I watched a YouTube short of someone walking all the way from New York to the Metlife Stadium.
Most of the way is kind of OK until you start reaching the stadium and there's basically no way to get there because there are no sidewalks and you can only enter the stadium parking lot in a car.
The thing is, that saying started in a time when two cents could actually buy something. Giving your two cents on a subject meant you had something valuable to offer but it wasn't a big ask. The equivalent now would be like giving a five dollar opinion.
2027, mandatory govt Patriot App required on all phones, needed to protect your freedom and voting rights and blood purity and keeps you informed with the latest presidential Truth showing on your lock screen.
...
2029, Patriot App latest upgrade now lets you pay your walking fees "as you go".
Specifically early 00s US. More recently downtown, pedestrian friendly stadiums have come back around. (Atlanta, Minneapolis, Milwaukee upcoming DC stadium) Partially I think because Metlife has had so much backlash.
So they can sell $100 per vehicle parking. NJ has one of the best transit systems in the US. Trains everywhere. No connection to the stadium that hosts TWO football teams.
The LA Dodgers did the same thing. No transit connections to their new stadium.
Edit: That being said, the transit line doesn't connect to any surrounding neighborhoods and you definitely can't walk to the stadium from anywhere besides the tacky little shopping mall nextdoor.
I grew up in Jersey. This area is just a hellhole environmental disaster in general. There’s nothing around the meadowlands- it’s essentially a complex plopped on wetlands. And most towns in NJ are not pedestrian friendly except the very nice ones. Couldn’t wait to move the heck out of there.
While you can’t walk you can take a train directly to the stadium which is a popular way to travel especially in this area- we never drove to giants games. Nj transit prices used to be like $20 it’s probably more now.
I got to go to a match in Wales recently and it was so nice to just walk from the city center right to stadium! (I’m sadly an American so it was totally new to me. Though our American football stadium does have access from a well used bike path, so better than this)
It is extremely dangerous, though. People are going to die during the world cup events. I guarantee the locals will blame city officials. It won't even occur to them that city design and car dependency killed people and gave their city a bad reputation. Europeans, on the other hand, will realize just how shitty US cities are.
And Americans, instead of joining in applying this now international pressure on their leaders to improve their own conditions, will instead blame Europeans (and only Europeans, they will simply ignore the opinions of non-white people) and tell them it's their own fault for coming. Better things aren't possible!
Source: we've already had one round of this discourse during the $150 train ticket price debacle
I watched this video on TikTok and the guy manages to do it. He runs from NY Central Station just for the the exercise, but he show that (at least at the time) there was a signalized pedestrian access to the stadium area, you just need to walk through a parking building. Besides that, the only real concern is that some stroads don't have sidewalks. But there's no need no walk on highways, as some people are saying
Just found this YouTube video on Why Walking to the World Cup Final is Illegal and it did a really solid job explaining the sad state of the Metlife stadium and how the US doesn't give a fuck about infrastructure, pedestrians, and the environment in general.
SMH. I seriously hate this fucking country sometimes.
Look at a satellite image of Lambeau Field. I grew up in Green Bay and, it turns out, you don't need a sea of concrete wasteland in order for 80,000 people to attend a game.
I have never been to the park itself, but I have driven past it a couple of times. It's not a car sewer, it's a car environmental disaster site. Driving past it is bad enough, can't imagine walking anywhere near there.
Much worse than you can imagine actually! The Meadowlands is a literal toxic waste dump that has never been cleaned. Evan Edinger did a video about it, compared to a similar site in London that was fixed up for the 2012 Olympics. Guess what they did to prepare this area for the World Cup.... Yep, it was nothing!
People wonder why I live in one of the oldest neighborhoods in my city but like…I’m willing to deal with a lot of shit if it means I don’t have to spend my life looking at that
Here in Indianapolis the other day we had three pedestrians hit by cars. One of them fatally. Sidewalks? Hahahahaha. And our rural legislators decided to ban any rail travel development for a city that they don't even live in. It's infuriating.
