Just Sayin': Please, safety first on the roads
Traffic on the westbound Long Island Expressway is backed up after an accident that briefly closed down the LIE in both directions in Old Westbury at around 6:45 a.m. Thursday morning, Aug. 7, 2014. Credit: Howard Schnapp
Too many times I have seen cars exit the Westfield Mall in Massapequa onto Sunrise Highway westbound and shoot straight across Sunrise Highway to the dedicated lane for turning left onto Unqua Road.
They do this to avoid having to go west on Sunrise Highway and then make a U-turn to come back to Unqua Road. Some drivers are just too much in a rush!
I believe there should be some type of traffic barrier or cones at the Westfield Mall exit so that cars cannot shoot across.
Richard Lucas, Massapequa Park
This is to all those who live in and drive through St. James. Please slow down.
This is a small town with 30-mph speed limits. We have five schools, where the speed zones are 20 mph. We are a community of people who walk, bike, walk dogs and run. Children walk to school.
The slower a car's speed, the greater is the chance of survival by a pedestrian hit by that car. When you speed, ignore stop signals or text with your children in the car, you are teaching them it's OK.
Are you truly so wrapped up in your own life that you don't care about taking someone else's? Would you want your child crossing a road with a vehicle coming at them going 50 mph?
Why is it some people only seem to do what's right when they're being watched?
Mary J. Dwyer, St. James
Elections reveal imperfections of democracy
Election signs are again littering Long Island. They are posted on vacant commercial property fences as well as the Sunrise Highway median, local streets, parkways and the expressways. There are gigantic posters as well as other candidate signs.
There ought to be a law: No posting of signs for elections.
Kathy Schaefer, Wantagh
I've been exercising my right to vote for 30 years. This Election Day, I was hugely disappointed.
I got my ballot, filled it in and went to cast my vote. My paper ballot was rejected, so a volunteer came to help me.
Her "help" consisted of examining my ballot to ensure I had filled it out correctly. This was my ballot, which is supposed to be private and which was now undergoing the volunteer's scrutiny. I felt violated.
In the 21st century, we could do better.
Beatrice Dolan, Albertson
Missing the trees on South Oyster Bay Road
Long Island's trees have treated us to a spectacular display of fall colors this year. Leaf peepers don't have to go far to see them.
A drive on Wantagh State Parkway from Merrick Road to Southern State Parkway, the Bethpage State Parkway, the Northern State Parkway, Route 25A in Suffolk County and any neighborhood with mature trees offers a stunning array of color. The glowing golds and yellows of the maples and beeches, the brilliant reds and magentas of the pin oaks and bradford pears, among others, provide breathtaking views.
These colors, punctuated by the dark greens of pines, arborvitae, cedars and others, give us a beautiful and memorable autumn experience. How I miss the magnificent pin oaks removed from along South Oyster Bay Road from Syosset to Hicksville.
Long Island's trees, young and old, let us treasure and preserve them!
Joan Kemnitzer, Wantagh
