Transit Hacks: Clever Ways of Getting Where You Need to Go

We were walking downtown to the office today when one of those big red tourist buses nearly ran us over (as usual!) Just as we were about to begin screaming obscenities, it hit us: the Gray Line has tons of buses, and they are running all over the city right now! For instance, their classic tour costs $50 for two days of hop-on hop-off privileges, and the buses complete a three-hour loop around the city. Might be a realistic option for those of you who live conveniently near a major tourist attraction. Bonus: you'll get to meet some nice people from outside New York!

Our tourist bus epiphany is probably one of literally dozens of clever ways to get around this week. Screw the MTA and the TWU-- we don't need their sticking trains and buses! Some suggestions, with updates throughout the day.

1. PATH Train Hack: if you live and work on the West Side, the PATH trains are a good option-- hop on at WTC or Christopher Street, and take it up to 34th Street.

2. LIRR Hack: if you live near Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, or Jamaica in Queens, getting to Penn Station should be fairly simple-- that is, if you don't get trampled by the crowds once you are there.

3. MetroNorth Hack: good for getting from 125th Street to Grand Central, or vice-versa-- and convenient from Marble Hill or the South Bronx to Grand Central as well.

3. Skateboard/Scooter/Bike/Blades/Etc hack-- too obvious to really be a hack, but a word of advice: use the Manhattan Bridge (less pedestrians than the Brooklyn Bridge).

4. LifeHacker Hack: "Here’s a little thing I came up with today before walking to work on account of the NYC transit strike. I call it the Instant Carpool. It involves taping a sign stating your destination on the back, and hopefully someone going your way notices. It worked going in to work, and although I didn’t get a ride coming home, it was a great conversation starter. I made two new friends who were going my way and had company for the majority of my walk."

5. Horse-and-Buggy Hack: for $50 or so, it's probably the quickest way from 59th Street and 5th Avenue to the Upper West Side or beyond!

6. Doug Gordan Hack for walking Brooklyn Bridge: "have George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" loaded into my iPod. (You may know it as the song that opens Woody Allen's "Manhattan" or from its use in an American Airlines commercial.) If you are walking from Brooklyn, start the song when you are about fifty feet up the walkway from where you can enter at Tillary Street. The song is just over 16 minutes long and if you walk briskly enough you can make it past the bridge's second tower on the Manhattan side and then a little way down the walkway towards City Hall before it ends. It's the perfect remedy to the transit strike blues and brightened my day."

Any other suggestions?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jake Dobkin in News on December 21, 2005 2:08 PM

Comments [rss]

Tom

Bitprophet: thanks for beating me to the punch.

Misappropriating words in this manner isn't clever, cheeky, or endearing. It's distracting and annoying.

Jae

easy rider & Tina, thanks for the SuperShuttle info! I've seen a few of them driving around Midtown yesterday and today, so it at least seems that they are not letting the restrictions screw with them...

dirtgirl

there are also Green buses that run throughout much of South Brooklyn into Manhattan. And Atlantic Express buses from SI to Manhattan.

The city has three maps of the functioning transportation options:

http://nyc.gov/html/transitinfo/html/unaffected_services.shtml

but if I had to get from the Village to Brooklyn, I'd just borrow a bike. It's about a 10 minute trip.

Hmm, maybe now would be a good time to sell my bike on Craigslist?

Peter Kirn

Gouging cabbies

Re: Tina's comment, if a cabbie charges you $90+ *within the five boroughs* for a cab ride to JFK, you should:

1. Point out the flat fare. ($30 max to/from JFK, $20 to/from LGA during the strike, so says the NYC Office of Emergency Management)

2. Get his/her medallion number.

3. Call 311 or visit the TLC via nyc.gov.

There are a lot of honest, responsible cabbies out there -- all the more reason to catch the ones who aren't.

Oh, unless you're outside of the city, in which case call SuperShuttle (but I have heard overcharging stories)

Peter Kirn

PATH train service is great; it's some of the only good news for Manhattan travel at the moment.

Here's the deal: as others have observed, $1.50 (via a prepaid PATH card *or* your pay-per-ride MetroCard) gets you a ride. The trains go WTC / Exchange Place / Newport / Christopher / 9th / 14th / 23rd / 33rd

At other times, you can indeed change trains in NJ. (Weirdly, we had to do that once today, maybe because of congestion / equipment queuing issues?)

