InsideLongBeach.com

What does everybody think of the Lido Boulevard transformation?

Do you think that the County actually got it right? Or do you think that they just caved to appease the residents by slamming together any ole plan that cosmetically looks like something is being done, but may not have the intended outcome?

Personally, I believe that the intentions were good - and the overall concept might be the best one presented thus far - but there are too many errors and oversights that might actually make the roadway more hazardous than before.

For example -

1. The turn lanes are not long enough - vehicles will back up into the traffic lanes and this presents potential hazards - particularly so when pedestrians will now be crossing at these locations. If a vehicle is rear-ended, a pedestrian could get injured.

2. The usable roadway area was narrowed more than necessary. This increases the need for greater precision in people's driving and thus leaves less room for error, more room for bad judgement - thus greater likelihood of accidents. And again, the turn lanes are particularly narrow.

3. The turn lanes were not placed where needed - there is no break in the barrier to turn for any of the local businesses. People will be trying to make illegal u-turns or will be trying to find creative ways of crossing and that will create new hazards, in addition to backing up traffic.

4. The basics on the remaining length of Lido still have never been addressed. There are two intersections which still have old antiquated traffic lights that cannot be seen well from sufficient distances. One of these is at Donna Lane. My ex-girlfriend's father died in that intersection.

5. More people, likely kids, will decide that the barrier is a great place to walk along the road - thus placing pedestrians now in the center of the roadway and thus in a very dangerous situation. I've already noticed this on a couple of occasions. You never want to have pedestrians walking down the center of the road.

The only good things I can say is that the project has been run very smoothly, which is refreshing to see. And, it does appear to slow the flow of traffic - but it's yet to be seen whether or not that will be a good thing or a bad thing.

Your thoughts?

mrk

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sleep? who needs sleep?

Problems # 6 and 7 -

6 - The old road surface is obviously about to be paved over with the cheap stuff that requires frequent repaving for maintenance. The old road surface holds up forever with little maintenance. This is expensive and inconvenient.

7 - They are adding a crazy amount of traffic lights. This is a great irony, since the planner of the project from Nassau County previously stood up in front of all of the residents and told them how more traffic lights was not a good solution. He emphasized that traffic lights are only to be used for traffic control (ie. right of way) and not for speed reduction or safety improvement. Every expert - the LB Police and Fire Commissioners - then proceeded to talk about the added dangers of increasing the number of traffic intersections, because these are always correlated to car accident locations. They add new decision points and thus introduce additional driver error, which equates to more accidents.

So, I continue to be puzzled as to how this project improves the safety of the road.

It merely *changes* the road, and it is naive for people to assume that all change is good. Only the *right* change yields the desired result.

mrk

The roads seem so much more narrow and dangerous. I have no idea what they were thinking!!

The *are* more dangerous, and they were NOT *thinking* - they were just reacting. This sadly happens all of the time when residents complain loudly about an issue. You get *a* solution to appease the people complaining, but it's often not the right solution or the best solution.

I heard no EXPERTS testify that this would enhance road safety. Essentially, this is just an *different* road design. What is known factually, is that it will decrease response time by the fire department under most traffic conditions.

It will also increase traffic, idling time and thus fuel consumption and emissions as well as noise. Thus, it is also not very green.

If safety was the primary concern, the road needed to be widened.

mrk