Representatives from the Nassau County Department of Public Works and VHB engineering presented a preliminary plan Monday to calm traffic and reduce accidents on Cutter Mill Road, which included creating new crosswalks and reducing the width of lanes on Middle Neck Road.
Pat Lenihan, director of transportation with VHB Engineers, said at a public forum held at the Great Neck Plaza Village Hall that he analyzed data from not only Cutter Mill Road, but also where Cutter Mill intersects with Bayview Avenue and Middle Neck Road.
Lenihan said over a six-year period, 26 accidents had taken place at the corner of Cutter Mill and Bayview and 116 accidents had taken place at the corner of Cutter Mill and Middle Neck Road, the majority of which involved cars going in the same direction or a parked car, but also involved cars hitting pedestrians.
“When we looked at the existing data, what we are trying to do is reduce vehicle speed, improve pedestrian safety and reduce vehicular accidents, Lenihan said.
DPW first held a public forum in September, where Plaza residents expressed concerns about drivers speeding and getting into accidents on Cutter Mill Road.
Information provided at the September meeting was analyzed by DPW and VHB and put into the plan presented Monday, Nassau County Legislator Ellen Birnbaum (D-Great Neck) said.
Birnbaum said Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth started the Cutter Mill Road traffic study about three years ago while she was serving in Birnbaum’s current position.
One of the possible solutions was reducing the travel lanes on Cutter Mill from four to two, giving the road what Lenihan called a “road diet.”
“Now pedestrians have to cross four lanes of traffic,” Lenihan said. “If we went from four travel lanes to two and had a striped median in the middle, now pedestrians are crossing only two lanes of traffic and the crossing distance is much less.”
Lenihan also proposed crosswalks at Chelsea Place and Gussack Plaza, which would include curb extensions as well as yellow warning signs with large flashing beacons a pedestrian can activate if they want to cross the road. The lights would not flash unless the pedestrian pushed a button, Lenihan said.
Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said she was concerned about the effectiveness of the flashing beacons if pedestrians have to activate them.
“I’m constantly educating people to activate the full signal at crosswalks,” Celender said. “We have to find a way for them to be censored so it can know when a pedestrian is there.”
Aryeh Lemberger, unit head of traffic engineering at the Nassau County Department of Public Works, said the lights can’t be left on all the time.
“They are very bright and if you leave them on, quite frankly people become desensitized to them,” Lemberger said.
He said they could be motion-detecting lights, but they might pick up on movements other than people ready to cross, making them blink more than they should.
A new crosswalk with pedestrian crossing signs across the north end of Bayview Avenue where it intersects with Cutter Mill was also proposed.
The crosswalk would include curb extensions as well, Lenihan proposed.
One of the major problems with drivers turning from Cutter Mill Road onto Middle Neck Road, Lenihan said, is people deciding at the last minute which turning lane they are going in, either the left lane or the lane going straight and turning right. He proposed painting the lane designations farther from the intersection so drivers know what lane to get in before they arrive at the intersection.
Middle Neck turning from two lanes into one after drivers going northbound cross the Cutter Mill Road intersection causes a lot of accidents as well, Lenihan said.
“What we are going to do rather than have those two lanes being phased out right at intersection is we will run the two lanes out for a few hundred more feet,” he said.
Lenihan said he would make room for the two-lane run-out by shortening the southbound lane of Middle Neck Road north of the Cutter Mill intersection. He said the section of road is wider than it should be – 18-feet wide as opposed to the standard 12 feet – which causes people to double-park, another cause of accidents.
“People are double parking there because they think they can get away with, not because it’s legal,” Lenihan said.
Some village residents and officials also wanted to see an increase in the number of police who patrol Cutter Mill Road, saying it would cut down on speeding and accidents on the road.
Jeffrey Schwartz, Celender’s husband, said he has watched the police enforcement on Cutter Mill Road drop significantly.
“I watch politicians say they haven’t raised taxes yet I watch the police presence in Great Neck Plaza go down,” Schwartz said. “It’s like the wild west on Cutter Mill.”
He said many people speed at the intersection of Cutter Mill Road and Middle Neck Road to catch the train in the morning, and that it is a safety issue that needs to be addressed.
Village trustee Pam Marksheid said because the village has no police force of its own, it has trouble cracking down on speeders.
“We have people going through stop signs and making illegal U-turns,” Marksheid said. “Until we have Nassau County police making it safer out there, we take the blame for it.”
Residents were also concerned about people continuing to cross at the wrong intersections.
One resident said a problem the proposed design doesn’t solve is people crossing Middle Neck Road where it intersections with Cutter Mill Road on the south side where there is no crosswalk. He proposed putting up a fence to stop people from crossing at that point, but officials were concerned people would then hop the fence.
Another resident was concerned about making Cutter Mill Road a two-lane thoroughfare. He said there is more room for bicyclists with two lanes going in both direction.
“I’m a bicycle rider and the reason I don’t like Great Neck Road is because I don’t feel like I have an out,” the resident said of the two-lane Great Neck Road. “Cutter Mill has two lanes in each direction and people can see me.”
Another resident, however, thought that fixing the potholes on Middle Neck Road should take priority over redesigning Cutter Mill Road.
“People are cursing as they are driving and thinking about who is responsible,” he said. “Before [the Cutter Mill Road] program starts, I think we should solve that issue.”
Birnbaum said her office has gotten many complaints about the condition of Middle Neck Road, and that the DPW has assured her that it will be taken care of soon, but couldn’t say exactly when.
Lemberger said after the meeting that he will take all the comments made Monday back to the DPW to refine the final Cutter Mill Road plan, and will eventually finalize an engineering concept. He said there will be a final report and that it will be shared with village officials, but that there will most likely be no more public meetings on the issue.
He said there is no set timeline for when the project would start.
