet without breaking an egg." And so it was with the CBE. One has to realize that the CBE was not built to Interstate standards with wider emergency lanes, first and foremost, because of the restrictions of already built-up, densely populated space, and second because it was started before the 1956 Interstate Highway Act was passed in 1956, although construction continued until the early 1970s. It was an expensive endeavor to build, which was explained in the video, plus sections of it that required heavy excavation blasting through rock. As a resident of the Bronx, I witnessed the construction of the Bruckner Expressway and the CBE/Bruckner Expressway Interchange. But I also saw the hastening of devastation brought about by the CBE on my beloved borough. Robert Moses did no favors for the Bronx.
I'd had my share of time on that infamous road. One memorable incident I had was in the late 1980s, when I was a truck driver, driving a nine-car carrier, a tractor-trailer. I had the EXTREME misfortune to have my truck break down, in all places, in the tunnel/underpass at Hugh Grant Circle. It happened in the late afternoon, and I was sitting in the right lane, stopped. Everybody had to squeeze left into the two open lanes to get past me. Man, were people MAD at me!! Could I blame them? I'd feel the same way! For people familiar with the location, this is in the area by Parkchester. The road at this point required serious engineering, as underpinning was required of the #6 elevated 177 St/Parkchester subway station above, and it remained fully operational while construction of the road took place beneath it. Look it up in Google Maps.
Good video.
I have had good success in sailing through on the Cross Bronx without problems... at 3:00 am.
Love your videos! Especially the night trips. The Canadian ride was my favorite so far.
Cross Bronx was congested as far as I could remember, but after 9/11 it got a lot worse. Since 2001 the trucks are not allowed on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge. So, New Jersey bound trucks entering the I-95 from the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87) have to quickly make their way to the left two lanes, causing back ups not only on I-95, but also in both directions on I-87. At the same time, trucks coming off the bridge and heading south to Queens, Bronx Terminal Market, or north to Northern Bronx and Westchester County also have to cross two lanes to make the exit, backing up the traffic across the bridge and well into New Jersey.
Another reason for congestion is a gap in the freight rail network that makes it difficult to shift at least part of the freight from trucks to trains. The only freight rail crossing across the Hudson south of Selkirk, NY, all the way near Albany, is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's rail car float operation between Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and Greenville Yard in New Jersey. It usually makes two trips per day taking 12 to 15 cars at a time across the New York harbor.
Yes the Major Deegan Exp hasn't been the same since after 9/11. 24/7 congestion and now the Harlem River Drive is constantly backed up from 155th Street and sometimes all the way down by 145th Street
I must say you're a lot calmer about the CBE than I am. The last time I was stuck in traffic on this road I wanted to tear my hair out! Excellent explanation and presentation! subbed. :)
Having read Robert Caro's excellent bio of Robert Moses (The Power Broker), I REALLY appreciate this video, Mike. That book is one of my favorites, and there's an extensive explanation of the Crotona Park fight, and the devastating results for residents. Top notch content!
I am now reading this book too, and I really understand why people were so very (very) angry with Robert Moses. It's really a balancing act: The Cross Bronx Expressway was needed, but at what (human) cost? Current construction could not be completed quickly in conventional channels. However, there is now a reason for those channels, which now leads to the problem the Cross Bronx Expressway (and other roadways) now face: capacity and maintenance!
@@TheTimeForChange44 That Crotona park thing displaced thousands of people, and there's a fair argument that it was utterly needless. The way Caro describes it, it looks like Moses' ego figured in it heavily. He didn't like being opposed.
@@Thunderbuck Yeah, I am getting Moses' not liking being opposed in reading the book! I haven't gotten to the Cross Bronx Expressway part yet; it's a focus as to why I want to read Caro's book! I just heard so much anger about Moses and the project as a kid! So thank you for your input on both!😄
Thank you for alerting me to the issues of the Cross Bronx Expressway. I guess widening or constructing an upper deck is probably out of the question.
Oh no NYC is definitely not adding any road capacity these days.
@@MileageMike485 Road capacity wouldn't fix anything, it would increase demand.
If you watched the video you would realize he covered that
Soon they downgrade into a avenue with rapid and pedestrian transportation. They'll have to reroute I-95 away from NYC or have go through I-87 and I-278.
In the summer of 1967, I drove the company station wagon, an electronic parts supplier. Leaving Syosset, Long Island at 10am, getting to Clifton NJ and was there for the shortest time possible, so I could beat the rush hour starting at 2:30pm. The CBE was a nightmare then.
