Commuting Options

Regional Transit and Transportation Agencies

511

New York State's official travel and traffic information system, a service of the New York State Department of Transportation.

MTA

The subways, New York City Buses, Long Island Railroad, Metro North, and bridges throughout the region.

NJ Transit

Provides rail and bus service to New Jersey and New York City.

Port Authority of NY & NJ

The Port Authority operates the airports, the Airtrain systems, PATH, and the bridges and tunnels between New York and New Jersey.

Trip Planners

Use these services to plan a door trip using our region's buses, commuter rail, subway and ferries.

Trips 1-2-3

Traffic and transit information for the NYC Metropolitan area. Plan a transit trip from Weehawken to Wall Street to Westport all on one site.

MTA Trip Planner

Plan trips in the city as well as throughout the region using MTA and the power of Google Maps. Plan your point-to-point trip using one or more of the MTA Agencies: NYC Transit, LIRR, LI Bus, Metro-North, or MTA Bus.

Hopstop

Subway and bus directions for New York City.

Ferries

The Staten Island Ferry is a free ride between the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island and the Whitehall Ferry Terminal in Lower Manhattan. The ferry has operated as a municipal service for over a century.
Learn about private ferry services in the region

Ride Sharing

Save money, fight congestion and help the environment. These ridesharing services can help you find someone to share an occasional trip with or commute with every day.

CommuterLink

Offers a broad range of free services to businesses and commuters in the five boroughs, including an online ridematching service for carpoolers and mass transit itineraries.

GoLoco

A service that helps people and communities create their own personal public transportation network. GoLoco is a Facebook application and uses your own social network to allow you to rideshare with friends and colleagues.

NuRide

The nation's first ride network that rewards people for sharing rides.

Ride Amigos

Free on-line tools to facilitate ridesharing for corporations, event planners, and the public anywhere, anytime.

TLC Group Ride Stands

TLC has instituted group ride stands to make it easier to share a cab at LaGuardia Airport and at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Weeels

Calling itself "social transit," Weeels make it easy to share a cab or black car with others using their iPhone app or from any mobile web browser.

Carpool and HOV Lanes

If you do share a ride you can take advantage of the many HOV lanes that will help you get into and out of Manhattan more quickly.

Manhattan Bridge HOV 2+ Lane

Between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Monday to Friday, cars with two or more people and buses may use the HOV lane to Manhattan (left lane of the inbound upper roadway). They may access the lane from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) eastbound Exit 29A or from Flatbush Avenue (follow signs) or from the BQE westbound Exit 29, then turn right onto Gold Street or proceed straight onto Flatbush Avenue.

In Manhattan the left turn from the upper roadway onto Canal Street at Chrystie Street is prohibited from 5:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. Vehicles utilizing the HOV lane will have access to Chrystie Street northbound and Canal Street eastbound.

Long Island Expressway HOV Lane Into Queens-Midtown Tunnel Open to All Vehicles With Three or More Passengers

The existing bus and taxi high occupancy vehicle lane (HOV) into the Queens-Midtown Tunnel is open for any motorists who have three or more persons in their vehicle (HOV 3+). The hours of operation are 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on the westbound LIE from Calvary Cemetery to the tunnel. Motorcycle riders must obey the same rules as other motorists and have the required number of passengers

Brooklyn Battery Tunnel HOV-3 Lane on Gowanus Expressway

The HOV lane on the Gowanus Expressway leading to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is open to vehicles with three or more passengers, buses, emergency vehicles, and taxis and for-hire vehicles with at least one passenger. Vehicles using the HOV lane must have E-Z Pass.

The HOV-3 lane runs from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and is in effect Manhattan-bound only from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on weekdays. Vehicles with fewer than three people are not be permitted in the HOV lane but other vehicles will be able to access the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel via the regular lanes of the Gowanus Expressway.

Queensboro Bridge Manhattan-Bound HOV Lane

The South Upper Roadway of the Queensboro Bridge accommodates the Manhattan-bound high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane containing two or more people from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., Monday to Friday. Access is to East 58th Street/East 57th Street in Manhattan from Thomson Avenue or 21st Street at 43rd Avenue in Queens. There are no exemptions for motorcycles in an HOV lane. Motorcycle riders must obey the same rules as other motorists and have the required number of passengers.

NYC Bicycle Map

This year DOT has added 50 new lane miles of bicycle facilities and hundreds of new bicycle racks, making bicycling a healthy, smart and now more convenient choice.
The NYC Cycling Map includes all the city's bikelanes and suggested routes. Download it now, or call 311 for a free copy. Also check your favorite bike shop or your local library for free NYC Cycling Maps.

Other Resources

DOT's Real Time Traffic Cameras

DOT's Weekly and Weekend Traffic Alerts