Can't drive 55 on William Floyd
Speed limit was changed 16 years ago, signs are finally updated.
3 comments below
Rocky Point resident Drew Martin couldn't believe his eyes last week as he drove down William Floyd Parkway. Jumping out at him were several shiny new white speed limit signs with two digits smacking him right in the face: 45.
"I couldn't believe it," Mr. Martin recalled. "How could the speed limit on a parkway be 45 miles per hour?"
He immediately began making phone calls to different government agencies to find out why the speed limit on William Floyd Parkway had suddenly changed from 55 miles per hour without any public notice.
The answer received by Mr. Martin and The North Shore Sun when we followed up is perhaps more startling than the speed limit change itself. It turns out the speed limit was changed via Brookhaven Town Board resolution -- in 1992.
That's right, 16 years after the speed limit was reduced on William Floyd Parkway, the signs were finally updated by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works earlier this month.
While no one knows for sure why the signs were never changed when the law was enacted in 1992, officials said the signage was finally updated after a Department of Public Works employee noticed that the town code indicated the speed limit on William Parkway is in fact 45 mph from the Smith Point toll bridge north to Route 25A.
"It was brought to my attention by the Town Council office after they notified me of complaints they received," said Brookhaven director of traffic safety Lynn Weyant in a telephone interview Wednesday. Suffolk County Legislator Dan Losquadro -- whose uncle, Anthony Losquadro, was one of the seven Town Board members who voted on the measure in 1992 along with former town Supervisor John LaMura and council members Joseph Macchia, Eugene Gerrard, George Davis, Patricia Strebel and John Powell, said he drove on the road for two days before he noticed the signs had changed, and even then it was only after he received a constituent complaint on the matter.
Mr. Losquadro said Suffolk County Department of Public Works employees never gave him a clear answer on how they discovered the signs were incorrect, just that they did discover the oversight recently and felt legally obligated to change the signs.
"I wish they would have let someone know before they did it," Mr. Losquadro said.
Ms. Weyant said that although William Floyd Parkway is a county road, speed limit changes are still conducted by the town at the county's request after the county has conducted its own traffic safety study. After the speed limit is changed, the town informs the county of the effective date and the signs are supposed to be changed.
While nobody from the general public seemed to be notified before the signs were changed this month, town clerk records show the speed limit change was actually advertised, but in 1992 in the Moriches Bay Tide, a now-defunct newspaper.
The advertised public notice shows that the speed limit was changed to 45 miles per hour along William Floyd Parkway from Route 25A to Beacon Street in Shirley. The speed limit then increased to 55 mph from Beacon Street south to the Smith Point toll bridge, where it then slowed to 30 mph south to the Smith Point County Park. The 55 mile-per-hour portion of the road was then changed to 45 mph by the town in December 2003, according to records in the town clerk's office.
Ms. Weyant and Mr. Losquadro said the county recently asked the town to change the speed limit back to 55 mph on William Floyd Parkway from Moriches-Middle Island Road in Shirley north to Route 25A. A spokesperson from Councilwoman Jane Bonner's office said a public hearing is expected to be held Oct. 14 to discuss the speed limit change. Ms. Weyant said once the Town Board approves the change the law should go into effect approximately 10 days later. Until then, drivers are expected to obey the 45 mph speed limit.
Mr. Losquadro fears this could be a problem.
"Forty-five miles per hour on that road is an unreasonable and, really, unenforceable limit," Mr. Losquadro said. "You can literally pull everyone over."
The biggest cause for concern, Mr. Losquadro said, is what getting a ticket could do for points on someone's license. "If you get pulled over going 75, that's now 30 miles per hour over the speed limit," Mr. Losquadro said. "That's a mandatory [court] appearance. If you already have points on your license, that's a mandatory suspension."
Mr. Losquadro said Seventh Precinct Inspector John Meehan, who did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story, is sensitive to people's concerns. Mr. Losquadro said police will be reasonable, but that they have to write tickets for speeds over the posted speed limit.
"It's very important that people do not speed," Mr. Losquadro said. "The signs may have taken 16 years to come up, but we'll get them down in far less than 16 weeks."
The signs have been the talk of the town for those residents who have noticed them. Bridget Idtensohn of McCarrick's Dairy in Rocky Point said a lot of customers have expressed disappointment in the change.
"People are concerned that all of a sudden the speed limit's 45 miles per hour on William Floyd and nobody even told them," Ms. Idtensohn said, as a customer standing nearby queried, "It is?"
"People don't understand what it's about," Ms. Idtensohn continued. "They're all coming in asking about it. Nobody likes it."
What's particularly troubling for people, Ms. Idtensohn and Mr. Martin agreed, is that other, more narrow streets have higher speed limits. Whereas William Floyd is two lanes wide in both directions, the area where it lets out onto Route 25 in Ridge is just one lane. However, the speed limit on Route 25 at that point is 50 mph. The speed limit on the Route 25A bypass and at points on County Road 21 in Rocky Point is 55 mph.
Mr. Martin said residents who live near him will be drastically impacted by the speed limit change if it is not reversed next month.
"Due to the paralysis of Route 25A and Route 25 people in Rocky Point and nearby really depend on the expressway to travel east and west," Mr. Martin said. "William Floyd is the best way for us to get there."
Representatives of the Suffolk County Department of Public Works and the Suffolk Police Department did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story prior to presstime.
gparpan@northshoresun.com
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3 comments found
Speed Limit : 8/31/2009
It's about time, they go way to fast on that road.. Parkway or not...slow down. Good job!!!
Another example of stupidity : 7/24/2009
Speed limits are set for two reasons. 1) They (corrupt government) know that if they make the limits low, they will be able to ticket drivers that will natrualy drive faster. 2) Because fearful, non-driving, idiots happen to be policy makers.
Speed Limit Change on Wm. Floyd Pkwy : 11/6/2008
What were the results of the Public Hearing on Oct 14 and when can the public expect to see the 45 MPH speed limit signes changed?
