Main Street safety improvements will continue next spring as the state Department of Transportation are set to paint stripes on the road, reducing westbound traffic to one lane, creating a median and turning lane between Elm Avenue and Route 111, according to a Newsday report.
According to the Newsday report, the plans were brought up in a closed meeting between the DOT, local politicians and residents. The plans also include installing a "Rest in Red" system, where the traffic lights at Main Street intersections would remain red during off-peak hours until a car is electronically detected.
Changes are expected to cost the state roughly $200,000 and are viewed as a temporary fix, giving the DOT time to consider more improvements to the roadway.
The efforts to make Main Street safer have been ongoing since the , who was hit and killed by a driver high on heroin on Main Street at Lawrence Avenue.
Most recently, to give a walking tour along the roadway and PowerPoint presentation on how to make Main Street better for pedestrians, drivers and local businesses.
Although the DOT made changes to the roadway following the death of Sipes, the death of 33-year-old Seamus Byrne, a year later, .
The call for action to make Main Street safe has also come from people outside of residents and local political figures as to come together to create a plan to make the road safer for pedestrians.
I appreciate Nick's ideas mentioned earlier, however, the failure to develop good transit, pedestrian, and cycling resources, and instead to prioritize the construction of highways and bypasses contributed to the dilapidation of Smithtown. You need only ask yourself how a hamlet as tiny as Hauppauge came to have nearly as many storefronts as traditionally larger and more centrally located Smithtown. Even today much of Main Street still struggles. Additionally, I don't believe that removing the Route 25 designation would serve Main Street well as it would deprive the roadway of the resources of the NYSDOT and likely place the responsibility of it on an entity that has even less ability to reconstruct it, such as the Town of Smithtown or Suffolk County. Main Street should ideally be recast as a multi-modal corridor, with safety improvements for all modes, foot, bike, car, and transit. These should then follow 25A to St. James and Kings Park and impact their downtowns.
Smithtown is a victim of both Route 25 traffic and the merge of Route 25A. Due to whatever issue caused this, politics, "not in my own backyard" or Kings Park State Hospital, 25A should have been run north of Smithtown; but, wasn't. With that said, upgrading Veteran's Highway and Route 347 should be done to encourage traffic to follow that route. Also, Smithtown could put in a multistory parking garage, with first level shops) as part of the Branch Shopping Center Parking Lot. So, literally Smithtown is at a cross-roads, either continue down its current path or make significant changes to serve the residents of the town. Unfortunately, Smithtown lacks parallel streets to create one way streets to route the traffic (like they did it in Loveland, Colorado with US 287). Another product of poor urban planning.
And, for the tax money you folks pay, you should have a top notch highway system throughout Suffolk County.
I agree with you that the present state of our transport network does not present alternatives to the car as comfortable let alone feasible, but that is our own fault for not demanding their enhancement alongside our road network. A first class transit network could thrive on Long Island.
I, for one, work in downtown Denver, but I take a bus to downtown three days a week (work from home the other two days). It is a 40 mile ride, that can be done in about 50 minutes. The Denver Metropolitan Area has about 2.7 million people fro comparison purposes. Though, Denver does have its traffic issues, it is not as bad as Smithtown.
Obesity and lack of excercise do not lead to a thinner population. Eating less-or just eating properly would achieve that goal. Let me also say-I don't want anymore public transportation. We can't afford any more union workers. Driving my car ultimately costs less. There is not enough of the population "longing" for bike lanes. They have been a disaster in NYC.
I've yet to see any quantitative evidence that the bike lanes in NYC have been a disaster. Instead I've seen figures quoted of a reduction in accidents involving bicycles and automobiles, and of increased rates of cycling in the city year over year. Just like cars, there have been issues involving cyclists who don't follow traffic rules but they are being addressed, and as cyclists are given their place in the city, they'll be more inclined to follow existing traffic law.
Bikes are not the answer. This is the suburbs, cars are a requirement and people around here are not rich enough to have hybrids or electric, so gas guzzlers are the norm.
