Amityville transportation study suggests adding crosswalks, bike lanes

Amityville Village has taken the first step in an effort to make its downtown safer for pedestrians and bicyclists with the completion of a transportation study, which cites the need for more crosswalks, bike lanes and better sidewalks.

The Active Transportation Study, which started in spring of last year, examined streets around downtown through walk “audits,” featuring groups of residents walking around during daytime and nighttime hours, said Fred Wefering, director of sustainability for Greenman-Pedersen Inc., the Babylon-based firm that conducted the study. 

The study also used a public engagement feature on a website, amitywalks.net, that produced 50 site-specific comments and suggestions from participants.

The findings saw four reoccurring themes: calls for more lighting, sidewalk improvements, traffic calming and public amenities.

“I thought it was a pretty intensive study with some good suggestions,” Mayor Dennis Siry said. “Down the road I would like to see them all become a reality.”

Siry said it will likely take several years before some aspects could be completed. The village used $250,000 from Suffolk County for the study, he said.

Study cites poor sidewalks

According to the study, 1 in 12 working residents in Amityville lack access to a vehicle. The village has 17.4 miles of sidewalks but 2½ miles of those are in “poor” condition, the study’s findings note, with many lacking ADA-compliant ramp access.

The draft report makes numerous recommendations for improvements, including adding crosswalks with flashing lights, such as on Ireland Place near Village Hall, and on West Oak Street to connect the library to a bus stop on the south side of the street.

A crosswalk with a pedestrian-activated light also is suggested for Broadway/Route 110 north of Sunrise Highway near the Edmund W. Miles Middle School, where students frequently cross the busy roadway.

“We had seen students after school just run across the four lanes,” Wefering said. “It’s just not safe.”

The suggestion is for an “offset” crossing that would allow pedestrians to cross two lanes to a median, then cross the other two lanes at a spot a little farther down.

“It’s a very good way to solve the problem, which I don’t know if anyone else had thought of,” said Kathy Ward, vice president of the Bay Village Civic Association and a walk audit participant.

A call for bike lanes

Other recommendations include adding bike lanes to roads such as Ireland Place and creating a “bicycle network.” The configuration would fit within the county’s bike path connectivity plans, Siry said.

“We would be the first piece of their puzzle,” he said.

At a Dec. 3 meeting on the study findings, some residents expressed concern about the loss of parking due to the bike lanes, Wefering said, but efforts would be made to maintain some of the parking, particularly near the post office.

“All of our suggestions are conceptual,” Wefering said. “We’re trying to put a lot of ideas out there that the village can build on.”

Wefering said the study takes into account other pedestrian safety efforts already planned through the village’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative money that was awarded in January 2022. Those efforts include traffic calming on Broadway/Route 110 by narrowing the roadway to one lane in each direction.

According to the study, state Department of Transportation data showed from 2019 to 2022, there were 15 pedestrian and cyclist crashes on Broadway/Route 110 in the downtown area, including one fatality. Wefering said there have been two more pedestrian fatalities on the roadway since that period.

GPI will use input from the meeting and finalize the study, which will then have to be adopted by the village board of trustees. Siry said adopting a plan will make it easier to get outside funding for the projects.

Ward called the study a good starting place.

“Anything that can get people to feel more safe walking or riding their bike and just trying to slow things down as far as traffic is concerned, is a good idea,” she said.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.