Trees Fall, Buses Skid, 18-Wheeler Jackknifes During Messy First Snowstorm
The first snowstorm of the year hit on Thursday, and it’s been a mess.
Trees, some of those full of soggy or icy branches, are bending or breaking.
Like this one on 82nd between Columbus and Central Park West, photographed by Jonathan Cristol.
Another on 67th Street almost hit a reporter:
https://twitter.com/ABC7NY/status/1063193581027016704/video/1
Another fell on 89th. Thanks to Jerry for the photo.
Buses have been sliding around, like the M79 below.
well, that doesn’t look good pic.twitter.com/fIPHE0Y165
— Dana Rubinstein (@danarubinstein) November 15, 2018
Two buses contributed to a traffic standstill at 120th and Amsterdam, wrote Barbara, who sent in the photo below.
The M86 didn’t look too promising either.
I don't think the M86 can be running–they're all over here on the UWS–a couple more on the other side of Broadway.
— Julia Vitullo-Martin (@JuliaManhattan) November 15, 2018
On West End Avenue and 98th Street, an 18-wheeler jackknifed, blocking all traffic on the avenue. Robert sent us the photo below.
How’s it looking on your end of the neighborhood? Send photos and insights to westsiderag at gmail dot com.
I thought the bus might not chains on so took the subway at 59th. The C skipped local went non-stop to 145th. Boo.
No streets on the UWS have been plowed.
This storm was not a surprise.
Where is Mayor Lurch during all of this?
The mayor is too busy counting the $$$ he gave to the richest person in the world, and the $$$ he will get back from the richest person in the world.
The governor is doing the exact same thing.
Taking a nap @Jayne….
Was probably plowing LIC to make it more welcoming for Amazon as the tax break wasn’t enough.
Late for something as usual.
Being driven to the gym in his caravan of SUVs. Why do New Yorkers keep electing the same crooked, lazy idiots and expect competence?
The mayor is way too busy planning his run for a higher office – or perhaps he was still at the gym in Brooklyn.
The storm produced twice the expected amount of snow in NYC. If the streets have not been salted/sanded well beforehand, they cannot be plowed anymore, because those streets would turn into skating rinks. Which is what they did anyway.
Salt trucks were out around 3:45 on West End near 97th. Still got a bad jam-up of reticulated buses blocking the avenue.
I noticed the reticulation too.
Not true about lack of plowing. I saw plows on W86 St as early as 5:30 pm. But they thought snow would change to rain sooner than it did. Cut the City a little slack now and then.
Huge heavy branches were falling onto cars on 64th while I was walking home. Grateful i was on the other side of the street as I would have been right underneath them. Tree was also down at the bus stop on west end bw 64th & 63rd, appeared to have taken some kind of line with it. It got much colder and snowier than predicted but they still should have been ready…hardly our first rodeo. I think the trees were going down bc they usually have lost more of their leaves by the first heavy snow and aren’t as heavy.
Saw a NYC plow stopped on WEA, just south of 96. Didn’t think they could get stuck, but the drivers blew their horns without results.
It was a good time to walk over to TJ. No one was on the checkout line.
What was an 18 wheeler doing on West End? I thought that was illegal?
Hope everyone is safe. After hearing the news last night and this morning about the horrible traffic in and out of the city I am that much more appreciative to live on the UWS rather than commuting to the suburbs!
What is an 18-wheeler doing driving on West End Avenue?
18-wheelers are allowed on certain stretches of WEA IF they can prove they have local business on Broadway or RSD.
What’s that truck doing on West End Avenue??
NASCAR Truck Racing?
anything goes these days
The truck and much of the B’way traffic was brought onto WEA to try and alleviate some the bumper to bumper traffic. The problem for the truck was the hill. The driver was VERY carefully and responsible. When he had trouble getting up the hill he turned onto 98th street after going north on WEA for a small number of blocks. He ran into trouble making the turn onto that block because two of our UWS neighbors had parked their cars in the hydrant on the north side of the street and had to back down WEA. The 24 precinct was on site at 99 WEA, and helped guide he out of the problem with no damage/injuries, due to two MTA articulated buses that jackknifed heading south on WEA between 99 & 98. The second one occurred aprox an hour after the first. What the second driver was thinking seeing the first spread across the entire avenue and still try to come down the icey hill makes one wonder. When the driver lost control he just barley came to a stop “kissing” a couple of cars. In talking to both drivers they both said they were told to try WEA and were sent out without chains. One mentioned that it took him 4 hours to come down from Manhattan and 125. And yes I do have snaps of the buses from ground level and from above.
Is this climate chaos?
No, it isn’t.
More like a combination of factors including people who don’t know how to drive in bad weather. Self entitled drivers who park where they shouldn’t. All this piled onto the same situation it always comes down to in Manhattan even in good weather; more motor vehicle traffic than streets can handle.
There are persons on NYC roads who shouldn’t be let loose even in good weather. When things turn bad it simply amplifies their poor driving skills.
A storm is no excuse for blocking a fire hydrant (saw quite a bit of it around town), and in fact makes things worse. In such weather with trees/branches down FDNY already would have to hunt for hydrants, now they also must deal with a vehicle blocking.
The MTA is what it is; and their story is that according to AM weather reports the storm wasn’t forecast to be that bad. So buses were sent out without chains. By the time forecast and weather changed it was too late as buses were already out on streets. Only option would have been to take buses out of service an return to garage. That would have left many totally stranded.
It is amazing that current administration which calls “snow days” at even a whiff of a storm in recent memory, didn’t do so this time. Perhaps had BdeB done so people would have taken the hint and not driven into the city.
B.B., I’ve noticed that you have extraordinary researching skills.
Can you find out about something you wrote: “the same situation it always comes down to in Manhattan even in good weather; more motor vehicle traffic than streets can handle.”?
I’m wondering how much of this “situation” is the result of huge increases in for-hire cars and home-delivery trucks; ie gentrification.
Who or what sort of motor vehicles are to blame for the increasing traffic congestion on Manhattan streets varies by whom (or is it “who?”) the query is directed.
According to a study ordered by mayor’s office Uber, Lyft and other ride share services aren’t wholly to blame: https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/15/10774878/uber-nyc-bill-de-blasio-traffic-study-failure
This seems to be largely because persons using Uber et al are simply those choosing not to use taxis. That leads to a decrease in number of taxis on road……
If you like a good read there is this: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/mobility-report-2018-screen-optimized.pdf
To your other query, yes the E-Commerce boom has caused number of delivery vehicles to surge in Manhattan. Don’t know if would lay the blame totally upon “gentrification” as plenty of “old school” native New Yorkers including residents of UWS use Amazon and other online retail.
Problem is few residential buildings have loading areas so delivery vehicles must street park, often resorting to double parking.
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2018/02/02/e-commerce-boom-adding-to-city-s-traffic-problem
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2018/08/20/delivery-companies-pressure-city-hall-to-let-them-keep-violating-law-without-penalty/
Huge branch snapped off tree in front of Recolte – 74th and Amsterdam.
What cannot believe is city has nerve to keep ASP rules in effect when on any given block there are still large numbers of downed trees/branches taking up large amounts of curb.