That Noise? It's the 1%, Helicoptering Over Your Traffic Jam (NYT)

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/nyregion/helicopter-nyc-airports-hamptons.html

That Noise? It’s the 1%, Helicoptering Over Your Traffic Jam
Helicopter service is blossoming across the New York region, showing how income inequality affects even the basic commute.
By James Barron
Aug. 1, 2019

Aakash Anand, who was on his way to Kennedy International Airport, looked out the window at the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn. “I’m not sitting in that bumper-to-bumper traffic,” he said happily.

He was right. He was 3,000 feet above the traffic, in a helicopter.

In New York City, which is saddled with gridlocked roads and slow and unreliable public transit, more and more of those who can afford to are flying over it all.

Helicopter service is blossoming in the region, not just to the area’s three main airports, but also to the Hamptons, a popular playground for the rich. The Hamptons, on the East End of Long Island, have the same downside as the airports: Getting there by car or commuter train can be no fun at all.

Of course, helicopter travel is fun if you have the money to pay for it, which would leave most New Yorkers sharing the pain on the ground while the privileged fly overhead — yet another manifestation of the income inequality that has come to define life in a new Gilded Age.


Sophie Covillard boarding a helicopter in Manhattan to travel to the Hamptons on Long Island. More people are riding helicopters over New York. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times


Helicopters are attracting people with the means to pay $195 for a ride to the region’s major airports and even more to go to the Hamptons. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

[gratuitous]

1. I commute by bicycle 12 miles each way

It's faster than transit, and pretty close to how long it takes by car. It also doesn't cost me $195 each way.

[tblue37]

2. In Brazil the uberwealthy have used helicopters to fly above the risks of crime ridden streets. nt

[DBoon]

3. "Let them eat cake"

The 1% may want to think about the fate of the French monarchy

[Recursion]

4. Mumbai had this; it was actually run by Uber

The problem for both cities is there aren't all that many buildings you can land a helicopter on.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Sao Paulo in Brazil has done this for a long time

for the same reasons.

[pecosbob]

6. Here's hoping they all fly head on into their own empty un-leased commercial buildings in the fog

[dumbcat]

8. That's nice. nt

nt

[pecosbob]

9. I know it was mean of me

but they've knocked most of the Christian charity right out of me after sixty years of being pissed on by the masters of the universe

[dumbcat]

7. I dunno, it seems to me the more up there

flying to where they want to go is better than having their limos down here in traffic with me.

Maybe I'm not into the envy thing enough.

[TeamPooka]

10. I was in NYC two months ago and took the subway from and to JFK. No problem easy peezy

[FakeNoose]

11. Yep - love the New York subways!

In Manhattan you're never more than about 6 blocks from a subway station.

[Demovictory9]

12. San fernando valley..its the noise from.celebrity jets