By EVAN NEMEROFF
The Nassau County Department of Public Works offered two proposals at a traffic study meeting Dec. 4 at the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library, which showed how traffic congestion could be reduced on West Broadway and Broadway between East Rockaway Road and Woodmere Boulevard.
“We plan to look at the entire area, not like a typical traffic survey,” said Ray Ribeiro, DPW commissioner. “There is no mandate we do anything, it’s just our effort to help improve traffic conditions in the area. If there’s no community support for the options we have, we’ll go back to what we were doing before, which is managing traffic patterns one at a time.”
The first proposal was to restripe the streets in question. Restriping would create more left-turn lanes on West Broadway and Broadway and other intersections in the area of the study, but also reduce on-street parking. If this option were chosen, it could save commuters about four minutes of travel time on both West Broadway and Broadway, according to the Nassau County Planning Department.
The other proposal was to turn Broadway and West Broadway into one-way roads, with traffic going in one direction on one road and in the opposite direction on the other. This option, however, would create more traffic on side streets. Under this proposal, drivers would save about three minutes on their commutes, according to the study.
Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside) said he is looking forward to a change in the traffic patterns. “We were able to come up with two plans to try to reduce the traffic congestion in Hewlett,” Toback said. “One plan is more invasive than the other, and after listening to the community, we believe the restriping option is the direction we will look at. At the same time, we have to work with the community and also come up with parking relief, so this could open up bottlenecks.”
After both proposals were presented to the audience at the meeting, the restriping proposal was favored almost unanimously. Just the same, many residents said they were worried about the changes it may bring to the area.
“It’s good to know that the county has a constructive plan in the works and that we’re getting an insight into what that plan is,” said Lorry Bogarsky, president of the Hewlett Park Apartments. “The restriping proposal is a more practical plan, but then there would be more traffic on local streets.”
The restriping option is the least expensive of the two proposals, and appears simpler to implement. It would create an extra right-turn lane at Broadway and West Broadway, and Broadway woud add left-turn lanes at Harris Avenue and Franklin Avenue. There would be less on-street parking on Broadway, reducing backups. East Rockaway Road would have a new left-turn lane, reducing traffic down the road.
The DPW wants the public to know that the project will not take place if the community is not in favor of it. “Our course of action is to build a consensus of what we are hearing from the community,” Ribeiro said. “We anticipate that some plan of action will take place in the first quarter of 2009, before construction season begins later on in the year.”
Comments about this stroy? ENemeroff@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
