Dangerous Roads newsletter: Hopeful signs for Long Island's dangerous roads

Upon learning that I’d be writing this weekly newsletter about a year ago, one of my first stops was Vision Long Island’s annual Complete Street Summit. Taking notes from my seat in the audience, I heard street planners and traffic experts talk about the many challenges to making meaningful safety improvements to Long Island’s roads, and I left the event somewhat disillusioned about the mission ahead.

On Friday, I returned to the Complete Street Summit, this time as the featured speaker to discuss Newsday’s Dangerous Roads project. From the moment I arrived, the mood seemed different from I remembered from a year earlier.

While some attendees peppered me with questions about the stories reported by Newsday, others were eager to share their own stories of improving Long Island’s dangerous roads.

There was the architect who is helping organize Baldwin’s fourth annual bike rodeo and parade to promote alternative transportation. There was the civic activist who, for years, has hounded the Long Island Rail Road about needed safety upgrades at a Central Islip grade crossing. And there was the Middle Island couple looking to slow traffic along Middle Country Road.

Some wins have already been achieved. At last year’s summit, volunteers led a "walking audit" of Deer Park, where they pointed out the many design flaws threatening pedestrians, including narrow sidewalks and the lack of disability-accessible curb ramps.

In contrast, this year, Vision Long Island’s Elissa Kyle led attendees on a walk along South Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst, noting the numerous pedestrian safety improvements made there in recent years: widened sidewalks, median extensions, brightly painted crosswalks, rapid flashing beacons and more.

The tour was a reminder that, for all of the tragedies on Long Island roads, there's good news to report, too.

In the past, conversations have been hampered by different agencies saying projects couldn't get completed, Vision Long Island director Eric Alexander said in an interview Monday. When there are villages and downtowns to point to, it shows "this isn't science fiction. This is reality," he said. "It gives you something people can grab onto. And it’s something that can be replicated."

Alexander shared what he said was a very incomplete list of 33 traffic calming projects completed on Long Island over the last 20 years, and nine more in various stages of planning or design. Another 38 municipalities have conducted walking audits that typically serve as precursors to safety improvements. And six more communities have requested walking audits.

Some of those efforts are being led by men and women whom I met at Friday’s Complete Streets Summit. Many approached me to offer their thanks for Newsday’s efforts.

As a Long Island driver, pedestrian, and dad: thank you right back.

Dangerous Roads documentary

The NewsdayTV team recently compiled some of the reporting that's gone into our Dangerous Roads series into a 21-minute documentary that recently aired on WLIW/21. Narrated by Newsday's Ken Buffa, "Long Island: No Accident" includes interviews with victims' families, law enforcement officials and experts discussing the many factors contributing to traffic crashes in Nassau and Suffolk, and what can be done to prevent them. Check it out on NewsdayTV, and share your thoughts about it with us at roads@newsday.com.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.