By JOSEPH KELLARD
But as some motorists contend that these signs have considerably increased congestion on an already notoriously heavily traveled road, Nassau County is completing a comprehensive study of traffic at Waukena-Ocean to determine if a traffic light may be better suited for that intersection.
Last year, the Town of Hempstead performed its own traffic study of the area and found that the intersection warranted stop signs. The town responded to requests from Ocean Avenue residents who wanted to more safely exit their street onto Waukena, since motorists usually obstruct this intersection, particularly during morning and evening rush hours when they stop for a traffic light one block east at Park Avenue. According to the town¹s traffic study, 28 accidents have been reported at Waukena-Ocean over the past seven years.
But once the stop signs were installed there ‹ a few blocks from Oceanside High School and before the start of the new school year last September ‹ some motorists were soon complaining that traffic was backed up like never before. Ocean is also just one lengthy block from Oceanside Road, a main road in town, from where motorists use Waukena to drive their children to OHS, or to cut through Oceanside to Baldwin, Freeport, the Southern State Parkway and other towns and roads beyond.
³The day after that stop sign went up, I¹d never seen gridlock on that block like that before,² said Jeff, a Wrights Lane resident. ³Cars were backed up around Oceanside Road.²
He was one of several residents who lodged complaints during a town hall meeting hosted by Councilman Anthony Santino (R-East Rockaway) at Oceanside Middle School on June 12. Another was Holly Xerri, a resident of Frederick Street, off of Waukena. Xerri echoed many other concerned residents. ³It can take me 20 minutes to drive from my block to Oceanside Road,² she said about what is otherwise a two-minute drive.
Roz Perroni, one of the Ocean Avenue residents who asked the town to consider posting the stop signs, called Waukena an ³antiquated² road that can no longer accommodate the current volume of daily traffic, and said that even with the stop signs, problems with residents exiting their street persist.
³If most people stop at that stop sign a half second, they¹re stopping a long time,² Perroni said. ³Other than that, you can¹t get out of the street.²
So while many residents are calling for the signs to be taken down, others have requested that they be replaced with a traffic light, one that will be in sync with the signal at Park Avenue. Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford (R-Long Beach) said that she received calls and e-mails from residents and others who travel in that area, asking that she do something more to improve traffic there. Along with representatives from the town, Ford inspected the intersection and filed a request for the traffic signal study.
³I requested that it be tripped to a red light for the Ocean Avenue motorists, so that it only turns green on Ocean when someone is leaving that street,² Ford said.
The county¹s Department of Public Works, which is responsible for traffic engineering, is completing a comprehensive traffic signal warrant study of the intersection. This study includes counting traffic on Waukena, Ocean and neighboring side streets and collecting accident data over the last three years to look for patterns and their causes. The completed study will then be compared to the New York State Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which includes a list of traffic signal warrants.
³We will look to see if our study meets any one of them,² said Harold Lutz, the county¹s unit head of traffic engineering. ³You don¹t want to just install a traffic signal by mode of request. You want to make sure the signal is warranted. If you have too many or any unwarranted traffic signals, what ends up happening is that people start to disregard them and lose respect for them as a driver.²
Lutz noted that both the county¹s and state¹s locations with the highest accident rates are at intersections with traffic signals.
Seeing how many motorists disregard the stop signs at Waukena-Ocean, Perroni is pessimistic about the traffic light. ³It¹s a complete waste of time even to put up a light,² she said.
The findings of the county¹s traffic study are expected in early July, and if the study warrants a traffic signal, it would take months before it¹s actually installed, Lutz said. He was quick to add that ³because of geometrics or the way traffic flows, you may not practically put in a signal there because that could make conditions worse and may increase the number of accidents.²
He said that traffic along Oceanside Road and Park Avenue would also have to be considered. ³The backups are something we have to work out,² Lutz said. ³Physically, do we have enough runway to hold all the cars? There are just an awful lot of cars coming up and down this road.²
Too many stop signs in Oceanside?
During the town hall meeting last week, some people questioned the number of stop signs that have popped up around Oceanside, and asked about the criterion for installing them.
Stop signs, for example, appear on virtually every street corner along such short stretches as Waukena, Henrietta and Cortland avenues between Oceanside and Long Beach Road, and longer ones on Yost Boulevard and Oceanside Parkway.
Stop signs have gone up on Sunnyside Road at Sylvan Road and Tinker Drive, Greentree Drive at both Sally Lane and Candee Court, Fulton Avenue at West Henrietta and Vermont avenues, and King Street at Beverly Street. Others have been installed at Carrell Boulevard at Cecilia Place, Bellevue Avenue at Trinity Street, Nassau Road at Anchor Avenue, and Henrietta Avenue at Second and Third streets, alongside new signs warning motorists that children are playing.
At last week¹s meeting, resident Fred Morse questioned why the town is considering posting a stop sign at Chelsea Road at Soper Avenue. Morse said he sees no reason for it, other than to slow down the occasional speeder on Chelsea.
³I think they are considering it for speed control,² Morse said. Morse said that days after the meeting, he spoke with the town¹s traffic engineer, Gary Saur, who will further canvas the street with Morse before making a decision.
One man, a resident of Links Drive, noted how Cortland Avenue, between Oceanside and Long Beach Road, a street that 15-plus years ago had no stops signs, now has a stop sign on nearly every corner.
³I¹m sure there wasn¹t 28 accidents on each of those corners,² the man said, referring to the figure from the town¹s study at Waukena-Ocean.
Councilman Santino said that the installation of stops signs ³are not arbitrary,² and that it is often ³subjective² about where they should be placed.
In determining what areas warrant stop signs, traffic-control inspectors conduct surveys, analyzing information such as the number of accidents that have occurred in a given area, the angles of the road and obstruction of visibility by trees, bushes and other objects. The inspectors also consult the MUTCD, which contains standards for traffic-control equipment. Among the manual¹s instructions is that stop signs cannot be used to control speeding.
At town hall meetings in years past, residents complained of drivers speeding down Waukena Avenue, particularly between Brower and Skillman avenues. Months later, a stop sign was posted on Waukena and Bayfield Boulevard.
At that meeting, former 4th Precinct Inspector Richard McGuire spoke out about the misuse of stop signs, citing studies by the National Traffic Safety Council, which concluded that stop signs should never be used as speed-control devices.
³First, they encourage a disobedience to stop signs, because stop signs are meant to control access to main roads, not to control speed on main roads,² McGuire explained. ³Secondly, what happens is, cars speed up in between stop signs in order to make up for lost time. Third, it creates traffic congestion.²
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
