Cherishing and Creating Holiday Traditions

Written by Judy Bortman

It’s almost Thanksgiving. Suddenly life has ratcheted up. The season for holidays, traditions, traffic congestion and guilt-free eating is officially underway!

 

Throngs of travelers on the roads and last-minute shoppers crowding the supermarkets remind us that this is a hectic, fast-paced holiday. We hope you eke out a moment to pause, enjoy and savor time with family and friends. It’s what Hallmark calls, “priceless.”

Where feasible, try taking public transit to family celebrations, gatherings with friends and holiday events. Riding the bus or train is a safe, sane, stress-reducing and hands-free way to travel, especially during peak travel times and inclement weather.

Online resources and smartphone applications help seasoned commuters as well as occasional public transit riders plan their route and reduce their stress. Here are some tips to get you started:

• The New Jersey Transit website has bus and train schedules as well as a point-to-point Trip Planner to help you find a specific route, options and schedules.


• MyBus provides online access to bus information for more than 19,000 bus stops

Using public transit to take a break from holiday traffic is one way to “push the pause” button during the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Park & Ride Lots located throughout the state are an ideal place to connect to public transit or meet friends and family to share a ride. Some lots offer free parking while others charge a nominal fee or require a permit. You can find Park & Ride lots in northwest New Jersey with the Map It page on our website.

While growing up, Thanksgiving Day was all about family and food. The holiday ritual began by getting dressed in a “party outfit” and traveling to Grandma’s house. (Yes, I really did go “over the river and through the woods” to get there because Garden State Parkway Exit 102 didn’t exist then). We’d see relatives that lived far away, get caught up on family happenings and hear childhood stories related (once again) by Uncle Alvin or Aunt Eleanor.

Eating lingered throughout the day starting at a buffet table of appetizers, moving to the dining room table for carving the “bird” and passing a host of side dishes. The feast was topped off with a plethora of desserts. Who can have just one?

On Thanksgiving Day it was okay to have whipped cream on your slice of pumpkin pie and to try the pecan pie, too. No guilt. It was family time. We’d always joke that calories didn’t count.

After pitching in to help with the dishes, everyone would settle themselves in the living room to overcome a carbohydrate-induced food coma. Of course we all knew that would happen. Conversation lingered into the evening until it was time to collect our “care package” of leftovers and head home feeling content and satisfied. Such was our Thanksgiving Day tradition.

Whatever way you travel to spend Thanksgiving Day, consider hitting the “pause button” for a few minutes to reflect on what you’re thankful for. Perhaps that “time out” moment will become your new Thanksgiving Day tradition.

Enjoy and travel safely! Happy Thanksgiving Day from TransOptions.

What Employees Want

Written by Anne Adier-Vivino

Is traffic congestion in New Jersey impacting a business's ability to find and keep the talent they desire? For businesses located in the "burbs" of New Jersey, finding and retaining new and upcoming talent could pose more of a challenge as the millennial generation wants to be less reliant on cars and desire a multi-modal transportation system.

A recent study surveyed people aged 18 to 34 across 10 metro regions with varying levels of transit service. From Chicago to Tampa to Los Angeles, young people reported a preference for places that are walkable and transit-friendly. Four in five respondents reported they would like to live in a city where they could get around without a car. And almost three in four said neighborhoods without transit access were less appealing places to live.

Let's face it, getting into, out of and around New Jersey is taking a lot more time due to congested roadways, and with travel times getting longer, the drive to work can be incredibly stressful. With commuters spending more than an entire workweek delayed in traffic every year, getting to work is a leading frustration for employees.

Even in smaller urban areas, commuting is more of a hassle than ever before and as traffic congestion increases, so does its effect on the quality of life, roads and the environment.

Many consider the commute to work as part of their day and after an hour-plus commute, employees are arriving to work overwhelmed and overstressed. This often results in loss of productivity as well as time off due to stress-related illnesses.

Many employees accept this as the reality of their work life, but should they? And will they continue to do so?

The research tells us a resounding NO. The millennial generation, in particular, say that work life balance is of utmost importance and, truthfully, wouldn't we all like more free time in our day to do with as we please, rather than spending it stuck in traffic? There are simple solutions for businesses that can please employees of all generations.

Regardless of the location, employers can continue to attract new talent and retain current talent without offering pricey benefits. Many companies are turning to commute programs, offering employee incentives and solutions that encourage the use of commute alternatives like ridesharing, shuttles, teleworking, bicycle programs and utilizing NJ Transit.

Through these programs, they are successfully attracting and retaining employees. 

