The Bocelli concert started at 8. Regardless of when you left, you hit the crosstown traffic and B&T congestion leaving Manhattan at the peak of rush hour. When has it ever been quick or easy to travel through Manhattan by car at the peak of rush hour? Three hours honestly doesn't surprise me. It's taken me 2 hours to get through the Holland Tunnel from downtown (granted, on a summer Friday when everyone else is leaving the city). Getting crosstown and into a tunnel or onto a bridge at rush hour has always been a nightmare. There's not really any way to make it faster. This isn't a bike issue, it's a capacity issue.
And I'm curious where you ran into bike infrastructure trying to get crosstown from Queens to one of the tunnels. Certainly not if you were going W'burg or Manhattan to the Holland or the MTT to the Lincoln.
Last edited by Needs; 06-13-13 at 12:55 PM.