To Those Driving Back From the Game Tonight

[Robertelamin]

Damn. I feel for you all. All your stories are part of the reason I left the area and headed south. I couldn’t deal with it anymore.

Move to Willimantic!

 

[sledog]

GW bridge and Port Authority were closed for a while last nite.

 

[Stinger92860]

I’ve been commuting to Westchester County for 20+ years. Tonight was one of the three worst commutes I’ve ever had.

I had an evening meeting canceled and I briefly had thoughts of heading back to my office, parking there and taking the train in to see the game. This was at 2:45 - I was in Yonkers.

There was nothing I could do to get out of Yonkers. Nothing. If you know anything about Yonkers, it’s littered with these short, spiky hills and every one of them had cars sideways, backwards and upside down. I’ve never seen anything like it.

At 7, with my car stuck in an unmoving jam, I actually got out of the car, walked 50’ and watched my car from inside a Dunkin‘ Donuts. I became lifelong friends with a Russian family stuck next to me. Their kids call me Uncle now.

At 9, my car moved enough for me to be able to jump onto a side street. I might have broken a teeny traffic law regarding one way traffic, but I managed over the course of the next hour to get to the Thruway entrance near Ridge Hill. The Saw Mill and the Sprain were in lockdown, so even though it takes me across the river, the Thruway is normally somewhat reliable on nights like tonight. (During my worst commute ever, I left my office at 1 during a snowstorm and I spent 13 hours on the Sprain and Taconic.)

The Thruway also gives me the option of jumping onto 9 or the Palisades if they look better. Not tonight. Like the Saw Mill and the Sprain, they were shut down. State troopers actually camped on the exits to block them.

The Tappan Zee was a disaster and the Thruway was a mess up until Monroe, but after that, it got better until 84 - 84 and everything else was a wreck. I think from the time I got onto the Thruway to the time I got to my house at around 1:45 am, it was about four hours or so. From start to finish, maybe ten hours.

This commute, and the other previous worst commutes, all had two factors that created the disaster - they were early in the winter and the storms were far worse than predicted. People were not ready for the snow and there were more people on the roads than there would normally be when it snows.

People can’t get up the hills. The heat of the cars waiting in traffic melts the snow under them. And then they move...and the melting snow re-freezes. And so on and so on....eventually, you have an grooved ice layer on the road that just becomes a disaster.

Worst of all....I get home and ESPN+ tells me that I have to wait until 4 am to see the Syracuse game.

I was in Yonkers yesterday morning and it was a mess. We made the mistake of driving in. After the game, I decided to head to Long Island via the mid-town tunnel. After that we were able to cross the Throgs Neck. I95 was covered in ice and trucks were lined up on the road side for miles. We got home to Wilton, about 1am, which in light of the stories I am hearing was really good.

 

[Tommyboy]

Move to Willimantic!

I am thinking of retiring there!

 

[Husk04ies]

We did the Uconn bus trip....left CT at 1pm. Got stuck in Rye NY on an exit ramp for 45 min. One side with a barrier the other a hill with no barrier leading to a cemetery. One guy dressed in a bugs bunny suit got off at one point and was seen on the school bus seen next to us, also stuck because we were in its way. We slipped and slid until we finally got off. The bunny guy was left behind and we had to pull over while he ran up the exit ramp to get back on. We drove through neighborhoods until we convinced the driver to drop us off at train. We trained to grand central then subway to Penn State to drop off bags. Made it 10 min into game and got harassed by cuse fans within 20 seconds telling us were NIT bound. Held it together. ALL WORTH IT. Now going to uconn Iowa tonight.

 

[Waquoit]

In CT 1,200 would be a dramatic underestimate of alcoholics. Maybe in one small town.

Ashford

 

[J187Money]

I stayed in the city last night - but even walking back to my hotel from MSG was treacherous. I have never seen it like that. Worst combination of snow/rain/slush/ice I've seen in a while. Hope everyone was safe.

 

[storrsroars]

In the 27 years I was driving in CT/NY from '72-'99, I've never experienced nor even heard of anything like what y'all are describing. What happened to you people? You used to be able to handle stuff like that.

Got <1" of ice/snow in Pittsburgh. Saw the whole game.

 

[businesslawyer]

I was lucky. I had left my car at the Fairfield station in the morning and took the train to work in Stamford. Train in to MSG, train out, small delay going in and soaked my feet and legs walking between Grand Central and MSG, but the trip home was easy. The only issue was the shuttle bus from my office complex to the Stamford station. Can't be a mile. Took 25 minutes. Cost me a chance to get a bite before the game.

