Written By: Ethan Roda
Three community residents say NO!
In this article, I will bring awareness to the problem of increased car traffic and pedestrian safety during the summer months. Long Beach is a popular tourist destination for New Yorkers escaping the summer heat of New York City. Most of the year the small city by the sea has a population of around 35,000 people, but during the summer months that population grows to above 50,000. With the influx of traffic in the summer, I asked a few people close to me about their perceptions of Long Beach’s safety when it comes to the roads. I interviewed my friend Ally, my brother Rocco, and my dad. I asked them these questions: 1) Do you believe Long Beach is safe for drivers, bikers, and walking pedestrians? Why or why not?, and 2) If you were in charge of the Transportation Authority of Long Beach what transportation safety changes would you make?
Ally lives in the west end of Long Beach, which has a more urban feeling where most of the bars, restaurants, and stores are located. My brother Rocco is 15 years old and uses his bike for transportation to and from school on the east end of the city, and to meet up with friends. My dad mostly drives a car for transportation and lives in the east end of Long Beach, which is more residential.
When asking Ally my first question about whether she believes Long Beach is safe for drivers, bikers, and walking pedestrians, she responded, “I would say it’s not as safe as it could be.” Her response makes sense because the west end is by far the busiest place in Long Beach. She then added, “For bikers there are no bike lanes in parts of the city. Walkers are more at risk in the summer months and weekends because of the bar culture in the west end.” She emphasized that during the summer months especially at night it is really important to stay alert to where you are going and when you are crossing a street. Since the bars and restaurants are packed the traffic in the streets can become chaotic and everyone seems to be in a rush. Ally also specifically mentioned the threat of drunk drivers saying, “there is a higher potential for drinking and driving, especially with younger people leaving the bars.”
After asking Ally about what she would change if she was in control of the Transportation Authority in Long Beach, she stated, “I would make a better busing system, something that could allow you to access the LIRR train station and all of Long Beach.” This was a good point from Ally and we both agreed that we rarely see the buses. We have heard from multiple people that we work with that the buses are usually late or they don’t show up at all. This is unfortunate, and especially for people that are trying to make a train on time. If your bus is late or you don’t have access to a car you could potentially miss your train because of the inconsistent bus schedule.
When interviewing my brother Rocco, I found that he had a completely different point of view probably because most of the time he is riding a bike instead of walking. He responded to the question about whether he felt safe as a biker in Long Beach by saying, “Definitely not, I almost got hit by a car multiple times.” He went on to explain how he tries to ride on the sidewalks to stay safe, but that sometimes that’s impossible because “there are a lot of smaller sidewalks and sometimes you are forced to ride in the street, which can be dangerous because of drivers blowing through stop signs and not following the traffic lights.” I agreed with Rocco because in my experience driving in Long Beach, sometimes people will use the stop signs as a yield sign and not completely come to a stop. This can be extremely dangerous for pedestrians because there is a lot of foot traffic going to and from the beach and also people riding bikes to go to the beach or boardwalk. There are 16 stop signs from the bay to the beach (north to south) so I can understand why drivers are not coming to a complete stop, but it’s so important for the safety of bikers and walkers. Also, hearing this response from a 15 year old puts it into perspective that drivers are not obeying the traffic signs and lights. Rocco thought drivers should obey the traffic lights and stop signs more so it’s less dangerous for him when crossing the street.
And lastly, my interview with my dad was similar to Rocco’s and Ally’s response about whether he believed Long Beach is safe for drivers, walkers and bikers. He also responded, “No.“ He explained his answer by saying, “I feel like when you are driving you always have to keep your eye out for someone running a red light on Park Avenue, everyone’s in a hurry.” This was interesting to hear because my dad, who mostly drives and Rocco, who only rides a bike, had very similar answers to this question. My dad went on by saying, “As a walker, you almost have less respect because people driving don’t see you walking half the time and the drivers are in a rush.” When I specifically asked him about bikers he responded, “They might have it even worse, because you constantly have to leave the sidewalk for people walking and then they are weaving in and out of traffic.”
When I asked my dad the second question, ‘If you were in charge of the Transportation Authority of Long Beach what road changes would you make?,’ he wanted to know if this would be a perfect world with an unlimited budget. I responded, “Yes” to see what he was thinking. He said, “You could build bridges, a walkway that goes over the road to negate walkers or bikers to have the possibility of getting hit.” This is an interesting idea that reminded me of the bridges over the streets at Hofstra University. Long Beach could construct a few bridges over heavily traveled intersections on Park Avenue. This would take away a lot of the foot traffic and it would give bikers and walkers a designated area to travel safely. My dad went on by talking about the traffic lights and how quickly they turn from green to red, “I think the lights could sync up better, where you go through a green light and immediately at the next street the light is turning red. Maybe if the lights were synched up more it would ease up traffic, and people wouldn’t be hurrying up to get to the next red light.”
All three people that I interviewed had unique perspectives because of the way they travel through Long Beach. Ultimately what I found in common from all three was that they believe there should be improvements to how people navigate and use transportation in Long Beach for increased safety reasons. Creating a bike path throughout the city would make bikers feel more safe. Having police pull people over for running stop signs and traffic lights would deter that behavior. Also, having red light cameras and tickets might be a good idea on the heavily traveled Park Avenue and West Beech streets. Another idea would be to have more pedestrian and bike only roads where no traffic is allowed.
Comments