Is I-287 a feasible alternate route for vehicles carrying hazardous materials to use instead of I-95? I think that’s another concern when capping freeways. For example, in Phoenix, I-17 is the designated truck route for I-10 from the Stack (just southeast of 27th Avenue/McDowell) to the Split (just southwest of Sky Harbor Airport), and vehicles carrying hazardous materials are not allowed on the section from 7th Avenue to 7th Street due to the downtown tunnel. The tunnel has the clearances for vehicles that are 16’ tall, but hazardous materials are enough of a concern for ADOT to have an alternate route for trucks.
Yeah I-287 can handle hazmat. It would be a long detour but theoretically those vehicles could cross the Hudson River on I-287 and take I-87 south back into the city.
I live in NJ and I totally agree I-278/BQE is actually worse (though with better scenery). And I travel I-287 everyday, so I can testify how bad this quasi-beltway can get! Its especially bad through the Woodbridge-Edison section, and up around South Bound Brook, and then again near the I-80 Interchange.
I drove it once as a trucker at 2 or 3am and I think I'd have rather it not moved. That much congestion going full speed in a tight squeeze through the dark like that was probably scarier than anything I'd driven up until that point. 278 was way better going back in the daylight, and you still get a great view of New York downriver. But I was going to 80 to pick up in Allentown PA. It probably wouldn't have been faster to take the whole horseshoe back around to 95 in Jersey if I had to go to Philly or something.
1:18 - Love the vids! Having driven this route countless times in the past, it's nice to see how they've updated the roadways and sandblasted and cleaned most of the stone bridges that were beyond nasty pre-2014.
BTW - I know native NYers are cringing at the pronounciation. It's pronounced like "Frogs Neck"...
I live on Long Island and this is one of my only ways out and it’s always a miserable experience. They need to build that bridge to Connecticut that they were supposed to build but all the rich people got upset over it. That would alleviate so much traffic
"That bridge" would be too far west. It really wouldn't help.
@@andrewlayton9760
Eh, not really considering you'll be getting around massive traffic jams
@@Demopans5990 It wouldn't alleviate the massive traffic jams; it would just shift the location.
As a lifelong Bronxite, I appreciate your take on why the CBX is always jammed. Please know that some of the old timers spit at the name of Robert Moses forever. One of your stills, though, showed a kid flying a kite, which appears to be from the 70s South Bronx. I would have appreciated some context there, as the CBX was a literal line of demarcation for the Bronx, with every neighborhood south of it falling into a sorry state. I remember the bad old days well. Glad to see it come back to life recently.
Why not to remove the highway entirely and return the Bronx to its original plan?
Highways are induced demand generators, if there’s a road people will choose to use it, and if there isn’t, they will find an alternative like public transit or other route.
Prioritizing the comfort of drivers to enjoy a highway in the middle of the city over the lives of the people who live in the city and the economic and social fabric of the neighborhood seems like a weird choice.
Why not go back to horses and carriages?
It's true that when they built this road, they disrupted neighborhoods. But now, the people of the Bronx depend on this highway just as much as those from outside the city. In other words, it has become a significant part of the economic and social fabric of the area. Do you think if they let the citizens of the Bronx vote on this, they would vote to remove it?
This would *technically* work, if the proposed alternatives were built first. And the way the land situation is, and the government, nimbys etc., it ain’t happening
We don’t go back to horse and carriages for the same reason we need to take out urban highway. The people of the Bronx are suffering from the inefficiencies and environmental effects. Best thing you could see out of the reconnecting communities project is to cap it, limit it to two lanes of trucks and one for SOVs (or alternating to demand). Maybe then you could stick light rail or electric bus rapid transit over top so that actual residents of the Bronx retain their mobility instead of being stuck in vehicular traffic.
It's a bold move Cotton
Because buses and truck traffic needs the highway too. Those goods you buy on Amazon or other websites aren't delivered to your home by Star Trek transporter. All this talk about public transit replacing roads ignores the fact that (a) buses run on roads, and (b) trucks run on roads. Even if no cars existed.
Very insightful video, thank you. In my personal experience driving on the CBE, the exit from the west-bound CBE to the northbound Bronx River Parkway is my single least favorite place to drive in the entire world. The traffic backs up to block an on-ramp, and can easily last for 30 minutes before you even get onto the exit ramp. The exit ramp is designed to be single lane, but wide enough that drivers always form two lanes, and it then get stopped by a red light. After that you need to get all the way to the right immediately to get onto the BRP. Brutal design.