Utterly worth it. But sorry for those who had it worse.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

In the 27 years I was driving in CT/NY from '72-'99, I've never experienced nor even heard of anything like what y'all are describing. What happened to you people? You used to be able to handle stuff like that.

Got <1" of ice/snow in Pittsburgh. Saw the whole game.

The problem is, people didn't think it was going to be that bad, so NYDOT and CTDOT didn't get as much coverage as they normally would for a bigger storm, which means untreated roads, right in the middle of the evening commute, sudden, serious snowfall turning into sleet. Just a perfect combination of things.

 

[SirHypeAlot]

I work in ridgefield and had agreed with my dad to watch the game with him in Fairfield (I live in Stamford) For anyone familiar with Rt 57 south in Weston there is a bridge over a river and then a steep incline before it connects with 53 by the cobbs mill inn. I was stuck for an hour at that small collection area which had bottlenecked because there were FOUR two wheel drive vehicles stuck trying to get up the hill to 53. Mind you this hill is only 50' in length. After the wait with no end in sight I pulled around a row 15+ cars and veered down Old Mill rd. traveling at 5mph or less. even with a safe distance between me and the rebel in front of me he hit the brakes and my car skidded roughly 12 feet right into the back of his bumper. Did the whole info exchange and then took another 90 minutes to get from Weston to Fairfield. Pales in comparison to some of the other stories posted but I walked through the door as the ball tipped and by the end of the game the commute and the accident felt like water under the bridge. When UConn wins small pains are washed.

 

[Jaker]

Sounds like a great area to retire to

 

[manbyrd]

It was the worst commute in my lifetime. Rye to Tuckahoe train station took 2.5 hours (normal would 25 minutes), and from stories I've heard I was one of the lucky ones. It was disaster movie level traffic.

 

[Fishy]

The problem is, people didn't think it was going to be that bad, so NYDOT and CTDOT didn't get as much coverage as they normally would for a bigger storm, which means untreated roads, right in the middle of the evening commute, sudden, serious snowfall turning into sleet. Just a perfect combination of things.

That was basically it.

People didn’t think the storm would be a problem, so they were out on the roads, business as usual. School buses, work vans, delivery trucks, every thing that would ordinarily avoid snow was out there.

And the snow came in an early burst. It started in earlyish afternoon and there was two inches on the ground in the first hour. Cars were stuck on untreated roads...once that happens, you just can’t get the plows around.

I didn’t see a single truck until around 2 am when I was well north into the mid-Hudson Valley.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I’ve been commuting to Westchester County for 20+ years. Tonight was one of the three worst commutes I’ve ever had.

I think the two key issues was that, first, all government agencies did not expect to get +6" of snow and by the time they finally got organized to go out, the roads were already a cluster. Can't plows cars. The second was that the heavy snowcame in ealier and heavier than expected. I got 4" in just over 3 hours and 8" total. As the ground is still warm, the intial snow melted on the road. But, it came down so fast, the snow on top built-up and then froze the previouslyt melted layer. Thus, everyone was trying to drive in 4" of snow on top of a layer of ice. I ran out for a chore at 2 PM and had to take the long, flat way back home as I tried and failed going up two different hills. Could be worse, I know folks who slept in their office last night and a few schools had kids staying overnight, too.

It also did not help that where I live, an earlier bad accident requuring LifeStar shut down the two major highways around 8 AM, which subsequently jammed the secondary roads. The snow began to fall just as the accident was cleared, so the traffic was still heavy when the snow hit the fan. Basically, 16 hours of traffic hell.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Four hour commutes are everyday here in Atlanta...

To go 26 miles.

I recall a few years back when Atlanta got 8" of snow. The city at that point had like 4 pieces of snow removal equipment for the entire city. It was a week before things got better, not 12 hours.

 

[minidarren]

 

[Adios]

I-95 looks like a walk in the park compared to Atlanta. Will never complain about CT traffic again.

Forbes named Mansfield and Middletown as the 2 best towns in CT to retire. I'd beg to differ but whatever.

In major cities, sports franchises/organizations have replaced retail shops as anchor tenants. Thus, the need for XL and WBA and tenants. Not a fan of the WNBA but not bad for CT to have a franchise in that league.