Cuomo urges people to stay off roads during snowstorm, then drives to NYC

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Do as he says, not as he does.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency over the blizzard, urging people not to travel — then hopped in his car during the throes of the snowstorm Monday and drove himself down to the Big Apple from Albany.

“I want New Yorkers to hear me loud and clear — stay home and off the roads,” the governor said in a statement about his emergency declaration.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also issued a state of emergency for the Big Apple — which banned non-essential travel.

But that didn’t stop the governor from hitting the road. He explained that he didn’t want to be sitting home while telling essential workers, including those clearing the streets, they needed to be on the job.

The governor got behind the wheel in the thick of the snowstorm for the roughly two-and-a-half-hour drive from Albany, where he usually holds press briefings, to helm a news conference at his Manhattan office early Monday afternoon.

“I’m telling you, I’m on the road right now — it is horrendous,” Cuomo admitted during a morning call-in to WCBS radio before reaching Manhattan.

“I am personally driving into New York City,’’ he said, adding that he was alone in the car as an extra safety precaution because of COVID-19.

The governor was asked by WCBS reporter Juliet Papa if he thought “it’s a great idea to be driving” — as predictions of up to 2 feet of snow had already canceled thousands of city and state coronavirus vaccinations, closed public-school buildings and wreaked havoc on mass transit.

“Life is options,” Cuomo replied.

“The airports are closing as we speak, and for me, it’s walking or driving, and I’ll take driving,” he said.

“I want to be out there,’’ the governor said. “We have a lot of emergency workers doing great work today, and my personal predilection is I don’t like to call emergency workers out and tell the emergency snowplow drivers, ‘You have to be out.’ … but then I have to stay home.

“If I call them out, I’m not calling anyone into a situation that I wouldn’t go into myself.

“As long as I’ve been governor I will be there, that’s how I see the job,” Cuomo said.

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