Driving in Brooklyn
 

New Yorkers - I need some advice. I will be driving into Brooklyn on Saturday. I'll be coming from New England, so will cross the Whitestone Bridge and then the maps/google give me two possible routes. Am going to Bergen Street and Bedford Av (near the northeast corner of Prospect Park). One route is via Jackie Robinson Parkway; the other route is over the BQE. Any thoughts as to which is 'easier'. The directions via Jackie Robinson Pkwy seem more straight forward but what is that road like?

Thanks

The BQE is one of the most notorious roads in the city. Road condtions are poor and there are often accidents and back ups. But - the weekend can be a better choice.

Suggest you bring specific directions on both routes - as well as a good map. (GPS can be useless.) Then listen to news/traffic radio - 1010 am - starting about an hour out of the city to see what it reports.

Thanks. The route via Jackie Robinson Parkway looks more straight forward but I didn't know what that road was like. I guess it's worth a try since I know the BQE is not good. It's going to be late afternoon on Saturday when we are arriving.

The Jackie Robinson is a twisty-turny two lines in each direction affair. Additionally the Jackie will dump you out on Brooklyn streets, some of which are in terrible repair.

The much more direct route is the BQE getting off at Atlantic Avenue. Neither highway is widely recommended.

Hmmmmm - Well, do you have any other suggestions? And if not, which of those routes would you take? I'll be driving my car and my husband and daughter will be following in a U-haul which will probably complicate matters since we'll want to try to stay together (obviously we will both have the directions printed out in case we get separated). So which do you think would be easier given our situation?

Thanks

I am pretty sure they do not allow commercial traffic on the Jackie while the BQE is a well used truck route.

Besides driving instructions, I hope you will have at least one cell phone in each car. But please note it is against NY State law for the driver to use a hand held cell phone.

My opinion, if you do not know Brooklyn, I would take the BQE.

Hi. Thanks for taking the time to help me. Uhaul claims their smaller trucks are not considered commercial vehicles. If we go on that assumption then we could take the Jackie Robinson. We are not concerned with fastest route for this trip, just the most straightforward/least likely to get separated or lost. Does this make a difference in your advice?

As noted there are many severe and narrow turns on the Jackie and then you must navigate the streets of Brooklyn.

If you take the BQE and get separated agree to meet near the exit for Atlantic Avenue which is a striaght shot to Bedford.

Good luck

You cannot take a truck or a car with anything in tow on any of the Parkways in the NYC area. The lanes are very narrow, often no or tiny shoulders and the roads very twisting and winding.

Be very careful that you pick a tour that allows trucks/larger vehicles. If there is a problem caused by an oversize vehicle the fines can be enormous - in the thousand of $.

And U Haul doesn;t know what they are talking about. It's not just commercail vehicles - you can't tow a boat or a camper or drive an RV on these roads either.