The ride through the Village of Roslyn along Roslyn Road can be a most scenic one. At rush hour, Roslyn Road, especially between the Long Island Expressway Service Road and Old Northern Boulevard, can have the most traffic in the village.
Either way, residents should be able to enjoy the scenery no matter when they drive along the road, as the speed limit, which has been lowered to 30 MPH along the southern part of Roslyn Road, is now 25 MPH on Roslyn Road leading to Old Northern Boulevard. Not only that, a speed limit reminder has been placed along the latter route. Now, all of Roslyn Road has speed limit reminders.
Such is the latest step in an effort to combat vehicular accidents on Roslyn’s busiest thoroughfare. The past year saw two fatal accidents on Roslyn Road, claiming a total of three lives, including two teenagers. Since those accidents, which occurred last spring, both Town of North Hempstead Clerk Wayne Wink, who is a resident of Roslyn, Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury), who represents the Roslyn area in county government and Town of North Hempstead Councilman Peter Zuckerman, have all called for comprehensive measures to improve traffic safety.
Since late May, highway police and P.O.P. police have made their presence felt on Roslyn Road. In addition, speed signs and radar guns were also in place. One of the accidents took place at the intersection of Roslyn Road and Locust Lane. Also since the spring, two signs, one which indicates a straight arrow for Roslyn Road, the other, a right turn for Locust Lane, have been installed at that intersection.
The 25 MPH speed limit reminders were installed far from where the accidents occurred, but they are part of the ongoing discussion on what further steps should be taken on Roslyn Road.
Both Jacobs and Zuckerman have lauded the improvements. Still, both have claimed that more should be done, especially the installation of traffic lights.
Last November, Jacobs and Zuckerman listed some remaining work to be done. That included:
• A traffic light at Roslyn Road and Locust Lane.
• Elimination of the turn-off for Locust Lane.
• Regular right turns and left turns to go on Locust Lane from Roslyn Road.
“I was known as the traffic legislator in Oyster Bay, but I have never seen anything that exists now on Roslyn Road,” Jacobs told The Roslyn News last spring, adding that, “I have seen the wonders of traffic lights. They slow people down.”
Zuckerman has long concurred.
“We still need a traffic light at the intersection of Roslyn Road and Locust Lane,” he said.
Wink, too, agrees with those reforms, but he also added a human dimension to the driving problem.
“Drivers need to start looking in the mirror,” Wink observed after the second fatal accident occurred. And by that, Wink meant that drivers must look at themselves, to see if they are guilty of aggressive driving. The latter, he said, is “contributing to many deaths on the road.”
The good news, so far, is that no major accidents have taken place on Roslyn Road since the community was shaken by the fatalities that occurred last spring. Hopefully, the new year will bring continued awareness to the benefits of safe driving.
