It’s D-Day for New York City traffic today as drivers get their first full taste of new restrictions on single-occupant cars entering Manhattan.
The Lincoln Tunnel is joining the list of restricted entrances today, making all Manhattan-bound river crossings south of 63rd Street off-limits to driver-only cars from 6 a.m. to noon.
The new restrictions went into effect yesterday, but traffic was smoother than it had been in days – with the Yom Kippur holiday keeping many drivers off the roads.
“We all knew volumes would be lighter,” said Tom Cocola, spokesman for the city Department of Transportation. “Traffic was certainly better [yesterday] than it had been for the past three days, when it was absolutely horrific.”
Cocola and Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said most people appeared to comply with the single-occupant ban, which Mayor Giuliani ordered in response to staggering traffic jams connected to the aftermath of the trade center tragedy.
From 6 to 8 a.m. yesterday, only 3 percent of the cars headed over the 59th Bridge were turned back by police at checkpoints because they didn’t have at least two people in them, he said.
“Overall, we were happy,” Cocola said. “We want to say, ‘Thank you, New York.'”
Still, Cocola warned that today will be “more difficult,” noting school will be back in session and most workers will be back on the job.
Asked if the ban would continue into next week after being suspended for the weekend, Giuliani said, “We’re not going to know that until” today, adding that city officials would evaluate how the well the ban was working before making a decision.
A slew of vehicles are exempted from the ban, including commercial vehicles, taxis and those carrying emergency workers such as doctors.
NJ Transit is taking several steps to handle Jerseyans abandoning their cars for already crowded trains.
The agency today will add one or two 110-seat passenger cars to four Manhattan-bound trains, and also is adding a new 6:08 p.m. express train from Penn Station that will make Summit its first stop. Buses will be added to service as necessary, said spokesman Ken Miller.
City and state officials continue to plead with people to take mass transit or carpool, and have set up several park-and-ride locations to encourage both options.
The ban on driver-only cars into Manhattan caught some people by surprise, including one man who attempted to drive over the 59th Street Bridge in a rental car.
“I didn’t know, I rarely drive,” said Luis Dantas, who was visibly upset about having his car yanked out of traffic by cops. “I know about all the security, but this is a really dumb idea.”
Another motorist – Roy Fan, a 38-year-old Queens lock wholesaler – merely parked and waited 15 minutes until noon, when the ban lapsed, before heading over the Manhattan Bridge.
Asked what he thought of the ban, Fan said, “I understand, because there’s too much traffic.”
Many savvy drivers adjusted their routines to cross into Manhattan before 6 a.m., according to the DOT’s Cocola.
Also yesterday, the upper level of the George Washington Bridge was closed to traffic in both directions because of a suspicious package that turned out to contain peanuts, the Port Authority said.