By: Kerry Ding

Hoboken, a city in New Jersey, just had a massive celebration for Independence Day hosted by New York City over the Hudson River, where both people from New Jersey and New York can watch. This doomed the entirety of New Jersey’s border with New York to be overfilled with traffic. The streets were flooded with people and cars, leading to a slow moving traffic jam that lasted for hours. Many families including mine were trapped for hours into the early hours of the day.

Historically, July 4th celebrations were held over the East River – which is impossible to see from New Jersey as it is in the middle of New York City. This year, Macy’s, the sponsor of the event, decided to host it over the Hudson River, something that hasn’t happened since 2013.

The way to the event at Hoboken was already very stricken with traffic. Many people had come hours before to avoid traffic. Even more people who lived nearby resorted to walking.

Though the event went by well, the fireworks began early. This was likely due to the rain that was predicted to begin around the end of the fireworks.

The fireworks overall were quite mesmerizing. Loud cracking sounds could be heard throughout New Jersey and New York City. Although I had expected a grand finale, the fireworks ended without any unusually large or pretty ones.

However, when the fireworks show ended, it was pure chaos. Hundreds if not thousands of people flooded the streets of Hoboken, causing immense traffic in an area already full of cars. Though the crowds cleared after around 15 minutes, the traffic stayed.

For example, it took an hour to move a block in my family’s car. After hours of intense traffic that led to cars only moving a yard every five minutes, the cars slowly dispersed. It took three hours for my family to get out, and since we were in the front, it probably took much longer for many families. To put it into perspective, moving through a city of this size would usually take at most half an hour.

At one point, my father and I were so hungry and in desperate need for the bathroom that we decided to get out of the car to find a restaurant in order some food to bring back. We settled with a nearby pizza restaurant. After ordering and waiting for the food, we traveled back to where our car was. It had only moved around two blocks, a distance that only took two minutes to walk. Additionally, we had been gone for nearly half an hour.

For such a small town, the traffic was immense. It is still a mystery why it took three hours to disperse the traffic. All in all, my family moved around four blocks in the three hours we were trapped in Hoboken.

Image Credit by Levent Simsek