The merge with 87 where trucks have to cross 2-3 lanes to go to the upper level on the GWB is a nightmare
Your explanations of the highways are excellent. There was also a lot of opposition to the BQE - Brooklyn Queens Expressway
I forgot how recessed this highway actually is, so capping it off seems pretty feasible. Best way out of congestion might be to just implement some serious congestion pricing and limit access to just trucks for a few lanes. Given recent federal grant habits, I wouldn’t be surprised if they cap it off and add either electrified light rail (surprisingly missing in NY) or a BRT corridor on top if it is capped
And who is going to pay for it? Are you willing to pay more taxes for it? Look how much it cost to bring the LIRR into the new station, 10 years and 50 billion over budget. How many years and billions on the 2nd ave subway. Imagine that for 3 public bathrooms it cost 5 million. How much is a cap going to cost? Now add all the street closures to put the construction equipment and all the material that would be needed. Plus the delays on public buses, trains, subways, etc.
Something more workable would be to run tractor trailers on the i95 only during the night until 5am then only cars, vans, etc.
You’re what’s wrong with NY. “Congestion pricing” 😂 gtfoh
@@PatricioGarcia1973
cost control is such a horrendous issue on NYC infrastructure projects. A lot of the transit cost overruns come from stupid design choices.
@@PatricioGarcia1973 yes im willing to pay more taxes for New York to have less traffic. Tf? Lol😂
@@PatricioGarcia1973 You're going to pay for it, and I'm fine with that. There are certain projects that are essential and urban revitalization and green spaces are among those that I don't mind one bit dipping into your wallet to make this place better.
Here it is I thought you did a video on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway!
Will you make it?
Thanks!
A subway or train line needs to be built from maybe the GWB across The Bronx via Fordham Rd or Tremont Ave going over to Queens and ending in Jamaica
That's a dream transit expansion right there. With no good alternatives on transit across Long Island Sound between Bronx and Queens, it would induce a ton of demand.
Maybe Inwood-University Heights-Fordham U then turn South on White Plains Rd to serve the new Penn Access station and #6 at Parkchester, under Long Island Sound to College Point then a major connection to the #7 at Flushing, then continuing south along Main or Parsons to Jamaica.
Christ. The network effects would be immense. Bonus points if its automated with a high off peak frequency to maximize the connections to all the Mahattan-bound lines.
Which would def keep some cars on driveways. The LIRR needs some better options too.
I've only been on it once, driving from Pittsburgh to Newport, RI on a Friday in 2003. We sat there for a long time and the traffic continued into Connecticut.
I live in Eastern Long Island and I am often on this disaster. Congestion pricing (if enacted) will make this road impassible. Long Islanders will often go through Manhattan to avoid this road. They will be less likely to. IN ADDITION, Long Island badly needs a Chesapeake Bay Bridge type project that would connect the William Floyd Parkway to I-91 in New Haven, as well as I-95. Long Island is not the sleepy bedroom community it once was 50 years ago. On its own, it would be a major metropolitan area.
I think at this point a tunnel or bridge over the sound will be nearly impossible. NY State probably would not want to fund it and neither would Connecticut. Though I feel CT would be the harder of the sells.
I would say to sweeten things though any crossing should include 3-4 railroad lines as well, connecting the New Haven Line and Shoreline East to LIRR as well as freight. Maybe even some Amtrak, As a tunnel three tubes. Two car tubes and one rail tube.
I live in Nassau County, love Long Island but going on road trips off of the Island is often a nightmare and may one day be the catalyst for me leaving altogether. The Belt Pkwy is no joy ride either along with the Southern State, Northern State and LIE.
Dumping congestion that would have gone around manhattan right in the middle of midtown is exactly what congestion pricing was designed to fight. Better regional rail for Long Islanders is the best option.
@@lemmingsgopop Yea right. Let’s see I left Long Island last night to stay in a hotel in the suburbs of DC. Left at 7:30 PM. Arrived at midnight. Visited my client for 6 hours today. Stopping for an early dinner (while writing you this reply), and will be home by 10:30 PM tonight. Try that with trains. Keep in mind I live in the Port Jefferson area of LI.
@@billm47645 I'm from Long Island and travel to DC often because I go to college here. Ronkonkoma -> Penn -> Union Station (DC) only takes about 6 hours, which is not bad at all.
