By:Jeff Lipton
Petitions bearing more than 400 signatures will be delivered to County Executive Thomas Suozzi, as residents and shopkeepers seek some relief from what they called "horrible congestion."
More than six months ago, the county installed crosswalks, turn lanes and re-timed traffic lights near Burger King on Piermont Avenue, in an effort to improve safety for pedestrians and motorists. But residents said this has resulted in waits of upwards of five minutes at some intersections and has backed up traffic for blocks. Now residents are pleading for county officials to re-consider what they did and undo the mess.
"Oh, no, never has it been this bad," said Judith Miller, a resident of Hewlett for 34 years.
She said she was recently driving on Franklin Avenue and trying to make a turn onto Broadway when she stuck in traffic for about 11 minutes, seeing the light change five times before she was able to merge onto Broadway.
"It was backed up to East Broadway," Miller said. "Everybody was blowing their horns. I hope they can fix it and shorten the lights all the way around."
Mollie Seletsky, a Woodmere resident for 35 years, said she works for a day care center in Inwood. A ride to work that used to take her eight to ten minutes is now almost twice that long. "All of a sudden it has gotten so congested," said Seletsky. "I couldn't understand what was happening.
"This is a very, very important thing," she added. "It's quite annoying."
Mark Weiss, a trustee from Hewlett Harbor, launched the petition drive after noticing constant traffic jams.
The county must work quickly to correct an injustice thrust upon residents and shopkeepers, he said. Weiss reacted angrily to one county official, Joseph Davenport, who was quoted in a Channel 12 news report as saying, "We are fine-tuning the timing of the lights. We don't believe there is a significant increase in the congestion in that area."
Weiss responded to this by saying, "It is extremely insensitive for him to wonder what all the community outrage is about. Certainly, hundreds of people have responded to the petition drive. I'm sure shopkeepers are not trying to find something to occupy their time with.
"Given Davenport's attributions, there's no doubt in my mind why this has gone on as long as it has," Weiss said. "That's why the petitions are going directly to the county executive.
"It's really amazing," Weiss added. "If they can't deal with the simple problems, how will they deal with the major changes."
Weiss said he couldn't fault the county for trying to improve the safety of area intersections. "It's always been a bad intersection," Weiss said. "But the result of that has been terrible congestion. People are calling me up and asking me where they can sign the petition. The impact has had a dramatic effect on residents."
He said he has heard horror stories of motorists being unable to exit area parking lots for upwards of 20 minutes. As a result, shoppers may think twice about where they want to do their shopping, electing to take their business to other neighborhoods, he said. This may have a tremendous negative effect on the local economy, especially with the holidays approaching, he said.
In addition, the ability of police, ambulance and fire trucks to move quickly through area streets to get to an emergency remains a major concern, Weiss said.
The county has not returned phone calls.
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