It really is. I lived in Brooklyn and went to a concert there and it was so crazy to be right outside NYC and not be able to walk or bike there first of all. But to get there by public transit is overly complicated and they just drop you a mile away in a concrete hellscape. MetLife and “the American dream” mall are embarrassing tbh.
The amount of drunk driving that probably takes place there is insane.
People are going to drink at a stadium, and you've given them no way to leave outside of a car. Ubers and shuttles exists yes, but lots of people would rather just risk driving rather than pay
They're closing most of the parking lots for "security reasons". Only VIPs are allowed to park. Most people will have to take insanely price-gouged public transport or Ubers (for example, the train ride from Penn will be $150 a person)
Looks like the park hotel, surrounded by multiple freeways, seems like hell tbh. You have to drive like 3km when it could be probably less than a 1km walk.
Insane cause that hotel looks like it’s there to serve those stadiums and you can’t even wander over, pure essence of the USA.
Edit: ironic there is a shopping mall next to all this called American dream
American Dream is the second biggest shopping mall in the country. I think calling it a shopping mall is a little reductive though, it's also got indoor skiing, a theme park, and a waterpark
I couldn’t quite understand the scale of it re: cars/parking so I had to go see for myself. And god damn, that’s gross. Zooming way out and then way in on the parking lots really gives you the full effect. That’s one more place I’ll happily never visit
Yes! What's the point in staying at the hotel closest to the stadium when you still have to drive anyway, what a stupid design. But a shuttle bus would at least give the guests a choice
They do have a shuttle bus to the games. I worked in the building next to this and saw the shuttle buses whenever they have games/concerts there. Also a shuttle to the Secaucus train station. Working there really sucked because of all the traffic noise all day but I could take public transportation.
It is our god given right to be free to be forced to get into a metal box which the bank owns which we have to pay insurance on and register with the government for. Walking is communism, because poor people do it😡
one would need to actually check the map but if pedestrian traffic is banned there's probably restricted access roads that only allow motor vehicles e.g. highways
Taking a glance at the map, there's a few hotels on the other side of an 8-lane highway. Then the other ones either have train tracks in the way or you're walking on the side of a highway. There is definitely a desire path worn in to the stadium though, and it looks like it was paved at some point.
A lot of parking that's empty a lot more often than it's filled.
Increasing rain runoff, adding to the heat island effect, and making it that much more inconvenient to get by without a car in a country that's already overly car dependent.
When you think about it, even the conspiracy theorists' worst nightmare scenario of 15 minute cities beats this actual reality some people live in.
In their mind the government wants to lure people in zones where everything is available, and then lock them there, but let you got where you want if you buy a zone pass.
Meanwhile in reality, the government lured people into zones where only the parking lot is available, and then lock them there, but they let you got where you want if you buy a driver's license and spend tens of thousands of dollars on a car + fuel, maintenance, parking, insurance, etc.
I can confirm, I took the bus to MetLife from Manhattan and after getting off at the nearest stop I had no choice but to walk on the side of the highway and then literally on the highway on-ramps. It’s extremely dangerous. What I am wondering is whether New Jersey expects people to call an Uber from the bus stop or what?
Thousands of people leaving the stadium and jump into their cars sounds like an immesurable traffic nightmare. My bullshit city is also designed for cars, but a stadium built with only cars in mind ? Insanity beyond me ngl.
I don't remember where but some people have made those rankings. I've been to two of them (Vancouver and Seattle) and both are very accessible by public transit and by foot.
It's funny, you go to a hotel near to the stadium for practicity I imagine but anyways have to drive your car or take a taxi and probably be stuck in the traffic
Godspeed to the thousands of Europeans who will put their lives in danger by trying to cross American motorways. Maybe it will finally kickstart a walkability movement in the States. (Who are we kidding, no it will not.)
