My favorite SUV, me driving. Off road. Off Trail. No traffic.

 

^^ Looking good, Barry. I love hiking the trails, but I have to drive out of the city to get to them.

 

You know, it looks a little bit like New Jersey except that our SUVs are a little bigger and use more gas. (Where are the soccer moms hiding?)

 

I drove from La Guardia to Brooklyn near Verrazano Bridge and it took me 90 minutes. Yesterday, I drove back from Brooklyn on BQE to La Guardia and it took me 140 minutes. Driving in NYC (5 Boroughs) is a definite "Zen" experience. You've got to "calm" yourself constantly not to get all stressed out. Some folks take driving too personally and raise their blood pressure up only harming themselves. I had to meet someone in Queens and left Brooklyn thinking 75 minutes would have been plenty to get to Queens Blvd. Boy, was I wrong! There was an accident involving ACURA rear ending another sedan and it took 2 hours. I had to call my friend and apologize but we ended up having a very nice breakfast. I don't like traffic especially when you know that most accidents are preventable. It is unfortunate that for the other driver's error, everyone must suffer.

 

I know there's a big difference in traffic between 7-9am and 3-5pm just because of school being back in session. I leave the house by 6:30am, but if I run 15 minutes late (rare) I start to get stuck behind school buses all the way to the highway.
Same thing in the afternoon. I'm back in town by 3:50pm and I see lots of school traffic around.

Still, I beat the worst of it, so I can't complain.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, there are actually more cars on the road during the summer months, but they tend to spread out across the day more than in winter. I suspected that, judging by the traffic I hit on my way home from work. There were a lot more 'slow' people on the roads in the summer months.

 

My wife tells me she can see a difference in me as soon as I cross the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan. She says my hands get tighter on the steering wheel, my knuckles turn white and my eyes are all over the place.

We lived in Manhattan for a very long time before moving to New Jersey. I guess I go into my NYC mode without even knowing it.

 

[QUOTE=ralper,Sep 8 2006, 09:56 PM] ....
I really don

 

Barry- That was a great visit and drive in the foothills....was it the Little Bighorn mountains?

I'm still waiting for you to come to Peeay....so that I can return the courtesy

 

There's a great neighborhood called Radburn, in Fairlawn NJ. My friend lives in one of these houses, which backs on to the central green area:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Radburn,+NJ&...003286&t=h&om=1

The development was set up so that people could walk out their back door to the park, and follow the sidewalks to the shopping area, which has the Post Office and other everyday stores.

It's funny to sit at the kitchen table and watch joggers go by in your 'back yard'.

 

I've been there, Dave, but would like to explore it more extensively. If you zoom out on the Google view and move around to adjacent areas, you can see the difference. Unfortunately, this Garden City movement (imported from England....guy named Ebenezer Howard) did not find much interest here in the US.

The 34-house little private park where we live in suburban Philly actually shares many of these attributes and was designed by a student of landscaper architect Frederic Law Olmstead, of Central Park fame. We have a common green with a meandering stream and footbridge; many specimen trees of legacy size; and a little 'amphitheatre' that was planned for small theater (now serves as the kids sledding hill when there's enough snow).