6:20 I have a lengthy question.
If you are a car or truck coming from eastbound I-80, can’t you just get on northbound I-287 from an interchange (if there is one), continue on 287, then merge with I-95?
Or, cars and trucks coming from the New Jersey Turnpike northbound, can’t they just get off of Exit 129 on the turnpike up around Woodbridge, pay the toll, and continue northbound on the Garden State Parkway all the way into New York to reach the Garden State Parkway Connector, where they merge on I-287 and then merge onto I-95 too?
Additionally, cars or trucks (ideally trucks) can get off at Exit 129, continue northbound on the Garden State Parkway, and then merge on eastbound I-80 via an interchange? (If there is one, that is)
I feel like this would greatly reduce traffic, but I do also realize that these routes take a bit longer due to the length of the interstate(s) and parkway(s).
Around the Fort Lee I-95 toll, cars could also get onto the Palisades Interstate Parkway, continue northbound, then take the Route 9W exit (assuming they are okay with stopping at traffic lights), continue northbound on 9W, then merge onto I-287 where 287 merges with I-95, or the New England Thruway. Although this route would take longer, and truck prohibition plays a significant role in all of these routes.
Off topic, but for anyone who doesn’t know why I-287 is so long and “far” from New York is because it is a bypass route. As you probably already know; most bypass routes have exits that lead to certain cities. Take the Capital Beltway in Washington, DC (I-495) or the Baltimore Beltway in Baltimore, MD (I-695) for example. Both of these beltways form a circle around the priority city, but also can do a great job in providing quick access to other cities surrounding the main city. Just like I-287. To me, I-287 is a partial bypass of Newark, but is mainly a bypass of New York. It is long because of the cities, towns, and villages that sit along the I-287 corridor.
Can you please do a video on "WHY IS THE VAN🤬WYCK EXPRESSWAY ALWAYS CONGESTED ?" The Cross Bronx is pretty bad too. Nice informative video btw. Liked👍
Perhaps NYC should consider a Big Dig Project. A tunnel project from Elizabeth,NJ thru Jersey City into Manhattan,link up with the Major Deegan north cut across the Cross County Parkway and tie into 95 north between Pelham and New Rochelle,NY.
5:04 "some" is generous, my dad took the lower level to Henry Hudson for work and there's always people trying to sneak into the backed up Cross Bronx, blocking the exit to the Henry Hudson. Probably like 5% of the cars would actually take the HHudson exit in my experience. If I needed to go to New England, I would always go up to the Tappan Zee (whatever it's called now) to avoid the Cross Bronx entirely.
I used to commute to Connecticut from New Jersey and I avoided the CBE whenever possible. Occasionally, I took a chance and every time it was at least 30 minutes, usually more, to transit. Except for one day in March 2020, when I went from the GWB to the New England Thruway in 5 minutes. I never realized how short the Expressway was until then.
I live in Fairfield County, CT and often travel through NYC heading further down the coast. My favorite way is the Merritt/Hutchinson River Pkwys; Cross County Pkwy; Saw Mill River Pkwy; Henry Hudson Pkwy; G.W. Bridge. There’s definitely still congestion but it’s bearable. Much of it’s also very scenic, and the best part: no trucks! As long as you can handle the wicked merge onto the bridge toward I-95 you’ll be fine.
I live in Fairfield County too and I love those highways way better when my family and I drive down to New Jersey to visit my mom side of the family
My first time through that area was on the cross bronx, now I take those parkways and it is indeed a wicked merge onto the bridge. I missed the bridge my first time going through there
I’ve been on it before. We only took it when we lived in CT & had to go to Newark, but when going to Florida we went the tappan zee to the garden st parkway
Being a truck driver and having to drive through there to get to queens is frustrating and on top of it the road is really rough it’s definitely over due for a paving
It's been a long-time fantasy of mine to see that road (the others in NYC) get repaved and while they're at, maybe put down some reflective lane markings.
@@bikeny NYC doesn't do much repaving. The money now goes for more (unused) bike lanes, speed bumps, speed cameras, and stop signs installed every few blocks. It's the war on cars. You're supposed to walk everywhere. Maybe even from Jersey to the Bronx, because NJ Transit broke down again. Get used to it.
Great explanation! My grandparents lived at the Webster Ave. exit and I grew up in Jersey. Unless we were making the trip at 2 or 3 am the Cross Bronx was always a mess. Also trucks have to use the upper level of the GWB which means if they are coming from or going to the Major Deegan they have to cut across all lanes of traffic, slowing things down even more. What a mess!
