Even Daily News Reporters Can Walk 3.4 Miles An Hour

Traffic in Midtown was so bad yesterday even Daily News reporters could outpace a city bus:

Roads were a mess from the West Side Highway to the FDR Drive and from the Battery all the way up to 72nd St., but no thoroughfare was as bad as Third Ave.

To measure the congestion, two Daily News reporters — one on foot, the other riding the M102 bus — raced from 34th to 60th Sts. on the clogged boulevard, starting at 12:04 p.m.

As the reporter on foot headed north at a brisk pace, the bus merely crawled ahead. Riders were not amused.

“Let the UN move to Alaska!” raged Stephanie Boren, 62, of Tudor City, as the vehicle neared 48th St. “Every time the President comes to New York, he shuts it down. This is an unfair and unnecessary inconvenience.”

Although the traffic eased after 50th St., the bus never pulled even. The pedestrian reporter reached 60th St. at 12:27 p.m. — a full five minutes before his bus-riding colleague arrived. And he saved the fare.

As terrible as yesterday’s traffic was, forecasters don’t expect the roads to ease up anytime soon.

“People at times sat for an hour before things cleared up,” Daily News traffic columnist “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz said. “We’re . . . expecting tomorrow to be just as bad.”

“It’s very bad,” moaned Said Bud, 39, a livery cab driver who got stuck on Third Ave. yesterday afternoon. “I came from Brooklyn. I want to get out of here.”

At 20 blocks to a mile, that means the bus was traveling 2.8 miles an hour.