By JOSEPH KELLARD
Just ask Fred Rigel, owner of Levin's Pharmacy at the triangle in the middle of town. "In general, Long Beach Road is very, very congested," Rigel said. "And by 4 or 5 p.m. it's impossible. But I don't know what choice there is."
Apparently, neither do the many truckers who are looking to get to Oceanside, Island Park or Long Beach from either eastern Long Island or Queens. That Long Beach Road is a magnet for trucks heading to these and other areas along the South Shore is blamed, in part, on neighboring incorporated villages, such as Rockville Centre and East Rockaway. Under New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, and with oversight by Nassau County, these municipalities have the power to enact traffic restrictions, including the banning of trucks, on certain village and county roads within their borders. Among these restrictions are that commercial trucks heavier than 8,000 pounds are not permitted on residential streets unless they are making local deliveries.
The villages' autonomy has allowed Rockville Centre to ban trucks on Long Beach Road north of Sunrise Highway, while permitting them south of Sunrise. The village also forbids trucks from traveling on Oceanside Road, which also runs north-south, further adding to the traffic on Long Beach Road.
And Rockville Centre has banned trucks from Lincoln Avenue, giving trucks just the one option.
All of this combines to make the stretch of Long Beach Road in Oceanside essentially a funnel for truck traffic, much of which runs straight through the town's main artery. And truck traffic isn't limited to the middle of the day. Robert Towers, owner of Towers Funeral Home on North Long Beach Road, said, "Trucks come down the road 24 hours a day. It's nonstop. And who knows how much this is destroying the roads."
"Where does Rockville Centre come off doing whatever they feel like?" said Jerry Lamonica from his photography studio on Long Beach Road, near Atlantic Avenue. "What it has done is it has crippled the business district in Oceanside. All this is now is loud noise here."
Ron Wasson, Rockville Centre's village administrator, said that traffic restrictions have less to do with diverting the flow of traffic than with the surfaces of the roads themselves. "A lot of these roads aren't designed for the weight that trucks hold today," Wasson said, pointing to Lincoln Avenue and Oceanside Road.
"Unfortunately - or fortunately, however you want to look at it - the roads that do bear this out are Long Beach Road, Sunrise Highway and those that are made primary of concrete bases and can more or less withstand the load. ... That's really the main reason for the restrictions. It's not to mess with another town."
Potentially further exacerbating the truck traffic problems on Long Beach Road and even Oceanside Road is the ban on trucks over 8,000 pounds on Waukena Avenue. This two-lane road serves as a short cut for motorists coming from Atlantic Avenue in Baldwin who want to avoid driving to more northern roads to reach areas in Oceanside and other South Shore towns. While some residents living on or neighboring Waukena complain that trucks over the weight limit routinely ignore the restriction, they have called on county police to more strictly enforce the law there. Keeping trucks off Waukena means more them will take detours to lead them to more northerly sections of Long Beach and Oceanside roads.
"I feel sorry for the truck drivers, because they have no choice but to use Long Beach Road," said Towers, who is also president of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. "But it's hard for the Oceanside businesses to deal with it."
The Meadowbrook and Loop parkways also play a role in diverting traffic to Long Beach Road. Commercial traffic is prohibited on these parkways, with the exception of delivery trucks headed to Jones Beach or Fire Island, according to Tom Dunham, a press secretary for Sen. Dean Skelos. This means that trucks coming from eastern Long Island en route to Long Beach, Lido Beach or Atlantic Beach would have to use Long Beach Road, one of the only routes that connect the barrier island to the rest of the county.
Neither the Atlantic Beach Bridge, the only other route to Long Beach, nor any roads within the city itself have weight restrictions. Trucks of all sizes coming and going in Long Beach are permitted to use a route that includes Beech Street in the west end of the city and Park Street in Atlantic Beach, which leads to the Atlantic Beach bridge, according to Lt. Michael Tangney, head of the Long Beach Police Department's Traffic Division.
