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Last Updated: January 27, 2010

Reaction to Pedestrian Traffic Signals

• LC Colgate
While safety for both pedestrians and vehicles is of paramount concern to all local residents, not everyone agrees with how our tax dollars are being spent to make it happen. Even while there are undoubtedly many local residents who are happy to see the new pedestrian traffic signals in place, there are others who think it is just more wasteful spending.
The Matinecock Neighborhood Association, Locust Valley’s oldest civic organization, has been talking about traffic issues for years. Wider roads in the bottleneck areas, additional cross-walks, bumps, extra police and even barriers have been discussed. Nothing has ever been able to get off the ground though because of the bureaucratic red tape that is involved with changing anything.
Charles Brisbane, president of the Matinecock Neighborhood Association, believes that the new signals at Birch Hill Road and Forest Avenue are not a good use of taxpayer money. He said, “the recent appearance of pedestrian traffic signals at Weir Lane and Skunks Misery Road alerted me to the folly of this county-wide boondoggle. When preliminary work at Forest Avenue/Birch Hill Road became visible just a few months ago, I asked County Legislator Diane Yatauro for a meeting with the responsible authorities. She coordinated a meeting with me, her assistant Laurie Huenteo, Don Shea (a concerned local citizen), Jeff Lawton (President of the Locust Valley Chamber of Commerce) and Kaye Weninger, (Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce). Ray Ribeiro, (at that time) Nassau County Public Works Commissioner, and his assistant, filled us in on what was going on. I thought we had all agreed on changes-apparently not“
“People don’t need to be encouraged to cross the street without looking both ways, and drivers don’t need a countdown to beat the light,” Brisbane added .
Mr. Brisbane did not object to the pedestrian traffic signal installation at the Grenville Baker Boys and Girls Club, which was the site of a recent serious pedestrian/vehicle accident after the signals were installed.
Jeff Lawton, president of the Locust Valley Chamber of Commerce, said that the new pedestrian signs give residents “a new level of awareness and safety.” He concurred that the signs were an eyesore and added to an “urban feel in our country village,” but that safety must come first. Given the amount of commercial traffic that comes barreling down Forest Avenue every day, the position of the Chamber of Commerce is one of safety and caution first. The narrowness of Forest Avenue has deterred crosswalks, so the electric signs, according to Lawton, were really the only option.
Frank O’Connor, a former Oyster Bay town engineer and a former deputy public works commissioner of Nassau County, said that, “Yatauro’s office did say that further study would be needed as to whether that corner (Birch Hill Road and Forest Avenue) was the suitable corner for this kind of installation.” He also said that we need a “slowing down of traffic at that intersection.” Mr. O’Connor said that as far as he knew, community leaders were not involved in any discussion (beyond the preliminary one with Ms. Yatauro) about the signals before they were installed.