Munchmobile 2014: Taylor Ham Sandwiches

A Taylor ham, egg and cheese bagel at Bagel Chateau, Westfield.

(Alex Remnick/The Star-Ledger)

It's all about the roads this week, with mailbag questions about whether a vanishing Parkway exit will return, opening up the shoulder of the Turnpike extension outside of the rush hour and if it's illegal to eat Taylor Ham behind the wheel.

Q: Alaina Pyontek said in an e-mail that she enjoyed reading our "Drop the phone: Police are cracking down on distracted driving in N.J." story. Her question is did we take some poetic license when we wrote:"Stop texting your BFF, drop the phone and put down that Taylor Ham sandwich when you're driving this month. "

"Will police really ticket me for eating a sandwich in the car...or drinking a coffee," she asked?

A: The short answer Alaina, is enjoying tasty Tayor Ham on a hard roll while driving isn't illegal, but if you do something wrong while you have one hand on the sandwich and the other on the wheel, you could wind-up with a cop for a chaser.



If you're doing something that might be considered careless driving while eating that sandwich or having a coffee, an officer can stop you and cite you for careless driving, said former police chief Anthony Parenti, who's the executive director of the New Jersey Traffic Safety Officer's Association.





Parenti said that an officer can cite a driver for careless driving if they see them doing something dangerous, such as being unable to control their vehicle while eating or drifting in and out of lane while applying make-up or combing their hair. That's what the careless driving statue is for, he said, and why the state hasn't had to pass laws dealing with every behavior that is considered distracted driving.



The short answer is, yes, if that Taylor Ham sandwich is so delicious that you can't keep your car in lane, it might be wise to put the sandwich down or pull over and finish it.

Q: Tony Conti asked why the Turnpike Authority doesn't keep the shoulder of the eastbound turnpike extension open for traffic on the weekends, which serves as a third lane? He said there is heavy traffic on the roads around Bayonne, Jersey City and getting over the Turnpike bridge to Newark airport when the Pulaski Skyway and the Bayonne Bridge is closed or partially shut down for construction work.



A: Good question Tony. What he's talking about is using the Turnpike extension shoulder as a lane for traffic, which was opened last year when the rehabilitation of the Pulaski Skyway shut down the eastbound lanes. A green arrow over the shoulder lane tells drivers the lane is open, a red "X" on the sign means it's closed.



Turnpike Authority spokesman Tom Feeney said the turnpike extension shoulder is open for more hours than just the weekday commuting rush. The shoulder lanes are open on weekends at times when eastbound traffic volumes are high. It stays open for one hour longer on Friday evenings than it does other nights, and it is open on Sundays between 3 and 7 p.m., he said. The authority also opens the shoulder on holidays during the same hours it is open on non-holidays.

"We don't see a big jump in eastbound volume on the extension when the Bayonne Bridge is closed," Feeney said. The weekend closures of the entire Skyway have not affected traffic volume on the eastbound Extension since the inbound Skyway is closed all the time for the rehab project, he said.

What you might be seeing on local roads, Tony, is traffic using city streets to take a shortcuts around the Skyway on weekends. When I lived in downtown Jersey City, we could tell when traffic was bad on the extension to the Holland Tunnel because local streets would get clogged with cars looking for a short cut.

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GOT QUESTIONS?

Ticked off about mass transit? Wondering about road construction? E-mail your questions to

NJ.com's transportation expert Larry Higgs

. He'll answer your questions on Tuesdays on NJ.com. You can also Tweet

@CommutingLarry

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Q: Ilene Mulhern of Forked River, asked if there will there ever be an exit from the northbound Garden State Parkway onto Route 70 in Lakewood? Likewise, will there be southbound access onto the Parkway from Route 70? There is a lot of construction still in progress there but I can't tell what they are doing, she wrote.



A: Unfortunately, Ilene, what there was of Exit 88 vanished into the history book last November when that exit was permanently closed by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which runs the Parkway.



Here's why. Exit 88 was one of those infamous incomplete interchanges, meaning that drivers couldn't get on the Parkway south from Route 70 or exit on to Route 70 from the Parkway north.



As part of the bigger project to restore shoulders to the Parkway between exits 100 and 83, Exit 88 was closed and a service road was built between exit 89 and Route 70 and a full interchange was built with Route 70 in Lakewood.



What that means is you can get off the Parkway and get on Route 70, but you will have to use Exit 89 and the new service road to do it.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.