VIDEO: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to New York City

Following Hurricane Sandy, New Yorkers offer rides to strangers in order to cross bridges.

Three days after Hurricane Sandy pounded New York City, traffic was starting to flow again over the bridges, but with a catch: Beginning Thursday, cars would only be allowed to cross into Manhattan if they had three or more people. That came as a surprise to many residents of Brooklyn and Long Island seeking to escape the outer boroughs. But soon, informal car pools had sprung up, with drivers picking up pedestrians at at the bridge entrance in order to meet the quota. “The same thing happened during 9/11,” one police officer on the scene told me.

UPDATE: Mayor Bloomberg will lift the three-person minimum restriction on cars entering Manhattan starting at 5:00 p.m. today.

Correction: Officer Schwartz’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this video. 

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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