Everything I Know About Driving in NYC

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2024-12-25 23:30:03

It’s Christmas here in New York, my favorite day of the year. It is the one day I get to enjoy the most favorable driving conditions this city has to offer. The streets are mine, and mine alone. Free legal parking as far as the eye can see, paired with zero traffic: my own personal Toyotathon!

To pay it forward, I thought I’d share some free tips on surviving – even thriving – while driving in New York. (It can be done!) I’m pretty confident that you’ll find something useful in this list whether you’re just learning to drive, a grizzled veteran of the roads, or anywhere in between.

You may also find some things in here to passionately disagree with. Everyone thinks they know everything about driving, right? I will humbly offer my credentials. I learned to drive in Brooklyn, and have been licensed here for twenty years. I drive a 2005 Toyota Prius, which has spent most of its life on these streets, but has also accompanied me around the country multiple times. It is nearing 200,000 miles, at which point I can write to Toyota for a commemorative sticker. It has survived being hit by a deer in the Bronx.

I am car-brained but also a NUMTOT. I drive, but I also bus, ferry, kayak, and of course walk to get around this town. I spend a comical amount of my free time advocating for stop signs and traffic signals. Everyone has a favorite bus; mine are the BM1/BM2/BM3/BM4 express buses, which have fancy plush seats and travel straight from my house in Ditmas Park to either Battery Park City or E. 23rd St with nary a single stop in between.