Escape won’t be easy
Jammed roads, trains, airports; Macy’s balloons could be grounded
New Yorkers looking to get out of town for Thanksgiving could be in for a world of pain — along with those who stay in the city hoping for some holiday parade fun.
Heavy winds that will blow in with a cold front will be at their strongest just when Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has its iconic balloons up in the air.
The NYPD may be forced to ground the parade’s largest balloons if current weather projections hold up.
City officials will ground the parade’s 16 “giant balloons” if sustained wind speeds exceed 23 mph or if gusts hit 35 mph, said Mayor de Blasio spokeswoman Laura Feyer.
National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Wunsch said Tuesday that the city should brace for blustery conditions.
“The winds look to be the strongest during the parade time,” Wunsch said, adding that the city could see sustained winds from 17 to 23 mph with gusts of up to 40 mph in some areas on Thanksgiving morning.
The bluster won’t just be in the air but in the streets too. Data released by transportation analysis company INRIX this week show the five boroughs could see some of the worst gridlock in the country.
The company projects that congestion in and around the city will peak from 5:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, and travel times for drivers could increase by up to 350%.
“With record levels of travelers, and persistent population growth in the country’s major metropolitan areas, drivers must prepare for major delays,” said INRIX analyst Trevor Reed. “Although travel times will peak on Wednesday afternoon nationally, travelers should expect much heavier than normal congestion throughout the week.”
Flying won’t be much easier. The Port Authority has urged air travelers to allow extra time for their jaunts out of town.
Roughly 1.8 million people are expected to travel through the city’s three major airports over the course of the weekend, some 30,000 more than last year, which set a record for Thanksgiving travel.
Wunsch said Tuesday that there is a “chance of showers basically throughout the day on Wednesday,” but said conditions should not be bad enough to ground flights.
Taking a train might be the best way to escape — so long as rail riders leave early in the afternoon.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced that the Long Island Rail Road will schedule an additional 12 trains out of Penn Station between 12:45 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, while Metro-North riders will benefit from an extra 18 trains out of Grand Central Terminal during the same period.
The agency expects its commuter lines to carry at least 212,000 people on Wednesday, which would set a record.
MTA Chairman Patrick Foye urged riders to use the agency’s app to plan their trip, and said that “customer ambassadors” will be in place to help confused passengers at busy travel hubs.
NJ Transit could be in much worse shape than the MTA on Wednesday as ridership on the agency’s commuter line to Newark Airport is expected to be about twice as high as a typical weekday.
The cross-Hudson agency will also run additional trains on a few of its lines during the early afternoon on Wednesday.