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Overcast Aiming to make bicycling safer in Atlantic Beach
Village to create a bike lane as cycling on Park Street viewed as hazardous
With summer in full swing, many people are looking for any excuse to be outside, get some fresh air and take a bicycle ride around the South Shore communities, including Atlantic Beach.
Some riders claim that traversing the village’s main road, Park Street, is a hazardous task. Varied motor vehicles reportedly speed along the road regularly and without a bike lane, some riders feel like it’s not worth the risk.
“I wouldn’t ever ride on Park,” said Kevin Kelley, an Atlantic Beach Resident and avid bike rider. “Lots of cyclists [from other villages] come to the barrier island, people who don’t know the area as well. Some take Park, and I fear for them.”
Mayor George Pappas, who also rides his bike several times a week, said he typically rides alone. “I like to see what’s going on around the village,” he said.
Louisa Borriello, another Atlantic Beach resident, said she’s seen more people biking around the area in the last two years, and has advice for everyone riding through the area and across the Atlantic Beach Bridge.
“They’re accidents waiting to happen,” she said. “There’s no room for them on the bridge. Walk your bike over, that’s what I do and it’s safer.”
Atlantic Beach is preparing for a major reconstruction of Park Street, and Pappas said that a bike lane would be installed along Beech Street, which becomes Park Street, but not within the village of Atlantic Beach. Instead the existing lanes on Ocean Boulevard and Yates Avenue, the easternmost street in the village, would join a new lane on Beech Street, as the road enters Atlantic Beach Estates.
Pappas added that while the plan won’t include a bike lane along the entirety of the road there are other plans to make the road safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. They include timing the traffic signals to make it more difficult for cars to speed and adding crosswalks with “Do Not Walk” signs that countdown the amount of time to cross the street.
This is a Nassau County-managed project and is on track to begin in 2019, and is expected to cost roughly $11 million, he added.
Additionally, the village has been installing a center bike lane on its boardwalk to match what Long Beach has done through the middle of the city’s boardwalk.
Because of the increased summer population and traffic volume, Atlantic Beach plans for more work to de done during the off-season months, depending on the weather Deputy Mayor Edward Sullivan said.
