fastest route from Brooklyn to Woodstock
Looking for the fastest route upstate for weekends away this summer. Driving up on Fridays from Bed Stuy. Returning Mondays. Any suggestions about how and when to avoid traffic? -slim
slimc
in Roofers 9 years and 4 months ago
12
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12 replies
Townie | 9 years and 4 months ago
I have driven upstate hundreds of times and vary my route to prevent boredom. You will want to get ezpass. Remember some workplaces have summer hours with early release on Fridays so NYC insanity starts early. Get yourself some helpful traffic/weather apps for your phone. When it rains lots of accidents. Taconic is beautiful but numerous state patrol speed traps… My spouse also takes the train and I pick her up from the station. That’s the way to go. If you dont mind driving at night you can make some serious time.
thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 4 months ago
and never come down on any route approaching the Tappan Zee after 2 PM on a Sunday. I did that once in about 1985 and that was all it took for me.
anotherposter | 9 years and 4 months ago
There is no right way to do that drive. If you’re going after typical work hours and are fine being up late, just leave later to miss some of the traffic. You might get there at the same time but spend less time in the car by leaving later. I drive up that way a lot, but usually have to stop in Manhattan to pick up my spouse. From there, we usually suffer up the West Side Hwy to GWB, but if we leave around 6:45 or later, traffic gets a lot less frustrating. As someone else mentioned, I like the option of one of us driving up that morning or the night before and the one who has to be in for work takes a train up and gets the more pleasant experience–that’s a luxury, though. Coming back is the same thing, a later start will make for a shorter trip. As the seasons change, this time changes but you’ll kind of get the swing of it after a bit. Holidays are whole different hell. Pack snacks.
rh | 9 years and 4 months ago
PS: If you do end up taking the BQE, be aware that the worst traffic is on the K Bridge. You can take streets through Greenpoint to the Pulaski and get on in Queens. I usually take Marcy to Metropolitan and enter the BQE right before the bridge and LIE. There’s traffic, but just for a few feet.
rh | 9 years and 4 months ago
If you leave on Friday afternoons in the summer, no matter which way you go, it’s gonna be a bitch getting out of the city. I go through NJ on the way up. I like Rt 17, but Palisades is probably more direct. If it’s early or the middle of the week, sometimes taking the FDR to Harlem River is faster than BQE to Triborough. Then you catch the thruway to 28 from there. Going home, I cross over on the Newburgh/Beacon Bridge and take Rt. 9\. It’s a single lane for much of the way, but it’s pleasant enough and I really hate the Taconic. It’s going to come down to which route YOU like best.
pigthree | 9 years and 4 months ago
thinker is spot on with JRobinson route. Take that way all the time.
arch111 | 9 years and 4 months ago
Taconic state parkway
thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 4 months ago
I just looked at all of this and at 684 and took a minute to read the history of 684, since some of you did not mind pulling up the ’60’s. I remember them blasting rock on the lower end of 684 as a child and I remember them finishing it to rt 22 and remember actual cows living in dutchess county, not as a novelty but on true, smelly farms (methane) and cow pies. Rt 22 is worth mentioning because that is where 684 crosses rt 84\. So if you don’t mind interstates – you can take the hutch to 287 to 684 to 84 to 87 north. that would be fast though not the most direct. all pretty quick. I tend to stay away from the interstates: rt 9 on the west side of the hudson is nice. if the traffic approaching the tappan zee is not bad you can pick up 9 in Nyack. I would probably not pick up 9 until crossing at the Bear Mountain Bridge. really, the only other way to go would be the triborough but not up the major degan as that is a mess approaching the GW. take the triboro to 95 to the hutch. but the bronx always seems messy (traffic wise), so again – the whitestone. I do shoot back and forth over the whitestone a couple of times a month and rarely encounter grief. steve
bradeinhorn | 9 years and 4 months ago
Waze
slopefarm | 9 years and 4 months ago
LOL, dave, or as Arlo said at the actual event, “New York Thruway’s closed, man!” Seriously, there is no one right way to get from BK to upstate. Use your smartphone, pull up google maps and go where the traffic is least bad. It really will vary day to day. But yeah, leave before three or after 6;30\.
daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 4 months ago
Well, I came upon a child of God He was walking along the road And I asked him, tell where are you going? This he told me Said, I’m going down to Yasgur’s Farm…
thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 4 months ago
you will have issues on the BQE to Grand Central from 1:30 PM on. and once you cross the triborough, you will have issues up to and past the GW and if you chose to cross the GW, on into NJ. When I go camping up in the region you are talking about, I tend to leave before the rush and take the hutch. to do that you would take the jackie to the Van Wyck to the Whitestone Bridge. you have to do this by say 3:30?? if yo pass the whitestone by then, you should be good. I would take the hutch to 287 to the sprain or taconic and on up. I would not cross the hudson until I think the mid hudson brige at newburgh. I think it is rt 84 and then 84 to nys thruway (87) on up. this is the way I head there and I leave early and my wife leaves work later and takes the train to one of the stations along the hudson. You need to stay away from manhattan, the Triboro/GW combination. I know the hutch leads off to ct, but when you cut back across, you move faster. also, my dad used to use 684 to go north (when it was new; they were building it when I was a child) check it out but it stays east, at some point you will have to go over towards the hudson river. Steve