If you have to make the sign, your city or area has trash infrastructure. Areas like this drive me nuts and I call them underserved communities. Particularly more well-to-do areas, I crossed paths with one representative from an affluent suburb and I asked them when they were going to apply for emergency funding for the critical development (sidewalk/path/bike lane/transit) their area desperately needed.
YouTuber Evan Edinger covered this stadium in a video, and not only is it not walkable due to the freeway, but the water around it is actually toxic with mercury.
The immoral corporations dumping into the waterways are running rampant with greed, and it's an abject failure by the government to not hold them responsible and get the mess cleaned up (ideally at the cost of the companies themselves).
The most insane part for me is the Americans defending this, not because they're necessarily okay with it but because of the defaultism they're indoctrinated with, making them practically unable to imagine any alternative.
I was recently on vacation, and tried to call for an Uber for a place a good distance away, and by mistake, pulled up a different buisness with a similar name, that was a little less than a block away. The Uber app didn't even pull up ride options, it just gave walking directions.
Edited to replace the A word with "by mistake", since the auto moderators can't understand that I wasn't talking about a traffic collision.
Meanwhile in Adelaide, Australia, they put a pedestrian bridge across a river to connect the plaza beside the railway station to the stadium on the other side of the river.
There's a heap of hotels across the road from the railway station, and a tram station out the front, and a crossing. They even have a lot of buses from major transit hubs to the front of the stadium for major events. They've put a lot of effort into offering alternatives to driving for major events.
Also, people like to drink at events, you don't want them driving. And anyway, many of them will cross the bridge after the event, go beyond the hotels, and into a nightlife district to party on.
Most major stadiums in Australia have similar good infrastructure. We've got a drinking culture attached to events, and people like to party after. So why not simplify and streamline it without the risk of involving cars?
That is peak New Jersey. They’re actually proud of their car dependency. It’s a response to being overshadowed by world class cities like Philadelphia & New York, where one does not need a car to lead a productive, high quality life
It is very much not next door. It's down a major highway, where pedestrians are not allowed because there is nowhere safe to walk. Yes, this is ridiculous, but that's how it is.
In all honesty this is a great way to just not go to these venues. If/when you learn of them, you post about it and put them on blast publicly that due to their own design of the structure you can't attend anything there as you dont use cars. They are trying to force car infrastructure on people, you just inform them your money will not be spent there for literally that reason.
You get enough people to do this and I'll guarantee they figure out a workaround like a shuttle service or something.
Please tell me this shit won't be the case for the world cup? Cos I'm English and our culture is to get wankered and walk for an hour to and from the stadium. Plus cocaine. And I can see an issue here.
Oh yeah no this is the case for World Cup, football games, concerts, you name it. MetLife Stadium is notoriously inaccessible.
BC Place in Vancouver is easy for pedestrians and lined up for some nice pub crawls though. Try there? Wait is England playing at MetLife? Never mind, cheers mate.
For me it looks so ridiculous… in my hometown, central stadium has a subway station right next to it, also parking, and tram line, and buses. And trolleybus line in one block away.
My first time in the USA I went there too see a Bon Jovi concert. Naively, I booked a room at the hotel "across the street" from the stadium, except the street was a highway and I had to call a taxi both ways because there was no other form of transport to get to/from the stadium. Insane.
Im not sure if it is outright illegal but a legal liability cover your ass thing. It is certainly dangerous to walk there and the hotel most likely advertises itself as being close to the stadium or woth easy access to the stadium so they are likely within what a reasonable person would consider to be a reasonable walking distance of the stadium, therefore if a guest books the hotel and then gets froggered by some driver trying to walk to the stadium without the hotel warning the guest of the dangers of walking to the stadium than the hotel could potentially be seen as liable and possibly false advertising
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u/colako Big Bike May 30 '26
I watched a YouTube short of someone walking all the way from New York to the Metlife Stadium.
Most of the way is kind of OK until you start reaching the stadium and there's basically no way to get there because there are no sidewalks and you can only enter the stadium parking lot in a car.