Jughandle example Going north on Easton Ave and wanting to turn left onto John F. Kennedy Blvd: Stay in right lane, take jughandle, wait for the light to turn green and proceed onto JFK Blvd.
Traffic signs in NJ are a nightmare and can cause me to go on a long rant at any time. The head of the DOT even admitted that the signs are only useful for people who know where they are going.
And New Jersey is not as cold as some make it out to be. It can get lots of snow if a nor’easter comes by, as one did a couple of weeks ago.
If you see signs saying “Benny Go Home” (or the new, stylized “BGH” logo), yes, they’re talking about you. New Jersey is horrifically overcrowded and many shore residents put up a lot of backlash against the northerners taking over our beaches during the summer (even though those same tourists pump millions into the local economy).
Don’t take it to heart. I’ll happily issue you an Honorary Local card.
Get EZPass before or right after you move in. Cash tolls cost more and EZ pass lanes are much, much faster. The Bridges across the delaware river all have tolls, and the only major ways to move north/south in the state, the Garden State Parkway and the NJ Turnpike both have tolls. (I-287 goes sort of north/south but lots of east/west to it too). You can also use your EZ pass at the Newark Airport to pay for parking.
Also, there are going to be many intersections where you pretty much have to go when there is any gap, not just a safe one, or you just might never go. You might be used to that being from LA, though.
Trains are great but I believe it was usually cheaper to drive to a bus station to get into the city.
I second Lindsaybluth’s advice about making sure your car is OK for winter, and I’ll add that you and your wife should spend some time in a parking lot learning how to drive in snow. It’s very good to know how to control your car in a skid, for example.
Some people still use the quaint system of naming towns and cities in NJ, but actually locations are all designated by exit numbers. For low numbers you have to specify Turnpike or Parkway.
Also there tends to be an odor all over north Jersey. That’s a natural warning not to breathe the air. Since you are from LA, you may not notice. Your wife should arrange for artifical breathing apparatus.
You’re biggest problem will be having children. Children in NJ become substance abusers by the time they reach pre-school. They are required to dress and act like the latest faded pop star, and exagerrate any ethnic stereotype they may be associated with, or just pick some at random.
I had friends that lived in New Providence and they talked very highly of the town. Their only complaint really was the property taxes being high (which is true of the state as a whole).
Jersey gets a bad rap, but it is really a decent place to live. You get the benefits of both suburban and urban life and everything you could every want to do recreationally. You have beaches, night life, and even skiing (in PA) all within driving distance.
It is expensive, traffic is awful and our politics have to be seen to be believed but I love it here.
I’ve lived here two years and I still don’t ‘‘get’’ the traffic here. My best advice is never to miss your road when you’re driving past these cloverleaf thingys. Every missed turn will cost you at least 5 minutes because you’re going to have to do the cloverleaf dealy twice just to get back to where you meant to go. This is also why it takes me 5 minutes to get to Whole Foods and 10 minutes to get back home. Also, my GPS likes to helpfully tell me to make a U-turn or left turns without apparently being aware that there’s no such thing here.
I’m in South Jersey, but I did live in New Brunswick last year which is closer to where you’re going to be. I really like this state and think it’s highly underrated. I live in a quiet suburb 25 minutes from Philadelphia (or 45 during rush hour.) I love the suburban yet metropolitan feel, the diversity, the health care, the people. I love that I have a Wegman’s.
Prepare for everything to be incredibly expensive. Except gas.
Looks at where you’re moving from. Okay, maybe you won’t suffer the same sticker shock I did when I moved from Michigan.
Every once in a while this state gets a shitton of snow dropped all at once, but generally I think the weather is pretty mild (again, compared to Michigan.) I have to beat my head against the steering wheel as all the crazy aggressive drivers become little namby pambies the moment we get a quarter inch dusting (true story… it took me 2.5 hours to get in from the city last month because of a quarter-inch snow fall.)
That’s something I’ve always loved about living here – there is quite literally nothing you could want to do (barring some singular-experience location in another part of the world) that you can’t find within a two-hour drive from here.
They are highly trained in the art of conversation and they entertain you while you pump your own gas.
If this is a serious question, the people that work in gas stations outside of New Jersey and Oregon try to sell you cigarettes, beer, dirty magazines, and questionable food items from inside the store. They don’t hang out around the pumps.
Also, google “Chris Christie” to see what the current governor is up to. He’s trying desperately to control spending, and he doesn’t tread lightly. So expect state government services to stay at the same level or possibly decline. The next few years in NJ are going to be colorful from a political perspective.
Not exactly. Yes, this is good general advice, but you have to keep an eye out for exceptions.
My parents live in Lawrenceville, and the Brunswick Ave. traffic circle used to drive me nuts. People in the circle would wait for people southbound on Brunswick Ave. to enter. I was back to visit over Thanksgiving, and as I was entering the circle from Strawberry St. (coming off of Rt. 1), I saw that a “Yield” sign had been put up. “Great,” I thought, “they’re finally teaching people how to use this bloody thing.” Except that as I headed around the circle, I found another “Yield” sign in the circle, making me wait for southbound traffic on Brunswick Ave. They have actually codified the idiocy that has developed over the years at that spot.
So, long story short, don’t get cocky. Just when you think you’ve figured out the rules, you’ll come across at least one exception to them.
You know, I make a lot of the typical jokes about New Jersey being a great place to be from, but in reality it really can be pretty nice. You won’t get the same sticker shock coming from L.A. that some people do, so you’re already ahead of the game. Enjoy!
Oh, and if you have a lick of sense and you find yourself in Hamilton Twp, avoid the Whitehorse traffic circle at all costs. I hear tell that it’s been improved slightly in recent years, but as far as I know it’s still about as tangled a mess of roads you could ever hope to see.
This is generally true, unless you hail from one of the more rural parts of the state like me (there’s a reason they call it the Garden State, after all). Where I grew up, the nearest Turnpike exit was roughly an hour away. Whenever people would jokingly ask me “what exit?” I would just laugh, since that information would only get them within an hour of my parents’ house.
It helps to understand the exit numbering system because a lot of the radio traffic reports refer to problems in relation to exit numbers instead of towns. The general rule is “leave extra time, wherever you’re going, especially at rush hour.” But anyone from LA should be used to that.
