Thursday, April 17, 2025
As I’ve talked to constituents over the years, I have found that one of their most consistent concerns has been the deplorable commute between the Five Towns and Far Rockaway areas to Queens and Manhattan. I refer, of course, to State Route 878, the so-called Nassau Expressway. Anyone making this drive on a regular basis is dismayingly familiar with standstill traffic, and delays that can stretch over an hour to traverse a distance that shouldn’t take more than a leisurely five to 10 minutes.
A brief history of this road is instructive. It was first planned in 1945, as a freeway to connect the Belt Parkway, in Queens, to Long Beach, in Nassau County. The land required to build the entire road was acquired by New York state through condemnation in September 1963. So, all of the needed land has been owned by the state for more than 60 years!
The initial sections of the road were built and opened in the 1960s and ’70s, but due to various factors at the time, the critical stretch from Rockaway Boulevard to just past Kennedy Airport was never built.
Meanwhile, as anticipated all the way back in the postwar era, the population in the Five Towns and Rockaways has grown exponentially, greatly exceeding early projections. At the same time, car ownership per family has greatly expanded, and the relatively short commercial strip on Rockaway, from its intersection with the southern section of 878 to the edge of the airport, has seen the growth of several shopping areas. It is this short stretch that is responsible for the interminable traffic.
Clearly, the road, as now constituted, is grossly inadequate, and cannot serve as an evacuation route. In addition, at times of high traffic, it is impossible for first responders to efficiently deal with emergencies. An ambulance needing to transport a desperately sick person to a hospital is likely to get stuck. Sirens and lights don’t help. There’s simply nowhere to go. Environmentally, consider the fumes spewed and fuel wasted by hundreds of cars sitting in stalled traffic.
The great pity of this situation is that it isn’t that hard to see a solution. The state wouldn’t even have to complete the entire unbuilt section right away. It would only need to bypass the commercial strip on Rockaway Boulevard, on land already owned by the state, and tie back into Rockaway along JFK. This would allow vehicles to travel to Manhattan or Queens without having to contend with the shoppers and lights on the commercial strip.
This simple expedient would greatly relieve the strain on the small section of road that effectively constitutes a bottleneck. The state’s previous efforts to fix things by adjusting the timing of traffic lights have been predictably useless. Rockaway was designed for only a fraction of the volume of traffic it now carries, and no amount of tinkering with lights can change that.
Over the past 15 years, I and other political leaders from both sides of the aisle, community leaders and first responders have demanded that the state recognize its responsibility for the safety and well-being of the tens of thousands of residents of the affected areas. Sadly, these calls have gone unheeded. The refusal to spend the money required to remedy this dangerous situation is outrageous.
I plan to host a public meeting this spring, so that community leaders and members of the public can help voice our message to Gov. Kathy Hochul and state transportation authorities. We are tired of being second class! We need, and deserve, a safe and reliable transportation and evacuation route. I hope that once details are announced, all of you who agree with the need to remedy this problem will come and show your support. Meanwhile, please let me know your thoughts. I can be reached at hkopel@nassaucountyny.gov.
Howard Kopel represents Nassau County’s 7th Legislative District and is the Legislature’s presiding officer.
