Yep, when you’re headed uptown and can see all the lights progressively turning green as you approach them. Beautiful.
I haven’t driven in Manhattan for a long time but at that time I didn’t have much trouble driving with one exception described below. Parking is another question entirely. We had the good fortune to have a friend in an apartment with parking for tenants and some guests. Without that I’m not sure what we would have done.
Study a map in advance so you know in general where things are.
I did find that driving cross-town early in the morning was a perfect bitch. That’s when deliveries are made and since there aren’t always alleys or what alleys there are are already jammed, the delivery trucks park in the street. So if it’s anything like it used to be, go up and down town any time and cross-town any time except in the early mornings.
If you do decide to bring the car, drive like you’re just this side of crazy and you’ll fit right in. Anything else (like, driving with cautious) and you’ll only cause accidents.
To avoid tickets, whenever you park on the street, read all signs on the posts in both directions from your car. Twice. Then read them again. Twice.
I also say “bah” to the people warning you against driving into NYC. If you want to try it, you should. I’m from Houston, and driving in Manhattan for me was a total gas. I think I paid about $20 to park at the hotel.