So, here is a way to keep four lanes. 1. Get rid of parking on Main Street, this allows a turning lane and median. It even allows bicycle lanes. 2. Lower the speed limit to 25 MPH from "the Bull" to to just past 25A/111. 3. Put in flashing signs indicating a pedestrian cross walk at all intersections. These are in use all over Boulder. Colorado. In Colorado, it is the law that cars must stop when a pedestrian is in a crosswalk. 4. Build parking garages, where possible. Start with part of the parking lot at the Branch Shopping Center. There are probably other surface parking lots (behind Town Hall) that also could be sites fro parking. 5. Place signs at strategic locations on Route 25 west and east of Smithtown encouraging traffic to take an alternate route. 6. Place electronic billboard signs near Veteran's Highway/Route 25 and Route 347/25 indicating how long it will take to drive through Smithtown; again to discourage pass through traffic. 7. For Beautification, bury the power lines along Main Street. 8. Add a store front police precinct to add a police presence in town. I suggest that the Town of Smithtown pass some type of tax levy to pay for all of this. It will do the job, but it will not be cheap.
Nothing anyone does will save one life when you mix cars and Alcohol/Drugs. So why are is everyone willing to spend money on slowing down everyone when the drunk/druggie will just run the light and kill.
So, yes, bikes alone are not the answer, but they are a part of a potential solution.
1. Eliminate or merge as many driveways exiting onto Main Street between Route 111 and Edgewater Avenue as possible. Concurrent with this, unify adjacent parking lots to allow parking lots that could be landlocked by the execution of this move to exit onto side streets off of Main Street. 2. Clearly indicate where parking may be accessed off of side streets after the driveway elimination/merging has taken place 3. Place rumble strips before major intersections. I think Smithtown is working towards some sort of Special Improvement District type zoning for Kings Park, Smithtown, and St. James. If NYSDOT could include dedicated bus pullouts along Main Street, that would be a great step. The traffic circle ideas at intersections are amongst the best for maintaining the circulation of automobiles while lowering their speeds, but they can be problematic for pedestrians.
In context to the comments; I find it hard to differentiate between the comments of people that just drive though Smithtown and the comments of people who actually live in Smithtown. One guy lives in Denver? What do you care? I live in Smithtown and I don’t care in the slightest for people just passing through or observing from a distance. We should make Smithtown nice for Smithtown residents. I should feel comfortable walking around in my own town. Making Main Street a four lane monster for these commuters to just pass through isn’t the answer. We’re better than that. It should be a compromise between walkers and drivers. Above all it should be ascetically pleasing because this is where we live.
Until you get a co-operative and compliant police force, the speeds will continue. Go out to your problem street, and click off how many police cars go past in a day, or an hour. The police think they are better than you or I do, and until that changes, good luck. Until cops salaries/benefits are driven back to realistic levels, you will never get enough of them on the street to make a difference. Get 60 minutes to do a piece some day. They can gauge how many cops in your area, and how far they have to travel to a call. Have them compare coverage with other states, like Florida. What you pay, Nick, for one cop in our county, you should be paying for two. Sorry to see Steve Levy go. Better or worse, he held the arrogant & overpaid blue line back for a while. I doubt the new guy will. Nick, try putting an "I LOVE STEVE LEVY" bumper sticker on the old clunker. Then you'll see cops.
Well, in my town, I see the cops all the time. Why? Because Longmont, Colorado is about the size of Smithtown Township geographically, and is home to 87,000 people. Our city is divided into 14 police beats and they patrol the area constantly. Maybe that is why Longmont was cited as the second safest city in Colorado. Do not get me wrong we have crime, and not long a go a gang problem. And yes we have speeders, people driving and texting, driving and talking on cell phones, unattentive teenage drivers and DWIs. B u, e do not have county police. maybe that is the real problem. Outside of Longmont, the sheriff and the Colorado State Police handle patrols. You are right there is not enough police, because the Suffolk County police are spread too thin. Maybe the town should set up separate police departments and take the tax money going to the Suffolk County Police and go to these departments instead.