Experts: Memorial Day kicks off traffic jam season

Long Islanders can expect clogged roads for the Memorial Day weekend to extend into summer as residents stay closer to home, local attractions draw nearby interstate tourists, and the Island's highway capacity continues to be outmatched by traffic, experts say.

Concerns about gas prices, the ongoing era of the "staycation" on Long Island, and a trend to spend less on entertainment as Americans economize, all point to heavy local road use, AAA New York spokesman Robert Sinclair said. "The burden on Long Island's roads will probably be greater this summer compared to last."

Road capacity has always lagged behind need on Long Island, said Lee Koppelman, director of the Center for Regional Policy Studies at Stony Brook University. And combined with the lure of the area's "beautiful natural attributes" and the economy, Koppelman said, "We're in for a bumper crop of automobiles this summer."

Several factors at play

The weekend traditionally heralds an influx on local major roads and routes to beaches and parks, but experts say a range of factors has gradually combined to extend usual summer slowdowns on Long Island further into the calendar.

Pearl Kamer, chief economist with the Long Island Association, said with employment still not back to pre-recession levels, the need to conserve cash and the amenities Long Island offers mean many residents will avail themselves of local attractions rather than travel farther afield.

"Flying has gotten more expensive and remains more of a hassle with security concerns," Kamer said. "You see more people staying on the Island and more people lured to the many attractions -- the vineyards, the shopping facilities, the museums -- there are so many more tourist-oriented facilities here than a decade ago."

Second-home owners from other areas visiting year-round, people living longer and retiring earlier with more time for leisure activity than 30 years ago, as well as changing work-drive patterns have exacerbated the situation, Koppelman said.

" 'Summer' now includes most of spring and fall -- day-trippers are coming here virtually throughout the year, particularly if it's a mild winter. The vacation impact is really a surcharge on already heavy, normal daily traffic." he said.

A decrease in home construction and renovations in Nassau had led to more building industry workers driving east for work, affecting the Hamptons and the town of Southold on the North Fork, he said. "A trip from western Brookhaven to East Hampton that used to take one hour and 15 minutes has dragged out to two to 21/2 hours -- and then that season's lengthened."

Koppelman said local roads fail to meet traffic demand because the state, which takes care of major arterial highways, never has enough money to do the job properly; and even when it does, local communities object, so the money is then assigned elsewhere.

The roads: catching up

"Historically on Long Island, there's been tremendous growth in land use and community facilities; but because of the way it's funded, our transportation infrastructure has never kept apace," he said.

Federal legislation that would increase funding to the state and local municipalities, potentially bringing millions of dollars in much-needed road-safety improvements to Long Island, has passed in the Senate but is held up in the GOP-controlled House.

Locally, the state Department of Transportation promises that work on most major construction projects due to start this summer will not occur during peak daytime hours.

A $34.4 million project to resurface 4 miles of the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway from Hempstead Turnpike to Merrick Road -- which would involve daytime closures and is slated to begin in June or July -- has gone out to bid, though the state has yet to award a contract.

There are also plans for off-peak single travel lane closures on the Ocean Parkway just east of Jones Beach to the Robert Moses Causeway to repair the center median guiderail. Work on the Robert Moses bridge over the Fire Island Inlet should be completed in June, if the weather cooperates, the DOT said.

Other recent road improvements should ease traffic congestion. Out east, widening County Road 58 from the Long Island Expressway to just east of the Riverhead traffic circle to provide two lanes in both directions and a center turning lane, and similar work on County Road 39, the primary route to the South Fork, "have dramatically eased congestion," said Suffolk County chief engineer William Hillman.

And another bright spot -- local drivers will find gasoline prices the lowest since February. Regular averaged $3.936 a gallon on Long Island Wednesday, according to the AAA. That's 24.4 cents lower than a year ago and 23.3 cents below the recent peak on April 10 of $4.169 a gallon.

Nationally, the AAA projects 34.8 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home Thursday through Monday, up 500,000 travelers from last year. Almost nine of 10 plan to drive.

According to a survey of traveler intentions by the AAA, the average distance traveled by Americans during the weekend is predicted to be 642 miles, 150 less than last year's, though drivers from this region will again average more miles: 713.

With Tom Incantalupo