Islip has announced that on May 4, 2023, a meeting will be held at the Ronkonkoma Recreation Center regarding County Road 93 in Ronkonkoma.
County Road 93 exists north of the Long Island Expressway at exit 59 and stretches from Ocean Avenue to its merge into Rosevale Avenue and stops at County Road 16— also known as Portion Road.
The Suffolk County Department of Public Works is said to be in the final stages of a design project that will carry out a “road diet.” By definition, a road diet involves converting an existing four-lane undivided roadway into a three-lane roadway consisting of two “through lanes” and a center two-way left-turn lane. Examples of a road diet include replacing signals with roundabouts and other means tokeep traffic running smoothly.
Islip’s project hopes to achieve the following goals:
- A reduction of travel lanes (one lane in each direction, excluding the intersection at Motor Parkway)
- An addition of exclusive turning lanes at some intersections with a signal
- An addition of a bike lane
- Improved pedestrian facilities – for example, marked crosswalks, accessible ramps, pedestrian pushbuttons, and pedestrian signals with countdown timers.
Islip’s road diet aims to improve safety for all road users, and reduce travel speeds and accidents. Many locals are eager for the opportunity to state their concerns.
“I’ve watched the traffic volume,speed andr roar oft the engines increase over the past 20 years since purchasing my home,” said Barbara Barsotti, a Ronkonkoma resident who resides within close proximity to the infamous road.
“The noise makes holding a conversation outside difficult; Ican’t keep my windows open during the day or night, but by far, it’s the fear of a car landing on my property again – that’s the worst,” she added. “The speed that cars come around the curve is so dangerous and unnecessary. They don’t even slow down with ice or rain. I thought the change in engineering done to the road a few years ago was going to take the danger out of the turn, but it actually made it worse. When I had a meeting with the supervisor and engineers afterward, they wouldn’t even stand on the sidewalk outside my home because they felt unsafe, yet they blamed the problem on speed and told me to call the police for help.”
“This has been an issue for a long time. The fix seems to be worse than the original roadway,” said Sal Napolitano, of the Greater Ronkonkoma Civic Association. “It feels more dangerous now than before they fixed it. We should be able to come up with a better idea because that stretch of roadway has too many accidents.”
The Public Information Meeting for County Road 93, Ocean Avenue/Rosevale Avenue Road Diet will take place on Thursday, May 4, at 7 p.m. at the Ronkonkoma Beach Recreation Center located at 299 Rosevale Avenue in Ronkonkoma. Public comments will be received during the meeting. Join the Greater Ronkonkoma Civic Association’s Facebook group for more updates.
“I truly hope that the meeting next week gives us some good news of changes to come,” Barsotti said. “It would be nice if the town could take the initiative to correct the dangerous roadway since there are accidents at least once a month.”