Robert Moses wasn’t the nicest person at times lol. Kinda glad most of the highways he planned didn’t go through.
Anyways, the crossbronx usually always gets jammed up westbound because of the GWB. (Especially when the deegan, west side highway and other roads are jammed getting onto the GWB). If you’re smart, you’d know not to take the cross Bronx when it’s crazy like that lol. There are 65 other ways you can take that move faster.
Have had random times where I’d be stopped not moving at 1am on this interstate lol (westbound).
Robert Moses was a belligerent bastard who did a lot of damage to Niagara Falls NY with his parkway that severed the city off from the falls and the Niagara Gorge. His handling of the Niagara Power Project in Lewiston NY was also controversial especially when seizing a portion of the Tuscarora Indian Reservation to build the huge power reservoir. He also had very little consideration towards farmers, home owners and businesses that were in the pathway of both the new I-190 and the parkway that were both blasted through communities.
@@r.pres.4121 agreed!
I-287 is definitely better if you're coming from Western NJ (or further west) and heading to New England. Another alternative if you're coming from the south is to switch from I95/NJ Turnpike to the Garden State Parkway at Woodbridge (at least for cars, I forget if trucks are allowed on GSP).
Hey Mike thank you for all the amazing content! Can you do a drive video on Linden Blvd (Brooklyn & Queens)
And a drive Video on either Nostrand Ave or Flatbush Ave (Brooklyn) Hope You have a blessed day and rest of your week! 😊
Not in NY right now. Perhaps next time I'm there.
@@MileageMike485 okay cool looking forward! Hopefully next time! Hope you have a good rest of your day and week!
I'm an hourly truck driver, the cross Bronx puts a lot of ot in my pockets & I love it.
My perspective as a transit nerd and Bronx resident (near the CBE since 2017)...
I think that capping, dramatically higher tolls, and dedicated mass transit right-of-ways are the main feasible solutions.
Capping can reconnect our streets and (hopefully?) mitigate pollution. Higher tolls can discourage unnecessary passenger trips in personal vehicles, divert traffic to alternative routes, and raise funds for fairer projects and investments. Dedicated transit right-of-ways (across the Bronx... just look at the Bx12 SBS cross bronx service which has the highest ridership of any bus line in the city... as well as converting at least part of the GWB since that bottlenecks anyway to facilitate NJ connections) will give local residents much better travel options while reducing inefficient passenger vehicles.
Improving Amtrak intercity capacity and lower ticket costs would also help with getting rid of some of the thru traffic between the Mid Atlantic and New England.
WB traffic on the CBE is caused in large part to all the trucks entering from SB Deegan that have to merge all the way left to take the GWB. It has to be done right before the bridge that becomes the Trans-Manhattan EXPW. Think about it and you will see what I mean….
@@Bodega180 Mm, that's true! That merge is definitely a hot hot mess. I cant imagine how much it would cost to do some sort of flyover there 😬
This video is excellent, so informative! Loved seeing my regular exit in some of the clips (Webster Avenue). Was really interesting to learn that the Cross Bronx Expressway and the BQE are the two sole cross-city routes. I really did feel like I noticed more out of town license plates on Easter, sometimes I forget that it is a major expressway for travel out of state. Concerned about how congestion pricing will impact this already highly congested highway. Thankfully, traffic does not feel terrible for me on most days, but maybe I am just used to it.
Nonsense. The LIE goes from midtown Manhattan to the east end of LI. Isn't that a major cross-city route? (Unless you think Queens isn't part of NYC. But how would Mileage Mike, who is not a NYC native know that? Can't he read a map?) Of course the LIE is just as congested as the CBX. The LIE is called the "world's longest parking lot."
7:55
Also adding lanes to the Cross Bronx Expressway wouldn't fix it either, because it would just lead to more traffic (known as "induced demand")
Then why did i-278/bqe lane reduction cause more traffic
@yesisthebest because the same amount of traffic that was using the highway when it was 3 lanes in both directions is trying to fit in a 2 lane in each direction highway.
Former Long Islander here in Florida. Lived on LI until July 2018. Been driving since December 1978. I've driven innumerable times over the Cross Bronx. Sometimes without any major problems, others times ugh!.
