Are you even from New Jersey if you’ve never sat in traffic for over two hours to get onto the beach on Memorial Day Weekend (MDW)? Families pack their cars for the traffic trip, not the beach trip…
If you’ve never sat in Memorial Day traffic, to AND from the beach, you have yet to receive your official New Jersey right of passage.
All jokes aside, and sparing you the trip, last weekend’s beach traffic was SO New Jersey, it hurt. Memorial Day weekend was hot, humid, and enough to send everyone on the east coast, especially New Yorkers, to the Jersey Shore.
Anyone who says, “I’ll go [down the shore] next weekend,” thinks they’re bypassing the ritualistic MDW traffic, but are they?
Perhaps, the next couple of weekends are safe while children are still in school – before the masses of children are released back into the wild. But once school is out, all bets are off.
The usual beach spots, Sandy Hook, Belmar, and Seaside, expect traffic. Over the last couple of decades, those particular towns will be the first to swell with people by noon.
Of course, some beach-goers ARE looking for a more family-oriented beach. That is where timing becomes a factor.
Any parent of young children should know how timing is everything – visit the family beaches before noon to ensure a smooth-sailing day.
As you can see from the photograph above, Memorial Day traffic is scary. It's also the precursor to a 'worst-case scenario' to be expected on the hottest, most humid days of the summer when everyone and their mother want to go to the beach.
Due to recent weather, erosion on some beaches was catastrophic this year. Certain towns need people to visit them, and they're still restoring their shorelines' sand stockpiles.
The best advice this year, look into the other New Jersey beach towns and find a new beach – a secret beach. This will reduce traffic on the main beaches, and help the towns that need to replenish the places we all love to go to in the summer!
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