Merry Christmas, obsessive-compulsive drivers of the world!
Motorists hung up on the Holland Tunnel’s OCD-aggravating holiday decorations got an early present Monday when the Port Authority revealed the public’s choice to fix the eyesore.
The pick — chosen in a five-day online poll posted by the Port Authority last week — is to move the triangular tree from the “N” in “Holland” to the more logical “A,” and lose the wreath over the “U” in “Tunnel,” which had rendered it a “TONNEL,” the agency revealed.
That option beat out three alternatives by garnering 41.7 percent of the 21,528 votes cast, the Port Authority said.
In second place, 36.2 percent of voters wanted to move the tree from the “N” to the “A” but leave the wreaths alone.
A mere 6.5 percent of voters wanted to add a tree over the “A,” and adjust the remaining decorations to make it symmetrical, while the remaining 15.6 percent voted to leave things as they were.
The decision brought holiday cheer to driver Cory Windelspecht, who engineered the push to re-deck the Holland.
“I’m excited and happy and glad it went our way,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier for the change and the turnout of people who voted and that the Port Authority listened to the people.”
“When one man tried this, no one would listen,” Windelspecht said. “When 21,000 spoke, that’s when they would listen.”
Windelspecht, a 38-year-old Tribeca resident, was so bothered by the arrangement on the New Jersey side of the Hudson that he launched a Change.org petition demanding some redecorating on behalf of the “nearly 1-3% of America’s Population [that] suffers from OCD.”
The decor debate even got the attention of Budweiser, which dressed up a sign atop their Newark brewery with a wreath over the “U” and a fir over the first “E” in solidarity with Windelspecht.
By Monday afternoon, the petition had gathered nearly 3,000 signatures, blowing well past its initial goal of 1,000.
They’ll get their wish around 10 p.m. Monday, when traffic will be light enough for Port Authority workers to make the switch official, the agency said.
The wreath removed from “Tunnel” will be moved to the Journal Square PATH Station.
The fir-placement fervor generated such a strong response, officials said, that the Port Authority is weighing a public design contest for decorations during the 2019 holiday season.