Once, in the early 1990s, I had an unbelievably great trip. I left the Meadowlands around 4:30 PM. Went up the Turnpike to the GWB, across the CBX to the Throgs Neck Bridge, down the Cross Island Pkwy to the LIE, east to Route 106/107, then up to the Milleredge Inn. Travel time...just over an hour. I had no delays along the entire trip! How? Just lucky.
And yes, I've also read "The Power Broker."
Great vid Mike! Thinking the only way to expand would be totally elevated like Tokyo’s highways, with additional Express Lanes with minimal exits. Last time I drove CBE must have been 20 years ago at about 1-2am. Light traffic was able to easily do 70mph plus, and still was getting passed by dump trucks, trash trucks, all on their way to work! Again, thanks!
Limited exits would be smart, if they elevated then then could run bridges on top of each other, with the top one being a straight a to b
Excellent video, Mileage Mike! Thank you! Keep up the great work!
The world got a little better the day Robert Moses died lol
lol
When I traveled often from PA to New England I would take the Garden State Pkwy up to I-287, across the Tappan Zee bridge, and pick up 95 in Westchester County. I had the misfortune of taking the Cross Bronx once, and never again.
New York can't, but New Jersey can, by building and rerouting I-95 west of NYC. In other words: build a better connector to the Palisades Interstate Parkway and expand that to six lanes to I-287, expand exit lanes and build a fly-over, and build HOV/HOT lanes above it to help pay for it.
Only problem is convincing them to build it.
Great I-95 relocation and to turn BCE into a rapid transit and avenue pedestrian road.
Wow, thanks for this history lesson
Cars at least have the parkways as an alternative route (Garden State and Palisades between I-80 and I-287, then east across the Gov Cuomo bridge.) It would help truckers if either were upgraded for truck use (most likely the GSP).
That’s true. They really don’t leave many options for trucks crossing the city. Not to mention the tolls on the GWB.
@@MileageMike485 nj 17, 287 back to 95 or to 684 to 84 for cheaper tolls and usually not as bad congestion
I still call the Governor Mario M Cuomo Bridge the Tappan Zee Bridge.
@@mattycooldude6462 we all still call it that over the current name
Get out with Guv bs, it is Tappan Zee
You got options depending on where you're coming from and going.
Example. Coming over the gwb and going to Westchester, Conn etc.
Get off onto 87, go up to Saw Mill, cross county parkway to the hutch etc to get around the Cross Bronx and the toll at New Rochelle.
Going out of town to Jersey on the other hand can be a real treat. If you're going down 87 ,. You're going to see exactly what you seen in this video on exit and ramp for the cross Bronx and the bridge.
If you get on the cross Bronx earlier. Well you're in that traffic that's usually there.
If you can, I'd recommend trying to get on the Henry Hudson south and try to get up on the bridge that way to leave NYC over the bridge.
Moral of the story is unless you have to use it get off it and avoid it as much as possible
None of those are good if you have a truck or a bus.
I see somebody has plenty of gas money in their pocket
I am fascinated by the things you explore. Thanks for making these videos.
It's a pain depending on the time of day going across the Cross Bronx Expressway. Sometimes after exit 4 if you're going eastbound it will clear up. If you're going westbound and you see traffic lineup from the Yang Yang going towards the GW bridge I would highly suggest take a alternate route to the GW. There are other parkways if you're not a truck that you can use to get across The Bronx you can also use some surface street. If you have to go across town try to use a Fordham Road until The Bronx River Parkway becomes Pelham Parkway until you meet up with the I 95 my Pelham Bay Park if you have to go towards New England or Connecticut. One rule of thumb on highways like this for me is use it when it is necessary to get to your destination. Same thing with the NJ Turnpike Well that is a different discussion entirely with that. Another good alternative is the Bruckner expressway to I 95
Bring the 8 Thrid Avenue Elevated line back the way it was. That's is missing right now is the Thrid Avenue Elevated line passing the cross Bronx Express Highway.
Excellent analysis, I was a teenager when the Cross Bronx was built . I remember the sections that were open one at a time with the next to the last section ending at Webster Ave. making things interesting. You had to then take Tremont Ave or 167th street to get to University Ave to go across the Washington Bridge into the Heights to finally connect with the GWB. I remember as early as 1968 that it was disaster during the daytime. Now it's a disaster all the time. History will show that Robert Moses did a disservice to the City. He almost got away with it again with the proposed Cross Manhattan Project. For a while, the Manhattan Bridge, the Rearview Expressway and the Throngs Neck Bridge were identified as Interstate 78.
Sounds like an catch 22 situation concerning the Cross Bronx Expressway. Yikes
Great video.
