Uneasy riders: Cyclists press for more bike paths in Smithtown

Cyclists are watching with interest as Smithtown officials finalize a plan that will guide town development for decades.

The comprehensive plan draft posted on the town website envisions a future less car-centric than the present where bikeways are part of a "multi-modal transportation network" connecting residents to the town’s parks and shopping areas. Planners recommended building out a network of bike paths and lanes and installing bike racks at transit nodes and other destinations, making cycling easier and safer but also removing motor vehicles from clogged roads that are on pace to carry 55% more average daily traffic over the next 20 years.

Much of that work will follow Suffolk County’s 2020 Hike and Bike Master plan, which identifies locations for bike lanes and mixed-use paths in Smithtown, part of a robust countywide system to be built out over more than a decade.

The town would start virtually from scratch, though. "We don’t have a network — what we have is a few random pieces," said Hal Tarry, 67, a retired state Department of Transportation engineer who biked from his Smithtown home to a regional DOT headquarters for about 20 years and still bikes recreationally.

There are few dedicated, marked bike lanes, according to the county plan, and road shoulder width varies from ample to zero. A shared use path along Route 347 was partly covered by ice and blocked by vehicles parked outside of Pace’s Steak House last week. Planners have recommended that the town adopt a "complete streets" initiative calling for more bike lanes and traffic calming as some neighboring municipalities and the county have.

While the trails in some large parks are popular with cyclists, along with hilly side streets of Head of the Harbor and Nissequogue, cyclists are a rare sight on main roads or at destinations such as Long Island Rail Road stations and public libraries.

Brenda Silva, 54, a Village of the Branch resident who rides a standing bike after a crash 15 years ago, says a silent prayer before she leaves her house for a ride. "Sharing the road with the volume of cars, distracted drivers and narrow shoulders always pose a significant risk," she said. Vincent Lonegro, 49, a retired FDNY firefighter who rides up to 5,000 miles a year, said "some of the guys I ride with won’t come here and ride with me," preferring less trafficked roads in towns to the east. Just 8% of people who answered a planning survey said that biking in the town was "safe and easy."

Tarry has launched what he admits is a "solitary crusade" to persuade the town to adopt its own bicycle master plan, one he hopes would encourage bike lanes painted on newly resurfaced roads and cut-throughs on cul-de-sacs, letting young cyclists hop between subdivisions without using busy roads.

Allyson Murray, Smithtown environmental planner, said planners were considering recommending development of a bike plan to the town board. The town will begin marking bike lanes during resurfacing. State workers are also scheduled to extend the Route 347 path, which starts in Hauppauge and now terminates near Gibbs Pond Road, to Smith Haven Mall under the next phase of roadwork.

Smithtown is "not turning into Amsterdam" — perhaps the world’s most famously bike-friendly city — but "we are trying to make it a more bike-friendly place," she said.