Her friends have dropped memberships to gyms because they don't want to travel across town. In general, there are a number of ways New Yorkers get across town, including bus, taxi, bike and on foot. They each have their own crosstown war stories and thoughts on why traveling a mere two miles is often so harrowing. Taxi driver Tiwana Parvinder says the East-West divide exists because of the traffic congestion. On the weekend there are a lot of people going back and forth.
Rush hour can be bad too.
A subway is not worth it because it would be very costly. Bus drivers such as Emilio Colon, who drives East-West across 72nd Street, say it takes less than 30 minutes to get across town, but that unforeseen circumstances often force them to slow down. There is no direct route through Central Park at 72nd Street, so Colon's route takes him down to 65th Street, where he crosses the park. That adds at least five to 10 minutes to the ride, he says. There are also large construction sites in the '60s on the West Side that back up traffic, he says.