I used to be a transporter for a cable resource company based on Long Island. I would have to drive to City Island, and into Jersey every day. And back.
The cross Bronx is the WORST.
Very interesting about Robert Moses.
I think it’s time I read the Power Broker.
Thank you! Subscribed !!
Parents left Queens for Maryland when I was 3 but I've learned how Robert Moses designed the CBX as his socially engineered weapon against the Bronx in the '50's. I think the only logical solution is to tunnel deep under the city to add capacity. It's all hard bedrock under NYC so a tunnel is as practical for vehicles as is for the subway system. Always was to be honest and Moses knew it.
Yep. They should've went ahead and spent the money to tunnel most of those urban freeways in the first place.
It was never a "weapon against the Bronx." If anything, the reason he chose that route was to preserve the parkland of Crotona Park.
@@DTD110865 Thats a JOKE because Moses helped do the same thing in Maryland using I-70 and ripping up 14 blocks of West Baltimore. [See channel video]. Then BRAGGED about it in his book.
@@LawrenceMarkFearon That park was known for being nothing but a damn murder pit, and I-70 was never finished . If Mises had anything to brag about , I-70 would've actually made it to I-95.
@@DTD110865 Moses made it a murder pit gutting the community of it's cohesion like many racist white supremacists city planners. Only reason 70 didn't connect with 95 is because Sen. BARBARA A. MIKULSKI and the Community shut that mf down. Or Moses would've blasted 30 blocks to get 70 cut through the city.
The one thing I can add is the roadway on the cross bronx expressway was resurfaced and that's made a significant difference. Because every time I made the crossing into the Bronx before the resurfacing .
I just knew that I would need to get a front wheel realignment on my car.
Extremely simple solution is to expand and improve transit service. I’m sure most trips made on CBE are local, not through traffic. If people have an alternative a lot of them will take it, riding the train may not be the most fun thing in the world but driving on cbe in rush hour is far far worse
Riding the train is fun wdym.
Judging by the number of NJ license plates I see in CT and the number of CT license plates I see in NJ, I challenge your assumption that most traffic is local. CT, NYC, and NJ are one big metropolitan area. Vehicles go in every possible direction within that area.
@@stevenlitvintchouk3131
That would only mean building more track. The NE seaboard is the only place where Amtrak is somehow profitable, and that is partly because they own the actual tracks. Only problem is to somehow lay miles upon miles of high speed track. Maybe ask the French or the Chinese
Many years ago I did a weekly commute from the Jersey Shore to Westchester; in place of the GW, I occasionally took the NJTP to the Palisades Parkway, then the Tappan Zee Bridge (or whatever it's called!). Not sure it was faster, but it avoided the traffic aggravation!
Smart driver 😂👏
To bad Borough President James J. Lyons proposal (reroute through the north side of Crotona Park and save 1000 homes) wasn't accepted because Moses threatened to resign and take away the federal money. Now if Moses resigned NYC would have a much better and more up to date subway system, less pollution from cars and trucks and the Dodgers would still be in Brooklyn (instead of the Barkley Center).
truly the worst lol
I was driving one Friday night to my vacation home in the Pocono from Long Island. I decided to leave at 10:30 pm to avoid most of the traffic. I was moving quickly west on the LIE (I-495). Then making incredible time of on the Cross Island, and flew over the Whitestone Bridge until I nearly crashed into the rear of semi once over the bridge in the Bronx. Two lanes were closed for construction, causing an enormous backup on the CRX-BRX. It literally took 3 hours to get onto the GWB, then another 2 hours west on I-80 through more road construction in NJ all the way towards PA. I finally pulled into my driveway at 3:30 am. Plus, due to exhaustion, I had closed my eyes and only because of shear will work up just missing taking out my garage door.
Every poorly designed roadway in NYC was designed by Robert Moses. No future vision by this man, short entrance & exits are common throughout NYC. He thought 40mph would be the max speed I guess.
The best alternative to this if you’re trying to access New England from New Jersey is taking the turnpike to the parkway and then crossing the Tappan Zee and eventually exiting on to either 684 or the Merritt Parkway.
Glad I don’t live in the NYC area. We complain enough about traffic in the 1.5 million metro area I live in. Interesting video. Subscribed!
