Thursday, October 1, 2026
To improve resident roadway safety, the City of Long Beach has begun developing a Safety Action Plan. The initiative outlines infrastructure improvements for the city, and will be used to apply for a U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant in May.
The grant is a competitive program, with $1 billion in appropriated funding remaining in 2026. It funds regional initiatives to prevent roadway fatalities and serious injuries.
According to the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, more than 120 Long Islanders were killed in vehicle crashes in 2025 — 68 drivers or passengers, 32 pedestrians and 35 bicyclists — all increases over 2024. Long Beach residents have complained about roadway safety and the City Council aims to fix it.
Council member Tracey Johnson was one of many people on hand for a meeting focused on the issue at the Long Beach Public Library on Feb. 26, and she said she was looking forward to hearing from others.
“Collaboratively as a city, we need to come up with a game plan to make our city safer,” Johnson said. “Let’s move forward and get some really good things done.”
The meeting began with a presentation from WSP, a global engineering and professional services firm. Its analysis found a 13.5 percent decrease in vehicle crashes in Long Beach from 2020 and 2024. It also found that accidents involving vulnerable road users — pedestrians and bicyclists — account for nearly 30 percent of fatal and serious crashes.
WSP Project Manager Gregory Harasym showed a cluster of serious accidents at the intersection of East Park Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard. Other notable points included a consistent increase in summer incidents, a higher frequency of severe crashes near commercial buildings and a prevalence of vulnerable-road-user crashes on streets connecting residential areas to the beach.
After the presentation, attendees filled out comment cards, took part in interactive exercises and gave feedback.
Frank McQuade, who has lived in Long Beach for 35 years, described the city as “peculiar and particular,” adding that drivers act entitled behind the wheel and drive aggressively, and the problem worsens in the busy season.
“During the summer, our needs for safety are heightened,” McQuade said. “We’re a little too congested just to have laissez faire.”
Many drivers use the center medians on Park Avenue to make U-turns, he said, which puts them in incoming traffic. He also said that when cars turn into the median for its intended use, the problem for nearby drivers is determining whether someone is turning into the median or into opposing lanes of traffic on Park. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.
McQuade recommend signage clearly defining where drivers can turn. He also suggested reconstructing the ends of the medians to dissuade drivers from attempting to make U-turns.
Attendees were asked to specify streets where they would like to see bike lanes added. In Nassau County, bike accidents have increased by 51 percent since 2015, according to the Traffic Safety Statistical Repository — higher than WSP’s 30 percent found in Long Beach. TSSR is a state-focused online data system that analyzes accident information.
Sean Cirillo, who lives on Chester Street in Oceanside, said he rides his bike five miles to the Long Beach boardwalk during the warmer months. Cirillo rides in the street and said that adding a bike lane connecting Long Beach Bridge to the boardwalk would encourage more cyclists and help with congestion.
“A bike lane would be better for everyone, especially kids and older people who can’t drive,” he said. “It would give them another way to travel safely.”
Harasym said that many attendees expressed concerns about the Park Avenue cycle for walking being too short. He also said that people reported feeling unsafe on sidewalks because of cyclists, and that drivers largely ignore stop signs and red lights.
City officials plan to host a virtual meeting later this month, but a date has not yet been announced.
