East Coast Phenomena: Vacation at the beach
Jstas
Posts: 14,809
Forgive me...well, don't 'cause I don't really care. It's not really a slow day at work but I have nothing but migration meetings going on this week with breaks in between conference calls too short to do anything constructive.
On the way in to work, the radio show I listen to had this discussion on "Shore Traffic". See, in NJ, we don't "go to the beach". We "go down the shore". So it's called "Shore Traffic" and it's usually used to describe all the out-of-staters clogging up NJ's roads to go to their "shore rentals" down in one of NJ's numerous resort towns on the various barrier islands. The biggest culprits of these traffic jams are the NJ Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway.
These two roads get so stuffed with traffic with out-of-state plates that a typical 45-60 minute drive to get to Atlantic City on the expressway of teh same name turns in to a 5-6 hour ordeal of whining kids, over-heating cars and a 45 mile parking lot with tolls.
Every year, at the same times, of the year, all I hear is people from Pennsylvania and New York complaining about the "Shore Traffic". What's baffling to me is that so many of these people are completely willing to sit in the parking lots that are the two major highways to the area. There are numerous roads that lead to any town on the coastline. I've traveled many of them myself. Even on heavy travel weekends like this past weekend, it never takes me more than an hour and a half to get to where I want to go. Even while everyone else is stuck in traffic on those two major highways.
So aside from the Northeast, from the DelMarVa peninsula to the Cape Cod area, does this kind of silliness happen anywhere else? 'Cause it's completely stunning to me that people are so afraid to take "the scenic route". I mean, it's New Jersey. At it's widest point, it's only about 75 miles across. Unless you're driving from Cape May to the tip of the Delaware Water Gap State Forest, you can cover a large portion of the state on considerably less than a full tank of gas.
So, enlighten me. Does this happen elsewhere as well or is it just a Northeast kinda thing because the states are so small up here?
On the way in to work, the radio show I listen to had this discussion on "Shore Traffic". See, in NJ, we don't "go to the beach". We "go down the shore". So it's called "Shore Traffic" and it's usually used to describe all the out-of-staters clogging up NJ's roads to go to their "shore rentals" down in one of NJ's numerous resort towns on the various barrier islands. The biggest culprits of these traffic jams are the NJ Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway.
These two roads get so stuffed with traffic with out-of-state plates that a typical 45-60 minute drive to get to Atlantic City on the expressway of teh same name turns in to a 5-6 hour ordeal of whining kids, over-heating cars and a 45 mile parking lot with tolls.
Every year, at the same times, of the year, all I hear is people from Pennsylvania and New York complaining about the "Shore Traffic". What's baffling to me is that so many of these people are completely willing to sit in the parking lots that are the two major highways to the area. There are numerous roads that lead to any town on the coastline. I've traveled many of them myself. Even on heavy travel weekends like this past weekend, it never takes me more than an hour and a half to get to where I want to go. Even while everyone else is stuck in traffic on those two major highways.
So aside from the Northeast, from the DelMarVa peninsula to the Cape Cod area, does this kind of silliness happen anywhere else? 'Cause it's completely stunning to me that people are so afraid to take "the scenic route". I mean, it's New Jersey. At it's widest point, it's only about 75 miles across. Unless you're driving from Cape May to the tip of the Delaware Water Gap State Forest, you can cover a large portion of the state on considerably less than a full tank of gas.
So, enlighten me. Does this happen elsewhere as well or is it just a Northeast kinda thing because the states are so small up here?
Expert Moron Extraordinaire
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Post edited by Jstas on
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Oh, a "pet peeve" I have is how those from Pennsylvania and New York will refer to the NJ "Shore" as theirs and neglect to even recognize that there is an entire state that they have to rive through to get there just to be the loudmouthed, boorish drunks that they tend to be.
When you people start paying the taxes that maintain that shore line for your use so you can come and spend your money in my fine state then you can call it yours. Until then, it's mine and everyone else who lives in NJ. You're a guest because we allow you to cross the borders and travel to those desirable places down the shore. You should behave like a guest and not like you're visiting your cousins in Pennsyltucky.
BTW, NJ's borders are rivers. That's intentional. They aren't rivers, they are moats but some genius thought it's be a good idea to build bridges and tunnels to let in all the riff-raff the moats were meant to keep out.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
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When we used to go down to the cape during the summer, we'd always leave at like 1AM to avoid all the traffic (you could easily spend hours going nowhere on a summer weekend going down Rte 3 or Rte 6 on Cape Cod, the only real road in). I realize it's not an option for people with kids, maybe, but for everyone else... I'd do anything I could to avoid that s**t.If you will it, dude, it is no dream.