Most New Yorkers don't have to complain about traffic at all since over 70% of us don't commute by car
@@longhaulflyer unless your taking the bus
We had to traverse this area last month northbound. Southbound we took the HH and cross county pkwy through Yonkers then the Degan along the Harlem river. So it took us a combined total of about 1 hour 20 minutes to get between Port Chester to the NJ side of the GWB southbound. Northbound it took about an hour and we took 95 that direction.
Solution: Build a tunnel under Hudson and East Harlem Rivers from NJ to connect with routes 95, 87 outside NYC and go under ground to Queens and Long Island in both directions. Also connect mid Long Island to Connecticut by tunnel too.
I like that idea. Only problem is that I don’t think the New York City leadership would agree to it.
@@MileageMike485 I'm currently driving to NY at least 3 times and j can't get over how tunnels instead should be constructed to ease traffic.
Definitely not a bad idea. But building tunnels under these great masses of water is one challenge, blasting through the type of rock that NYC is built on is another challenge. The 2nd Avenue subway line was an ambitious project, something like this would be a much much bigger, And much more ambitious.
I have driven the Cross-Bronx Expressway quite a few times and it is not fun.
My suggestions:
1. Impose congestion pricing high enough to price enough traffic off the Cross-Bronx to improve its flow of traffic.
This is relatively inexpensive. At a minimum the resulting revenue could fund a deck over the road.
2. Consider a bored set of tunnels from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River to run under Manhattan and the Bronx,
with a tie-in to the New England Thruway around Co-Op City Tunnels this deep (or deeper) have been or are being built
to cross fjords in Norway on highway E-39. But retain the tolled Cross-Bronx for commercial vehicles with HAZMAT
loads over dimensional loads.
Sweden is building a tunneled western bypass motorway to divert traffic from the severely congested Essingeleden motorway
(Currently E-4/E-20) - and - Madrid and Boston have built deep motorway tunnels in their cities.
The only real solution is to discourage passenger car travel through the city by providing European class regional rail between NJ and Westchester/Conn. Very expensive and the cost would not be fully born by those benefiting from it. Any increase in vehicular throughput will just induce more demand. Moses was GD prick, but frankly the Crotona Park option is a small fraction of the total length of the CBE. The Bronx would still be the exact same Bronx it is today had Moses relented.
I got stuck in traffic on that back in the 80s. I remember seeing burned out cars with no wheels or tires on the shoulders. Nevermore!
they should add more metros and transit along the congested areas, induced demand will do its thing and greatly reduce congestion on this highway
great video. it explains a lot, always found it weird, that traffic never eases there. now i know why. thanks, very informative
Glad it was helpful!
car dependency in a city not designed for it. put more money into bike infrastructure and improving the subway system, thats the only solution
😂😂😂
Thanks for the video presentation. I lived in NYC for over 45 years with 13 of those years in Whitestone Queens. I know the CB Expressway well. Now living in FL and don’t miss that at all. Still love NYC.
Just tear down the highway and make people use public transit and other roads to reduce the traffic
The CBX is far too important to tear down, it has lots of thru-freight traffic that doesn’t really have an equivalent alternative route. There are other highways in the Bronx to tear down, but the CBX should be capped.
@@daniel_teplitsky07 hard to believe, but there is another route. Interstate 287. Only the people who absolutely have to drive through should use 287, while the rest should use public transit, bring what can be brought off the roads off the roads, or just have them not come into the city altogether
@@transitcaptain 287 is very roundabout, and it has spots with bad traffic too, so it might end up taking longer (saying this as a Jersey resident). I’d recommend tearing down highways with little freight traffic and little core-bound commuters. The CBX has lots of freight traffic already, and will get about 20% more (not that much in practice, but still too much to be a candidate for removal). I-287 is already used as an alternative for some truckers. Cap the CBX, and focus on demolishing the BQE between the Williamsburg Bridge and Battery Tunnel, as well as the GCP from the BQE to Kew Gardens Interchange.
@@daniel_teplitsky07 Freight should always be on trains. Highways get decimated with that kind of load. As a result they're falling apart constantly.
@@catlerbatty NYC doesn’t yet have the kind of freight rail infrastructure to support taking all trucks off the highways.
I used to drive commercial truck down from Mass to Connecticut (I-95) to Edison N.J. the CBX is an extension of I-95 in the Bronx to The G W Bridge and into Jersey. There were certain times of day you have to be by this area or using it would be total gridlock. The problem is, too many other interstate junctions with 95 & the CBX, they bring way too much traffic there. While I-287 is a considerably a better by pass, it goes way out of the way.
Take the train
Love your commentary, Mike!