What’s the use of having this Fort Lee traffic pass if you won’t let me, well, pass? There was a clear lane open leading to Route 46 West off of Fletcher Ave that would have gotten my daughter to the Middle School at least 30 minutes earlier. Can I turn here? I asked the traffic cop. He just shook his head and sent me on my way down Route 4. Great. Now I will have to go all the way around and get caught in more traffic. Did I mention the kids were already late to school? The lane was clear and my car would not have been blocking the box. “You should have walked,” he said. I don’t even think he looked behind him to see that the lane was open.
The convenience of living in Fort Lee and so close to NYC is sometimes balanced out by a traffic nightmare. That was the case this morning, when a fatal accident on the George Washington Bridge caused a backup that, at least for me, took an hour and half to get out of. My first thought was that some politician had shot off an email in an attempt to cause another #Bridgegate. My middle school daughter jokes about it sometimes because she remembers how long we sat in the car fighting over the radio station. Knowing how easy it is to throw a monkey wrench like that in a commuter’s schedule immediately caused me to get annoyed. But after learning that someone had died in an accident, I realized that my delay didn’t compare to losing my life or losing a loved one in such a bad accident. Therefore, I figured the kids would just be late to school. I dealt with it.
I understand the traffic challenges that Fort Lee PD are dealing with. But if I have that traffic pass and a car full of three kids, then clearly, I’m not trying to get on the bridge. To be fair, the second traffic cop on Jones Road let me right through once I told him I was headed to the Middle School.
Find out what's happening in Fort Leewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
After a stop at the preschool on Jones Road and the Middle School on Stillwell, my final destination was School #1. It was already 9:45, and I had sat in bumper to bumper traffic all morning. There was no way I was going to make it there before I pulled my hair out one strand at a time. I avoided Center Ave, and turned left on Abbott instead. I’ll just walk, I thought. I parked my car. I never even bothered to look at the signs because I was in such a rush. I made it to the school in less than 10 minutes. Kids dropped off. Done.
Once I got back to the car, to my surprise, there was a ticket on the windshield. Apparently, it was street cleaning day on that side of the street. Now, you would think that with such a mess in the town that the street sweeper would stay off the road for a few hours. Not so much, I guess. I may have been in traffic for almost two hours, but the roads were clear enough for street cleaning and tickets to get through. Smh.
