Let me get straight to the point… I dislike driving in New York City very much.  I got my driver’s license right before my 17th birthday, and obtained my first vehicle shortly after, so I have been driving for around ten years.  To school, to work, to my friend’s house, to the gym, and back home are pretty much the only routes I take, but those routes have included destinations in all five boroughs and parts of Westchester, Connecticut, and New Jersey.  I have short stints where I defer to public transportation, but I dislike that even more than driving.  Driving is super convenient and I LOVE convenience, but it has become extremely frustrating.  This frustration is due to two reoccurring themes… TRAFFIC and PARKING.

Now I haven’t really experienced traffic in heavy doses in any other major city, but in my opinion New York City traffic is pretty bad.  It easily doubles travel time, a lot of the time even more.  The traffic is pretty consistent though, aside from major holidays, school closings, and the occasional accidents, it materializes at the same time in the same places.  It forms wherever there is MERGING.  Such a simple thing, but it seems like so many drivers do not understand the concept.  There probably should be a part of the driving exam dedicated to it.  Between the “jerk” drivers, who drive outside the rumble strips, the “oblivious” drivers, who attempt to impose merging because they never know what is actually going on, and the “traffic patrol” drivers, who try impose a certain driving etiquette, but end up doing more harm than good, driving in New York City becomes something of pure inefficiency.  It is extremely frustrating and nearly impossible to avoid.

So after enduring the pain of traffic and finally getting to the destination, the next obstacle presents itself… parking.  Some people are immune to this obstacle as their destinations include their personal garage or driveway or even a convenient private or public parking lot.  This is a great luxury that most of us do not enjoy.  I lived in Manhattan between Broadway and Riverside Drive for a while and after 7pm finding parking was nearly impossible.  Now there were some days when parking was not an issue, but the days that luck was not a factor, it was miserable.  The worst part about it was the nearest available parking lot was over ten blocks away, so I had very few alternatives.  Like traffic, the parking situation is consistent though, same areas and around the same times.  Nowadays, I just don’t drive to certain places because I want to avoid the parking headache altogether.

Despite my apparent disdain for driving, I still drive a good amount of time.  There are so MANY advantages to it and I still own a car… so why not use it, right? I just have to not drive everyday, so my frustration doesn’t build up to an unmanageable level.  I’ve managed to deal with it for this long, so maybe one day it won’t bother me anymore…