Members of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association of New Hyde Park are searching for answers about traffic concerns in the area.
The association says that a left-turn-only lane is desperately needed at the intersection of a busy roadway in the area to alleviate congestion, but has received no clear answers from the state Department of Transportation or Nassau County.
Headed eastbound on Union Turnpike approaching New Hyde Park Road, there are three lanes of traffic. One is a right turn only, the next straight only, and the third a mixed straight and left-turn lane.
Though the left or straight lane has a left turn signal, the mixed use of the lane means drivers continuing straight down Union Turnpike can also use the lane, halting traffic attempting to turn onto New Hyde Park Road northbound, according to a spokesperson for the association.
Several members of the association have recalled waiting at the intersection for 15 or 20 minutes to turn left at peak times, watching cycle after cycle of the changing of the lights helplessly.
The association believes that for the volume of traffic at the busy intersection bordering the Lake Success Shopping Center and tangent to Marcus Avenue, accommodating a left-turn only lane, where others are present at all three other stop lights at the intersection, would be easy.
But, according to the association, it has received no help from the state or county.
Union Turnpike is a state road and New Hyde Park Road is a county road, according to state records. The collaboration between the two would be necessary to complete the work, according to the association.
The civic association has been pursuing the change for over a year and said that a former representative for Region 10 of the state DOT informed the group that the request was denied recently, but did not provide a reason.
A Change.org petition has been created by the civic association requesting answers for the denial of the request.
A spokesperson for Region 10 said that the left-turn lane is under the jurisdiction of the county. A member of the civic association said that the county “seemed onboard” with the left-turn only lane, and that the process “shouldn’t be so impossible.”
Efforts to reach the county Department of Public Works were unavailing.
Another “huge disappointment,” according to the association, is the delayed repaving of the entrance ramp to the Northern State Parkway eastbound from New Hyde Park Road.
“The conditions are deplorable,” the association wrote in one letter.
The association requested emergency resurfacing work for the ramp, but the request was denied by the state Transportation Department. According to the association and a spokesperson for Region 10, the resurfacing will take place during the total resurfacing of the parkway this summer.
