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David Alexander of Bellerose left home at 4:45 a.m. - almost an hour earlier than usual - trying to beat traffic into Manhattan.
But as he left the Long Island Expressway and approached the Queensboro Bridge shortly after 5 a.m., motorists hoping to beat the bridge's 6 a.m. carpool-only deadline had already backed up traffic to Van Dam Street.
Alexander, a software consultant who often crosses the bridge en route to work, found a parking space instead, and took the subway to his office in Chelsea.
"I usually leave home at 5:30, but that's not good enough now," said Alexander, who often drives all the way to work. "I just didn't want to get stuck in traffic."
As dawn broke on the first Monday morning under the city's restrictions on single-occupancy cars heading into Manhattan, traffic...