16. Commute

The key points

• Paramus has no train station. No rail line crosses the Borough.
• The bus is the in-town way to Manhattan. NJ Transit routes on Route 4, on Route 17 and at the malls run to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the George Washington Bridge Bus Station.²¹⁵
• Rail means a drive of three to six miles to a station in a neighboring town, where the parking rules were written for that town's residents. A Paramus resident pays from $125 a year to $125 a month, depending on the station.^216, 217
• Most people drive. Route 4, Route 17 and the Garden State Parkway all cross Paramus. For a daily drive to an office below 60th Street, the tolls alone come to about $5,000 a year.^218, 219

A dagger (†) marks a figure that comes from a secondary source, such as a news report or a published schedule; confirm it with the agency before you rely on it.

How Paramus gets to work

The average trip to work for a Paramus worker is 30.8 minutes, about the same as New Jersey's 30.5 and below the New York metro area's 35.6.²²⁰ Of 12,076 workers, 62.6% drove alone, 6.0% carpooled, 7.9% used public transportation and 21.7% worked from home.²²¹

What this means for you
More than one Paramus worker in five works from home and fewer than one in twelve rides transit. If you commute to Manhattan every day you are in a minority here. The transit is workable, but you have to plan it from the specific house.

Rail: eight stations nearby, none in town

Eight stations ring Paramus on three NJ Transit lines. Every one of them goes to Hoboken, with a change at Secaucus Junction for New York Penn Station. None offers a one-seat ride to Manhattan.²²²

Table 16.1. Nearby rail stations and parking for a Paramus (non-resident) commuter, 2026.

Drives are measured from Paramus Borough Hall, in the center of town, with no traffic.²³⁰ The Broadway lot is across the street in Elmwood Park and is managed by that borough; call 201-796-1457 to confirm the price and whether permits are available.

On the schedule, Radburn has the most service of the stations closest to Paramus. Eight trains leave for Hoboken between 6:00 and 8:59 am on weekdays.†²³¹ The fast train reaches Hoboken in 31 minutes and New York Penn Station in about 39 to 40 minutes.^229, 232 The Pascack Valley stations (New Bridge Landing, River Edge, Oradell) have about two trains an hour in the morning peak, and the trip to Penn Station from River Edge or New Bridge Landing is roughly 45 to 55 minutes.²³³

What this means for you
A Paramus resident has four real choices. Broadway at $125 a year is the cheapest by a wide margin, if you can get one of 80 permits. New Bridge Landing has no residency question at all ($5 a day or $480 a year). Glen Rock-Boro Hall is $100 a month. Radburn, the station with the most trains, is $125 a month, or $1,500 a year, and Fair Lawn no longer sells daily permits. River Edge and Oradell are closed to you. Add $125 to $1,500 a year for parking to the rail fare when you compare a Paramus house with one in a station town.

Bus

NJ Transit runs two groups of Manhattan routes through Paramus. One goes to the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street. The other goes to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station at 178th Street, for the A train and the 1.

Table 16.2. NJ Transit bus routes from Paramus to New York.

How often and how long, from published schedules:†

• 163: trips every 20 to 40 minutes, first weekday trip 6:00 am, last 1:30 am. From Paramus Road north of Century Road to Port Authority is 56 minutes.^234, 230
• 168: on weekday mornings the New York-bound service is the 168T Turnpike Express, from 6:10 am.²³⁶
• 171 and 175: from Route 4 at Spring Valley Road to the GWB Bus Station is 38 minutes, about every 30 minutes with both routes.²³⁰
• ShortLine (Coach USA): stops on Route 17 at Century Road, with scheduled running times of 25 to 32 minutes to Port Authority.²³⁷

Sunday service is lighter. Most Paramus retail is closed on Sunday under Bergen County's blue laws, and nine of the 22 NJ Transit routes that touch Paramus do not run at all.^215, 238

Park-and-ride. There is one free commuter lot in town, at Garden State Parkway Interchange 165. It has 60 spaces† and is open 4 am to 2 am Monday to Friday except holidays, with a two-hour limit at other times.^239, 240 Just north of the Paramus line, the Ridgewood Route 17 Park and Ride has 367 spaces, with service on the 163, the 164 and ShortLine to Port Authority. It needs a Village of Ridgewood permit, reported at about $975 for 2026.†^229, 240 Garden State Plaza, Bergen Town Center, Paramus Park and Bergen Community College are bus stops, not park-and-rides. Ask each owner before you leave a car there all day.

What this means for you
The Route 17 express run is the fastest scheduled way out of Paramus, about half an hour to 42nd Street on paper against roughly an hour on the 163. The trade is that the stops are on the highway and you need a way to reach them. A house within walking distance of a Route 4 or Route 17 stop, or of one of the malls, has a real commuting advantage over one in the middle of a residential section, and listings do not say so.

Driving

Paramus sits at the crossing of Route 4 and Route 17, with the Garden State Parkway running through the east side of town. Route 4 east leads to the George Washington Bridge, about 10 miles and about 15 minutes from Borough Hall with no traffic.† Route 17 south to Route 3 leads to the Lincoln Tunnel, 16.8 miles and about 26 minutes.†²³⁰ Weekday peak times are longer and vary widely from day to day. The Parkway has five Paramus exits (160, 161, 163, 165 and 166),† but no single one gives full access in both directions, which matters when you test the drive from a specific house.²⁴¹

Table 16.3. Tolls for a passenger car into Manhattan, 2026.

Bridge and tunnel tolls are collected entering New York only. A Paramus driver going to an office below 60th Street through the Lincoln Tunnel at peak pays $16.79 plus $9.00 less the $3.00 credit: $22.79 a day before parking, or about $5,000 over 220 working days. By the bridge and down into the zone, with no credit, it is $25.79 a day.

These costs rise every year. NJ Transit fares go up 3 percent each July 1, and Parkway and Port Authority tolls rise each January.^243, 242 The congestion toll is set to rise to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031.²¹⁹

What this means for you
Driving is the default in Paramus, and for a job in New Jersey or Rockland it is a real advantage: three highways and no rail schedule to keep. For a daily Midtown job, budget about $5,000 a year in tolls and a 3 percent annual increase on whichever fare or toll you use.

Fares and timetables depend on the exact stop and train. Before you bid on a house, price and time your own trip on njtransit.com, from the stop you would use, for a weekday morning.

What I tell my buyers: Paramus does not have a train, and I say that in the first conversation, not the last. What it has is the Route 17 and Route 4 buses, three highways, and eight stations within six miles that each set their own rules for outsiders. Before you fall for a house, stand at the bus stop you would use at 7 am on a Tuesday, or drive to Radburn or New Bridge Landing and time it. The commute from a house near Route 17 and the commute from a house two miles east of it are different commutes.

† Figures marked with a dagger are best-effort research, so verify them with the issuing office (the Borough of Paramus, the school district, the county, the state or the utility) before making judgment calls or decisions on them.