NYC NOW - July 3, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

New Jersey political boss George Norcross is taking a leave from his insurance company following the criminal charges against him. WNYC's Nancy Solomon reports it's the first major impact of the state's indictment against him and several associates. Plus, according to AAA, tomorrow's Fourth of July is expected to be the busiest ever on the roads nationwide. In our area, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey estimates over 3 million vehicles will cross its bridges and tunnels over the 5-day holiday period. WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen speaks with former New York City Traffic Commissioner Sam Schwartz, also known as “Gridlock Sam," to help you avoid a traffic nightmare.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, July 3rd. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. New Jersey political boss George Norcross is taking a leave from his insurance company following the criminal charges against him. WNYC's Nancy Solomon reports it's the first major impact as a result of the state's indictment of him and several associates. The insurance firm Conor Strong and Buckaloo released a statement saying Norcross has taken a formal leave of absence as he focuses on defending himself against the indictment from New Jersey's Attorney General.

The state's indictment alleges Norcross ran a criminal enterprise that used his political sway to extort property on the Camden waterfront. He's already been taken off the company's website. He's also the chairman of the board of Camden-based Cooper Health System. There's been no word on whether he's. his role there will change as well. For more in the charges against Norcross, take a listen to the new episode of the WNYC podcast, Dead End, and New Jersey political murder mystery hosted by Nancy Solomon herself. 80 degrees now, 82 this afternoon, and a chance of showers around the fireworks tomorrow.

This is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. Here on WNYC, I'm Tiffany Hanson. According to AAA, tomorrow's fourth. of July holiday is expected to be the busiest ever on the roads across the nation. In our area, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey estimates over three million vehicles will cross its bridges and tunnels over the five-day holiday period. With us now to help you plan your

escape and avoid the nightmare is former New York City Traffic Commissioner Sam Schwartz, also known as Gridlock Sam. Sam, tomorrow, is that a bad day to travel? Well, it's actually a pretty good day to travel if you're going to do it in the morning. But as the day builds on, the traffic builds on, and traffic on the west side, even though the fireworks aren't until nighttime and nightfall, people are crossing the west side highway at scores of locations. And so the west side highway is to be avoided starting in the afternoon tomorrow. Stick with the FDI drive. Better yet, if you can take the BQE and be far enough away. Once the fireworks start, even the George Washington Bridge will come to a crawl as some people will rubberneck to see it from the bridge.

Well, yeah, those fireworks are notably on Manhattan's west side this year. I know we're talking about crossing over the, you know, the GWB, but what about drivers in New Jersey? How are they, how are things looking on the New Jersey side? Well, the New Jersey Turnpike is going to get hit hard, of course. But for the fireworks, you know, Hoboken, Jersey City, they've got some great waterfront viewing areas. You don't have a road directly next to that. So I don't think the New Jersey roads will be bad during the fireworks during the getaway. Once, you know, you've got to get south of 13 or south of 11, exit 11 on the New Jersey.

Jersey Turnpike before you'll see any kind of real movement. So the traffic jams will be on both sides of the river. And they already started. I was looking at the traffic on Tuesday and across Bronx was a solid red, the entire length. So the LIE was also solid. One piece of advice for people traveling now, stick with the parkways if you have a choice like the built parkway over the L-I-E because truck volumes are now 10% to 15% higher than before. You'll see them on the Long Island Expressway. You won't see them on the Belt Parkway. Same thing in Jersey.

New Jersey Turnpike, you've got trucks on the Conn State Parkway, no trucks. So stick with a parkway if you can on Wednesday, on Thursday. You might be better off on the New Jersey Turnpike taking the truck route. for a few hours as truckers will get some vacation themselves. I mentioned in my open, Sam, that this year is expected to be more hectic than usual. Why is that? You know, when we look at the traffic volumes and it's across the country, but in New York, traffic volumes are actually higher than they were in 2019.

Fewer people are still taking transit. The COVID impacts have had a huge effect on modal choice. And when people are driving, there are fewer people per car. They're not carpooling as much. That's, again, a COVID vestige to it. The other thing that's kind of interesting is historically Friday was our busiest day. Post-COVID Wednesday is the busiest traffic day to the Manhattan Central Business District. It's when you have the overlap in the offices for those that work part of the week from home

and part of the week in the office. A lot of offices require everybody to be in on Wednesday. So that's kind of a unique situation. You know, getaway Fridays used to be the big day. This year, it might be getaway Wednesday. Well, for folks who are headed out for the entire weekend, let's talk about Sunday. What about coming back into the city on Sunday? Coming back to on Sunday is very weather dependent. If it is a nice, sunny, warm day, people will try to squeeze whatever rays they could get out and we'll see a later return to the city. And that means five, six, seven o'clock. If it's a cloudy or a rainy day, it'll be spread out.

Right now the forecast is looking pretty good for Sunday. So I'd say the worst time to travel will be after four or five. Again, if you're in the Hamptons, you've got to get out earlier than any other place that you might be going to. the traffic jams on 27 will begin by late morning. Sounds like making a plan is really the best way to go about this. Yeah, I'd say, I'll tell you, my little secret is on Thursday morning is when I'll be getting away. Sounds good. All right.

Former New York City Traffic Commissioner Gridlock, Sam, Sam Schwartz. Thank you so much, Sam. You're quite welcome, Tiffany. You can find more travel tips, including air travel alerts. over at our news site. Got the Mast. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

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