Like many New Yorkers the only thing I know how to drive is people crazy and that is exactly what I did when someone asked me how to get to my place from some place in Queens.
The Van Wyck is not the Grand Central Parkway, is it? Is the Belt Parkway the same as the BQE? The Triboro bridge melds into the BQE or is it the Grand Central? When you drive on the Koskiusco bridge which highway are you on? Is the Belt the one over the Brooklyn Promenade or is that the BQE? Does the Interboro (Jackie Robinson) end at the Long Island Expressway or the Northern State?
Why is all this so confusing?
My problem is when I get off the Verrazano Bridge in Brooklyn, and the signs offer me a choice between “Belt Pky East” and “Belt Pky West”, but I’m headed NORTH.
I hear you biggirl - have you tried Mapquest? There are other online map sites, too.
I could try to answer your questions, but don’t want to (wait for it) steer you wrong (ba-dum-bum). I know I can get to Brooklyn, LaGuardia and Kennedy, and I know all of those various 'ways and bridges are involved, but I couldn’t tell you the specifics if my life depended on it…
Keeve, YES YES, that Belt Parkway east/west business is utterly maddening. Here is one way I’ve learned to tame that beast, though. The belt seems to have three sign “destinations” that can clue you into the right direction: The Triborough Bridge, The Verrazano Bridge, and JFK Airport. I know where those three landmarks are, so I ignore the east-west business altogether and get on the ramp that takes me in the direction of the landmark nearest my true destination.
Biggirl, are you an AAA member? If so I suggest asking for the handiest map they make for NYC area drivers: Maps for AAA Members, NYC and Vicinity."
Ignore the silly name. It is a 36-page 8.5x11 booklet with clearly labeled maps of the entire NYC metro region (5 boroughs + aprox. 50 mile radius of NYC). It is very auto-centric, as you might imagine, so it goes to a lot of trouble to name those pesky highways that confuse you so. But it’s not crammed with too much detail – just the right amount. And because it’s in booklet form, you’re not unfolding a huge poster-sized map all over the place to find one little corner of the city. It’s got very helpful exit/entrance info in the back too.
Trust me, this is the best NYC-area driving tool you (or anyone) can have. All my pals who have seen it, want one.
BTW, IMO, nothing is worse than the bowl of spaghetti that is the Bruckner-Hutch-New England Thruway-Throgs Neck Br.-Whitestone Br. interchange. One wrong move and you’re nowhere where you want to be. And it cost you $4.50* for the pleasure.
OK, as a Queens resident, I believe I can manage this one…
Correct, they are not the same. The Grand Central runs East-West, from the Triboro Bridge (W) until the Nassau County line (E), where it becomes the Northern State. The Van Wyck runs North-South from JFK airport (S) to the Whitestone Bridge (N).
No. The BQE is a continuation of the Staten Island Expressway, which makes up the highway’s first fifteen exits. It extends over the Verrazano Bridge, and the first exit in Brooklyn is exit 16. The Gowanus Expressway is necessary to take one from the BQE (exit 24) to the Belt (where it begins with Exit 1).
The Grand Central. To get to the BQE from the Triboro, it is necessary to be on the Grand Central until exit 4.
The BQE, you poor thing.
The BQE. The Belt is not elevated over anything (except where necessary to allow underpasses).
Long Island Expressway.
Keeve:
Well, the Belt is an East-West highway, not a North-South one, so I don’t know why that’s so confusing. Presumably, if you want to head north, you’re trying to get to the BQE, which has that confusing attribute that you mention - it calls its directions East-West when it’s actually running North-South. The trick to remember is that Queens is generally East of Brooklyn, although it’s North of Brooklyn too. So…the BQE East is in the Queens-bound direction (though it’s actually bringing you North into Queens), and the BQE West is the Brooklyn-bound direction (though it’s actually South).
stuyguy:
Get out of Manhattan much?
The TBTA tolls are $4.00 each way ($8.00 westbound only on the Verrazano).
cm, I’m warnin’ you, don’t take me on Bub! You’ll regret it. Just ask Ukelele Ike who tried it regarding the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I tuned him into a blubbering pile proto-jello.
Yes, I get out of Manhattan all the frickin’ time. But I know all the tricks to avoid the tolls. Or I’ll use my EZ pass which sometimes charges different prices, and which masks the cost as I drive. Or I’ll be on my motorcycle which also has different prices sometimes.
Actually, I have a related question – Just where the heck is the Gowanus Expressway? I know it’s part of what shown as the BQE (I-278) on maps, but I’m not sure where the part commonly known as the Gowanus is.
Going south, starting from the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx (I-278), you can take the Triboro bridge to Queens, which puts you on a combined BQE/GCP. The BQE(I-278) quickly branches off and heads down towards Brooklyn. The BQE (I-278) continues in Queens, crossing the LIE, and then over the Kosciuscio Bridge into Brooklyn.
The road (I-278) passes exits for the Williamsburgh, Manhattan and then Brooklyn Bridges, after which the Battery Tunnel merges into the road (I-278). The road (I-278) then heads down toward the Verrazano, and then splits, with the I-278 designation continuing over the Verrazano to Staten Island, and the other branch leads to the Belt Parkway.