They're crowded, but not unbearable. (Think rush hour 2 / 3 or 6.) The platform was more crowded than the train itself, because the trains don't run that often. (This is PATH, remember?)

The best part of this is that they're cheap. The only other workable option for getting between downtown and midtown in either direction for the bikeless is cabs, which gets costly fast.

Has anyone figured out an inexpensive way to travel within Manhattan other than bikes and PATH (e.g., for points above midtown?) The cabs are going to suck us dry FAST. I like the tour bus idea . . .

Anonymous

Why are you guys not mentioning that in Queens the Green Lines Busses are running. Q60 goes down Queens Blvd to 2nd Ave. There are many QM Express busses too.

tina

Super Shuttle showed up on time - 6:15am - this morning to pick up my boyfriend for JFK. He also had to sit through an hour of other passengers being picked up, but it was way better than the $90+ cabbies were demanding for the ride!

easy rider

Jae, I just used SuperShuttle for the first time last week (Village to JFK), and I had no problems. The driver called me when he was on his way, and arrived 5 minutes early. My only gripe was having to go pick up 5 other passengers (all of them running late, argh), before we headed to the airport. Total travel time was 1 hour 30 minutes. Not bad for 20 bucks.

jjqqww

how about the NJ Transit Hack? there isnt anyone on those trains these last couple days... drive from Staten Island to Elizabeth, park your car and roll into midtown. boo yah?

so

Does anyone know if there are car services in Williamsburg that are offering ride sharing?

I have to get to Penn Station Friday morning and will have too much stuff with me to walk.

Any other suggestions are welcome too.

Thanks.

Michael

"Rhapsody in Blue" is in the United commercials, not the American Airlines commercials. I also know that because everytime you get on a United flight they insist on playing that song over and over and over until the plane takes off.

I thought that was important to point out.

JO Mamm

How about ANGRY MOB HACK? First, we gather up a whole bunch of fed up new yorkers, then find some transit workers and beat the living shit out of them until they go back to work!!!!

megan

AIRPORT TRAVEL:

To get to JFK, try the LIRR to Jamaica, then the AirTrain to JFK. The AirTrain is still running.

And there are the private coach buses to the airports near Grand Central along Park (I'm pretty sure that's where they are). I've heard the lines for the buses are pretty long, so get there early.

Also, scope out the rideshare board on Craigslist. A couple friends of mine found airport rides that way. (And if you've got a car and want to make some quick cash, then offer to take people to the airport.)

Kevin Walsh

Tram is unaffected

www.forgotten-ny.com

truffy

party bikes are often found in times square, and up to 7 can ride together, and the driver will take you anywhere you want to go. great way to get around, see the sights and do somethign different. It may not qualify as a hack, just a heck of a lotta fun!

craig

Any updates from someone on roosevelt island? How are the lines for the tram? I assume it's running....

Kevin Walsh

I have been using the LIRR as local service in my part of Queens to get between Flushing and Bayside, though the LIRR doesn't like to think of itself as a local service (they bring Nassau and Suffolk commuters to Penn Station, and pass through Queens only because it's necessary).

It's only $2.25 from Flushing to Bayside. I've done this twice the past couple of days and neither time has the conductor gotten to me in time to take my ticket, so right now, it's 3 rides for the price of one, and counting.

Of course this works only if your employer lets you work from home and you have a part time job in Bayside, like your webmaster.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Jeff

To clarify PATH's strike service: PATH is running special trains that go from the 33rd Street line to the WTC and back, with stops at two Jersey City stations along the way. To go from Christopher Street to WTC on the special line probably takes about 15 minutes. The cost is $1.50 but you can use a per-ride Metrocard (not a monthly fare card), which is more convenient.

(And I'm pretty sure you can embark or disembark at Christopher Street anytime now - they got rid of the restrictions when the WTC station reopened.)

I live at O'Hare

"Rhapsody in Blue" was United's theme song - not American Airline's.

ann

jae: good luck with super shuttle! you might want to have a back up plan just in case. they've screwed over two of my friends and my mom with last minute cancellations. hopefully their service has improved over the last year. super shuttle in san francisco is amazing. the new york branch has been nothing but a disappointment.