Massive transit strikes tend to get settled at the 11th hour, but with the possibility of a stoppage in New York City this weekend or the coming week – and traffic restrictions and checkpoints outside of the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels – Weehawken had to spend the last two weeks preparing for the possibility of a thick soup of backed-up local traffic.
The planned strike of Manhattan bus and subway workers this weekend, or in the coming week if both sides delayed the stoppage, meant that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s restrictions on vehicles coming into his city – including a 24-hour mandate that cars going through the tunnels must have at least four people, with Port Authority police checking each car – might go into effect at midnight at the close of Sunday.
This meant traffic checks by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey outside of both tunnels on the Jersey side, including at the Weehawken/Hoboken exit area of Route 495. Trucks were to be banned from the tunnels altogether.
And the four-person restrictions were to be 24 hours per day, five days per week, a contrast from past emergency measures.
"This has the potential of being very chaotic for Hudson County," said Weehawken Public Safety Director Jeff Welz, who also serves as director of the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue Department, Friday morning. The NHRFR serves Weehawken, West New York, Union City, North Bergen, and Guttenberg. "This is a dramatic change since the last transit strike [an 11-day shutdown during the Koch administration in 1980]. The restriction is from midnight Sunday to midnight Friday, 24 hours a day, four or more people in the car. We didn’t even have HOV-four during 9/11. It’s two people in a car midnight Friday to midnight Sunday. Usually, in the past, the restrictions were only during rush hour."
Welz advised local residents to avoid using Route 495 at all costs, and to take local streets instead. He said he expects morning rush hour to run into evening rush hour, and hours of delays getting into New York.
New York Waterway said last week that they planned to use extra ferries to transport commuters between New York and New Jersey. There are ferry stops in Weehawken, Hoboken and Jersey City.
But Welz said that even taking the ferry could present a problem, as the majority of ferry commuters in Weehawken drive in and park in the ferry lots.
"It’s very important for Weehawken residents to realize that if there is a strike, their ability to come and go out of Weehawken is going to be severely limited," Welz said. "We have declared a state of emergency as of 6 a.m. Monday."
Welz added, "Besides enforcement [at the Weehawken/Hoboken exit off Route 495], there will be enforcement at the Boulevard East entrance in Weehawken. We’re trying through Mayor Richard Turner’s office [to negotiate]. We think that the double restrictions, HOV, and truck restrictions, are unfair to Weehawken. If we have trailers exiting, they’ll be wandering our streets, getting lost."
Welz said that he and the mayor had met with local teachers who would have to get to work in the schools. He also said that the 3,000 people who work at Paine Webber at Lincoln Harbor would be impacted.
Advice for Hudson residents
"Local residents have a big advantage," said Welz. "They should know alternates to 495. Paterson Plank Road would be faster to get back. The Port Authority anticipates traffic jams going all the way back to Clifton on Route 3."
Welz said that the state of emergency would allow the city to limit traffic entering their own streets from 495 if need be. "If traffic conditions [necessitate it]," he said. "We are going to limit the amount of vehicles exiting 495 and entering Weehawken at the Pleasant Avenue [Weehawken/Hoboken] exit. We will hold traffic there until local streets permit traffic to enter. Locally there are other alternatives, such as crossing Tonnele to Route 3 and the Turnpike. The new overpass at 39th Street/Paterson Plank Road will bring you from North Hudson to Route 3 West, bypassing 495. You can use any cross street west to go to Tonnele Avenue to Route 3 West."
For those getting into Manhattan, he said, "Use mass transit or bus lines into New York, and that is the best way. That will get you in there the quickest. And there’s a possibility if there’s real good compliance by John Q. Public with four people in the car, you may get in once you pass the checkpoint very easily."
Welz said that using blow-up dolls to convince the police that you have more people in your vehicle probably won’t work.
"One of the stores in New York is completely out of blow-up dolls," he said. "In 1980, the Port Authority police had additional equipment during the strike, and one of the items was a pin so they could [pop] blow-up dolls."