They’s some good answers hereabouts, but I need more. Like a map and some detailed instructions for how to get to everywhere from everywhere else.
Whenever I go down there, I absolutely, positively have to take the train. I can’t drive down, because A) it’s a pain in the ass, and B) I always get lost in Brooklyn. Even if I’m supposed to be in Staten Island, I end up lost in Brooklyn. That borough must be an idiot magnet or something.
So, as I said, I take the train down and the ride busses or the subway everywhere I have to go. Occasionally, I’ll take a cab and pray the guy doesn’t run the meter on me.
So, the question is:
Does anybody (like the NY Tourism Board) have any off-line resources I can use to get directions in that town if I need them?
The scary part about this thread is that all the names are second-nature to me, even though I never drive in NY and have no idea where the stuff is. I guess that’s what a childhood in New Jersey will do, what with the 18 years of background noise of NYC TV traffic reports.
Billbo you’ve been a block away from the Gowanus on many occasions. That elevated highway you can see from the F train at Smith and 9th[sup]*[/sup] is the Gowanus.
[sup]*[/sup]I believe this is the highest point the NYC subway system. I’ve also heard it’s the highest of any “subway” system. How do you quantify the highest subway anyway?
You guys didn’t mention the Laurelton Parkway, nor the Whitestone Expressway…which form part of a beltway (NOT the Belt, which is part of this beltway) encircling Brooklyn and Queens:
Laurelton Parkway to the Belt to the ‘Belt’ Pkwy (aka Shore Parkway, including the legendary Mill Basin Draw Bridge) to the ‘Belt Pkwy’ again (apparently some maps call the Belt west of Coney Island ‘Lief Erickson Drive’, but no real Long Islander does) to the Gowanus Exp to the BQE to the Grand Central Parkway to the Whitestone Expressway (via Northern Blvd near Shea) to the Cross Island Pkwy back south to the Laurelton Pkwy at the Southern Pkwy (or as most Long Islanders know it, the ‘Southern State’) I proudly mention the Laurelton Pkwy because the first 8 years of my life was spent at 135-12 222nd St. in Laurelton).
As said before, the LIE runs from the Midtown tunnel roughly West/East across Queens, while the Grand Central starts out heading East from the Triboro, then dips South along Flushing Meadown Park to it crosses over the Van Wyck in Kew Gardens (and from where the ‘Jackie-Boro’ arises - Sorry, cmkeller), and then heads out East to Nassau (where it becomes the Northern Parkway, aka Northern State). The Whitestone Expressway continues south along the East side of Flushing Meadows Corona Park (site of the 2012 Olympic boating events) becoming the Van Wyck in the process, and finishes up as part of the internal roadway system of JFK (or so it seems when you drive it to the end and the big colourful terminal signs start to appear). We haven’t mentioned the Nassau Expressway, which right now in Queens is a glorified exit ramp off the ‘Belt’ serving JFK (and would be far more useful if they just extended it through some swampland to hook up with the Nassau “Expressway” in Inwood (Dr. Evil Quotes required here because the part in Inwood really should be called the Nassau ‘Kinda wide but hilly road with too many traffic lights and too low a speed limit’)
Of course, we should not forget the Clearview Expressway, which unfortunately ends south at Hillside, where as if it went further down (oh, say to the Souther State/Cross Island interchange) could have saved me mega-hours of prime youth time wasted in traffic jams during my college days, but NOOOOO (No, I’m not pissed, why do you ask?).
The Jackie-boro and Conduit Ave combo served me well when I was seeing (2) chinese women in the East NY section of Brooklyn, but unfortunately the heart of Brooklyn (say Flatbush) is kinda poorly served by limit access highways - the Prospect Expy doesn’t go very far, and while there are some arterial roads, Linden Ave, Utica, Kings Highway, etc are poor substitutes for real parkways (and Mayor Bloomberg seems completely uninterested in my suggestions for improving Atlantic Ave.)
BTW, lack of Limited Access Roads in Central Brooklyn does not mean ‘happy car-free existance’, but rather since cars are more or less a necessity, means ‘big ugly traffic congestion’.
Note: In NY, Parkways allow no commercial traffic (except when they carve out exceptions)
I was going to post a question concerning related matters, but I think I can post here without hijacking the thread.
Does N. Moore Street stand for North Moore Street? That’s what most NY’ers seem to call it, but I have seen a few references to it standing for Nathan Moore Street, often without that much-needed documentary support, like this and many other message board claims. What’s the story?
SirRay saved me a trip to my Hagstrom’s 5-Boro map in order to find all the various names of the raods that are collectively known as the “Belt System”.
One hint about roads in NYC:
Parkways: Cars only.
Expressways: Cars and trucks
And even if they did connect the Nassau Expressway ramp with the Nassau ‘Expressway’ I still wouldn’t use it; the old way through the local streets is always going to be the fastest way to the Atlantic Beach Bridge. (And let’s not bring up the subject of tolls when it comes to that masterpiece of political patronage and theft!)
