Every year around this time, thousands of New Yorkers engage in an intricate Thanksgiving ritual that involves advanced calculations, complex analytics, risk-assessment and strategic thinking.

Their goal? Get to the airport.

New York City is served by three major airports, and there is no easy way to get to any of them. This may be the largest city in the United States, and one of the most-visited in the world, but for most residents, an expedition to LaGuardia, Kennedy or Newark Liberty (in New Jersey, an entirely different state) is a daunting endeavor requiring planning and precision.

No subway line goes directly to any of the airports, so if you want to take public transportation, you will have to transfer somewhere, somehow, at least once. The bus? Slow.

Just drive, you say? Well, most New Yorkers don’t own cars. And long-term parking at Kennedy Airport, for example, is prohibitively expensive at $40 to $80 a day.

So maybe you want to take a cab. A taxi from Manhattan to Kennedy will cost $70 before tolls, surcharges and tips. Uber and Lyft prices have increased steadily, meaning people headed to the airport often pay more than $100.

And once in a car, New York residents must deal with New York roads.

The city’s highways are notoriously sluggish and messy. As one traveler, Conrad Dornan, 44, put it: “I’ve lived here for 23 years, and the road to J.F.K. has been under construction the entire time.”

The New York Times