Can Rush Hour Be Banished?
The lockdowns of the pandemic gave cities an all-too-brief glimpse of streets free of vehicle congestion — as well as some lessons in how to tame the traffic that came back.
Traffic is back in Brooklyn.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North AmericaOn a recent trip out of New York City, I planned for the usually light late-morning weekday traffic. Instead, I found myself trapped in what looked a lot like a wrong-way rush hour.
As I attempted to head from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to the eastern end of Long Island, Waze, the navigation app, melted down in the face of rapidly shifting traffic jams. After several dead ends and U turns, I found myself bobbing over Harlem’s historic Sugar Hill, crossing the Harlem River Drive — jammed outbound when it should have been busy inbound. Nearing Yankee Stadium, Waze commanded me to head back toward Manhattan on the Major Deegan Expressway, swung me around the southern tip of the Bronx, and pointed me outbound again on the Bruckner Expressway, where I ground to a halt.