Long Island, New York a Life Lived with Traffic and Stop Lights! Oh and horns and dirty looks…

One day recently, on a whim, I counted the stop signs and traffic lights on my 15 minute commute, one which should take about 5 minutes. There were exactly 19 traffic lights and 18 stop signs from starting location to home and understand this was a round trip so double the statistics.
Bottom line? 10 additional minutes were taken up stopping at traffic lights which are not at all synchronized. Each light approximately every two blocks along Austin Blvd in Island Park and Long Beach Road in Oceanside turn green after stopping you and others only to get back up to speed while the very next light turns red requiring all to stop once again. Don’t even get me started on that dumb light at the dump/closed trash to energy plant. Yep it turns red even when no cross traffic exists. Oh yes and there is the right turn arrow on Long Beach Road across the way from Peter’s Seafood. There is absolutely only one allowable traffic flow there and guess what? Yep the stupid arrow turns red. Arghhh who the heck is in charge and making these decisions?

Road construction during the day? Are you kidding me? What brain child thought that one up? At least they did it right on the recent repaving with sections of the Southern State Parkway, yes, they actually did the right thing and worked at night. We need more of that all over the Island. The roadways are atrocious.

At the current price of gas that is a huge amount of waste. Not to mention the harm to the environment. Keep in mind I am only discussing one very small area in Nassau County, NY. Meanwhile in other parts of the island?

The following facts are offered for the readers consideration:

• According to the NY DMV there are more than 2 million registered vehicles on Long Island.
• The NY DOT lists approximately 130,000 vehicles each day on the Cross Island Parkway (CIP)
• Again the DOT tells us that approximately 320,000 vehicles pass on the Southern State Parkway each day with 190,000 of these in Nassau County dropping to 130,000 in Suffolk County. That’s each and every DAY people, A DAY! Sorry it just can not be overstated in my opine.
• Approximately 130,000 a day occupy the Meadow Brook Parkway. Let’s not even consider the numbers on county surface roads, such as Northern Blvd. Oh my. Oh yes, don’t get me going on the speed cameras and traffic light cams either. Can you say revenue generating initiatives?

And just how many vehicles pass over the Throgs Neck Bridge each day? The answer is, in 2017, 119,000. With the Whitestone about the same amount. We all know, at least those who traverse these Parkways and bridges, that it has only gotten worse since then.

I’m going to go out on a limb here but no one is taking mass transportation any more. I notice LIRR trains and busses with so few riders on board since the pandemic. Another personal observation is there is only 1 person to a vehicle in 90% of the cases. Oh yes, doesn’t anyone work any more? I mean I’m retired after 42 years spent in buildings at least a minimum of 8 hours a day 5 days per week.

Ever notice how many auto repair shops there are on Long Island? If you haven’t take a look around. I am willing to stick my neck out again and suggest there is approximately a 10 to 1 ratio to even Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and Ralph’s Italian Ice locations. Hey maybe even more than that. One only has to drive around Long Island for a day to witness those who have grown impatient with waiting in long grueling lines speeding around creeping vehicles attempting to exit the CIP to get on that wonderful Long Island Expressway, north bound in the morning and south bound in the evening. Three lanes are not enough for all those attempting to subvert the long long long line, pulling in at the last possible second to get onto said highway, yes good old 495 is a major disruptor in CIP traffic patterns. End result? Fully two lanes are rendered almost un-passable until one gets past this entrance and the chess game being played each and every day.

There are those who, not being good at waiting their turn or because they are so sick of stopping at traffic lights, get into lanes they should not be in only to jack rabbit off the line to beat the legitimate lane dwellers and get ahead of them all. Did I mention the number one driving tool here on the Island? The HORN. Just try and take more than .000002 of a second to stomp down on the accelerator and you will be blessed with that wonderful Long Island greeting. God forbid you take more than a second to notice the light has changed to green.

We must all wake up and take stock of what we are doing to this beautiful planet we are using, temporarily. Just think of the costs we incur each year each decade each millennium. The State of New York is raking in the tax dollars at better than .60 cents per gallon. Nassau gets $150.00 per incident when someone passes a red light having a camera system on it and the tolls? Speed cameras now located all over Queens? Do more than the posted limit and viola’ you receive a $50.00 bill in the mail with nice pictures of your car and close up shot of your license plate. Oh my add it up.

Additional to the dollar cost how about that caused to our bodies? The stress we all have driving a vehicle around and off Long Island has got to be even more expensive. But hey, the state, the medical community, the auto-body shops and the undertakers all benefit from it.

Do I have all the answers? No, I don’t but as an engineer I know there is always a solution to every problem. Like a great man once said “that which gets looked at gets solved.” Let’s get our elected officials to start having the professionals, I mean Environmental and Civil Engineers, look at the variables involved and develop the solutions to the problems mentioned and not mentioned above. I hazard to guess that some of these intersections could be reimagined as roundabouts, lights activated 24–7 could become blinking lights after a certain time at night until the morning commute begins. Install smart lights which activate when and only when traffic builds. Start changing the synchronization of “run on” lights to the end that they are not going off one after the other rather triggered as a group. It’s all calculable people. It is for us to start getting on our officials and they on the traffic authorities to make the necessary changes.

Thank you all for reading my rant and may you be safe on these treacherous highways, parkways and byways which are Long Island personified.

Robert Strohm