When seeking jobs, potential employees who may have otherwise overlooked the suburban location may find that these types of additional options for travel appealing and therefore expand their job searches. Current employees will be appreciative of opportunities that save them time and money. They will also arrive to work less stressed and ready to start their day.

 

Navigating Summer Shore Traffic

Written by Laura Cerutti

New Jersey is known for many things, one of which is the 132 miles of beaches that come alive in the summer months. New Jersey’s beaches, affectionately known as the “Jersey Shore”, attract millions every year from all parts of New Jersey and neighboring states.  With masses flocking to the Jersey Shore, the coastal towns and beach-bound highways can get pretty crowded.

The Jersey Shore has been made famous in many ways, and infamous in countless others. Bruce Springsteen has written songs chronicling life along the Jersey coast, episodes of the famed mob drama, The Sopranos, were filmed at the shore, and MTV made it a national spectacle with a cast of obnoxious 20- and 30-somethings in a wild reality TV show simply titled “Jersey Shore”. For locals, the Jersey Shore is famous in another way, and that’s the “Shore Traffic” it creates on beach-bound highways.

As a summer-long renter in Manasquan and annual week-long vacationer in Long Beach Island, I have spent a lot of my summer sitting in traffic. I can confidently say that the Garden State Parkway and I have developed a serious love-hate-relationship. The Parkway may take me to my beloved shore, but not without paying the price in stop-and-go-traffic that is almost guaranteed on the weekends.

It is no secret that if you are not going to the shore, you should stay away from the Parkway at all costs on summer weekends. Southbound is stop-and-go starting on Fridays in the early afternoon through Saturday afternoon.  On Sundays, the traffic changes direction and northbound backs up when week-long renters and weekenders all make a mass exodus to head back home.

If you are a frequent traveler of the Parkway, you are probably well aware that the roadway divides… two times in a row into express and local lanes between milepost 125 and 104 both north and south bound. This double-whammy division makes drivers first go through either the EZ-Pass express or the regular toll booths to merge again for a brief second to instantly divide again into either the express or local roadways.  These division points cause major confusion and you can often see other drivers trying to cut across three to four lanes using the famous New Jersey driving maneuver, the “Jersey Slide”.

The best thing to do to avoid an accident at the division points is to prepare yourself before the first split at the tolls. Position yourself into the middle lanes of the roadway, that way it is safer for you to merge back again and then quickly go down your preferred path of the express or local.

So what is better? The express or the local? I always recommend taking the local lanes. The express cuts down to two lanes for most of the ride while the local remains a solid three.  If an accident or major delay were to occur, having three lanes to work with is always better than two. But if you find yourself stuck in a standstill on either the express or local to watch cars on the other side zoom by, there is a switch point right before exit 116 (near the PNC Bank Arts Center) where you can go from one roadway to the other.  Don’t be one of those people that drives over the grass median! That’s just asking for a ticket or worse, an accident.

If you want to avoid the Shore Traffic Blues, there are a couple of things you can do. Some options to consider are working out a summer schedule where you can get off work early on Fridays or working from home.  You can also try taking an alternate route to the shore, finding a carpool buddy, or taking the train!

The Parkway may be the most direct route to shore, but it is not the only. State Route 18 is another beach-bound highway that provides access to shore towns like Long Branch, Bradley Beach, and Belmar. Route 18 can be accessed from the Turnpike at Exit 9 (New Brunswick/East Brunswick) or from Route 287 South at Exit 10 (River Road) or Exit 8 (Centennial Ave.). State Route 35 is another highway that hugs the Jersey coastline passing through towns like Point Pleasant and Mantoloking and ending at the entrance of Island Beach State Park. Taking these alternatives may not be the most direct, but they could be useful on summer holiday weekends when the Parkway is overloaded.

One or two carpool buddies would also make the trip easier by reducing the amount of cars on the road. The trip will also will be less draining for the driver if they have someone to ride with. So next time you are heading down, see if any friends, family members, or coworkers are shore-bound that weekend and combine the ride!

And for those who want to avoid driving all together, NJ Transit also offers the Shore Express service. This one-seat weekend and holiday ride has direct trains out of New York City starting at 7:52 AM  and 10:01 AM stopping at Secaucus Junction and Newark Penn Station then to the coastal towns of Red Bank, Long Branch, Asbury Park, Bradley Beach, Belmar, Spring Lake, Manasquan, Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head. Return trips depart Bay Head at 4:54 pm and 6:54 pm. This express service operates on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays starting on June 28 and continuing through September 1.