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Being the capital of Canada, we get 1000s of school buses packed with 1000s of kids coming to visit add in the festivals and general tourists our downtown is a huge parking lot. When we do get momentum, we have to try and avoid all those kids j-walking not to mention being stuck behind these huge buses that cant seem to turn on all our packed one ways and block all the traffic. It's so much fun.
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So, enlighten me. Does this happen elsewhere as well or is it just a Northeast kinda thing because the states are so small up here?
The I35 corridor between San Antonio and Dallas/Fort Worth gets pretty congested at certain parts during the holidays. Normally, it's about a 4-5 hour drive in good traffic and weather conditions and depending on your choice of warp 70 or 80. There are alternate routes like 281 but I haven't driven to SA in awhile so my answer is a bit out of date. -
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Don't go talking about the other ways to go down the shore, dumbass. These effin shoobies will just screw that up for us too. Sheesh, Stas, WTF are you thinking???
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Don't go talking about the other ways to go down the shore, dumbass. These effin shoobies will just screw that up for us too. Sheesh, Stas, WTF are you thinking???
I told them there are other roads. Didn't tell them which ones. They can look at a map, like everyone else. Maps are nice because they have pictures so the illiteracy issue isn't a big deal!
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Do you think it is really just people from PA and NY complaining about "shore traffic"? I'm sure there are many residents of NJ that complain about the shore traffic too.
If you own a beach house in NJ , don't you have to pay taxes on it? So aren't you, in essence, paying taxes that "maintain the shore line". -
I avoid the Exit 6-8 area at all cost on NJ turnpike in the summer time. I hope that wider turnpike will solve the issue.Main Gear
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Call me silly but I wouldn't want to go to a destination on my holiday that would be packed with thousands of other people on holiday.Especially when getting there has traffic issues to contend with."They're always talking about my drinking, but never mention my thirst" Oscar Wilde
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Do you think it is really just people from PA and NY complaining about "shore traffic"? I'm sure there are many residents of NJ that complain about the shore traffic too.
Not really. Most of the NJ residents I know are familiar with the "other roads" and leave the major parking lots to the tourists.If you own a beach house in NJ , don't you have to pay taxes on it? So aren't you, in essence, paying taxes that "maintain the shore line".
If you own the house. But the vast majority just rent and those are the bennys and shoobies we've come to "know" and "love". The owners from out of state aren't typically as bad as the renters because they are the ones who have to deal with the neighbors. Sometimes you get an owner that hasn't gotten the hint yet. But they don't stick around long.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
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Gotcha, I can understand both points.
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renowilliams wrote: »Call me silly but I wouldn't want to go to a destination on my holiday that would be packed with thousands of other people on holiday.Especially when getting there has traffic issues to contend with.
Couldn't agree more! Ocean City MD is a nice place but i haven't gone there when schools are out in 30 years.My wife takes the kid and meets her sister during primetime but i refuse to go.
What kind of vacation is AGGRAVATION?
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Anyplace like that I avoid like the plague during the big summer holidays. I used to live at the shore for a while and used to come back up when they rolled around.
I remember going to OCMD when I was a kid. We used to just about live there during the summer. During normal times it was a 2 hr trip. During the holidays, it was 4- 5 hrs. My mom used to go apesh!t. Who could blame her with the three heathen spawn she was dealing with...
When I got older and took the ex and our kids, I was out for numbah one. Ya'll go do whatever you want, I'M goin fishin. If you ain't dying or locked up, I don't wanna hear from you... -
In MD, we call it "goin' down-ee O'shun, Hon." Ok, well maybe not all of us call it that... Best to drive to OC during off-peak hours, though. I see no reason to fight it. Of course, we have family down there, so it's easy to plan an arrival that doesn't necessarily align with a given check-in time.
My in-laws rent a place right on the beach. I might never start the car again all week. Lots of people there, but not hectic at all for us. Of course, OC doesn't make much money off of us either. I hate all the tourist traps.
One year the Bay Bridge was closed due to a chemical spill. What should have been a three hour drive turned into eight... Yeah, that one did suck. -
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John, VaBeach is the same way...I live off the expressway to OBX, in the summertime, all day...forget about it.Polk Audio Surround Bar 360
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Knucklehead wrote: »John, VaBeach is the same way...I live off the expressway to OBX, in the summertime, all day...forget about it.
Speaking of OBX, 158 and 12 in NC have to be two of the worst "vacation route" roads I've ever been on. It's like squeezing everyone in (and out) through a funnel! -
Aside from the 10 minutes I just wasted reading this Piss and Moan session, your traffic problems have affected me in no way at all. Haven't had to deal with your drunks or loudmouths either. Guess I'll be thankful I have the option to chose which part of this great nation I live in eh?Too much **** to list....
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Let me guess, the armpit of America?:rolleyes:
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mdaudioguy wrote: »Speaking of OBX, 158 and 12 in NC have to be two of the worst "vacation route" roads I've ever been on. It's like squeezing everyone in (and out) through a funnel!
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Having grown up on the Pa. side of the Pa./N.J border, I spent a couple of weeks most summers at the Jersey Shore. As I am older than John, I remember the non-Garden State PKWY routes we used back then--to cross Jersey. Even then there was some 'crowding' but NOTHING like what the Parkway is like today! And, no, we weren't Pa. bad guys back then, that's a more recent phenomenon.
The shore has become so 'commercialized' in the last 30 years or so that it does make it tough to fight the crowds. I took my family down there when we were touring the N.E. looking at colleges and Universities a number of years ago and John's description above is spot on. Though my family had no childhood recollections to compare it with. It was their first experience!
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You guys in NJ need this to clog your roads?
We don't need any vacationers to clog our roads.
WE have stupid drivers do it dailey."The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson -
mdaudioguy wrote: »Speaking of OBX, 158 and 12 in NC have to be two of the worst "vacation route" roads I've ever been on. It's like squeezing everyone in (and out) through a funnel!
Sounds like State Route 72 in NJ. The only way on or off Long Beach Island by land. The island is about 18 miles long and about 1/3rd of a mile wide on average. Average resident population is about 8600 people. In the summer time, population booms to about 100,000-150,000. All those people coming on and off the island over a single, 4 lane bridge (2 lanes in each direction) can make for some really nasty traffic snarls. Since most of the houses are 2nd home/vacation homes and the majority of residents are affluent families from surrounding states, many families stay the entire summer. This means that there is a large commuting population in the summer as well.
I've spent a fair amount of hours just waiting for traffic signals in traffic miles long trying to get on that bridge to get home. If the fishing charters off of LBI weren't so good, I really wouldn't have much of a reason to go there.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
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sucks2beme wrote: »You guys in NJ need this to clog your roads?
We don't need any vacationers to clog our roads.
WE have stupid drivers do it dailey.
Oh, no, roads are regularly clogged on a daily basis. It just gets worse during the summer. The holiday weekends are particularly the worst. Especially if the holiday falls on, like, a Saturday and nobody gets off of work until Thursday afternoon at the earliest. Better get up crazy early on Friday or leave in the middle of the night Thursday. I've seen back ups on the Atlantic City Expressway cover 40 of it's 44.2 mile length. Sometimes farther up Rt 42. The Labor Day weekend is the worst for coming home because everyone has to be home for the kids first day of school. There have been epic backups going from the Pleasantville toll plaza to the Walt Whitman bridge, roughly 60 miles. Rolling at an average of 10 miles an hour at that point, a trip of 60 miles (an hour's drive) takes 6+ hours. Especially if there is an accident anywhere along the route.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
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It is common everywhere there are cars and a popular destination.
It's like that here during hunting season when all the "hunters" from Jersey and Philly show up. Well not the traffic but the loudmouthed, boorish drunks that think they own the state land, your land and some times their land.
But I have met some that buck the norm and can be pretty human, so I have to imagine not all the renters are bad.:rolleyes: -
If you don't like the traffic, move! I mean seriously. There is 75% of this country that you can live in and never get behind more than a tractor.
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jmwest1970 wrote: »If you don't like the traffic, move! I mean seriously. There is 75% of this country that you can live in and never get behind more than a tractor.
Oh, you mean like East Podunk Arkansas where Billy Bob Clinton can put me to work pluckin' chickens with the rest of his toothless wonders? Thanks, I'll stay where I'm at.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
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Oh, you mean like East Podunk Arkansas where Billy Bob Clinton can put me to work pluckin' chickens with the rest of his toothless wonders? Thanks, I'll stay where I'm at.
No need to be **** about it, but that's what I'd expect from a Jersey boy. -
jmwest1970 wrote: »No need to be **** about it, but that's what I'd expect from a Jersey boy.
Me? The ****?jmwest1970 wrote: »If you don't like the traffic, move! I mean seriously.
You're the ****, hillbilly.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
