Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Nassau County created road Destruction

By Mark Gelbien

mjgelb@gmail.com

Often I feel as if we runners and cyclist who use the roads are warriors in a constant battle to survive. The list of obstacles we face is long and sometimes life threatening. One would hope our local government would help minimize our risk and not make it more dangerous for us to do the sports we love. Unfortunately Nassau County, in complete disregard for us runner and cyclist and has created and is continuing to create road conditions that make using the roads more dangerous than usual.

The simple act of coming home from work and walking out my front door and going for a run has become a hazardous event because of a new method (new to me) of painting lines on the roads. This method involves grinding a groove or gully in the road, the width of the groove is wider than the line by several inches and maybe one eight of an inch deep when, (I think?) done correctly. This creates at best a trip hazard for us runners. What often happens because of poor road surface is a county made pothole, potentiality causing cyclist to crash and runners to fall. The grinding process used to make the groove; some of the time destroys the road surface along the right side of the road near the curb, creating a gully often several inches deep.

For example; the white line just painted along Loring road in Levittown is riddled with potholes created by the grinding process used to cut the groove. There are many examples (To many to list) through out Nassau County of this method used to paint the lines. This method of grinding a groove, then painting the lines in that groove is a danger to all of the citizens of Nassau County who use the roads for recreational purposes. As the county created potholes are not a nature made hazard but one the county created I feel Nassau County incurs a great liability. Nassau County will be responsibility for the injuries incurred by the users of the roadway.

For more pictures go to www.doingitall.net/Potholes/index.html

I wrote Mr. Suozzi and got a form letter back stating that, and I quote, "I am requesting Raymond Ribeiro, Commissioner of the Department of Public Works, or the appropriate staff member, to look into this matter on your behalf and respond directly to you." No one has responded in any way to date.

Time and time again the leaders of Nassau County degrade the quality of life of its citizens with their poor decisions. We who use the roads for recreational purposes must stand up and tell our politicians that we will not tolerate road planning that doesn’t take us into consideration runners and cyclist. I encourage everyone to take an active role in helping get the County to repair the roads and especially the three feet or so from the curb that us runners and cyclist use. If you see the destruction to the roads created by Nassau County in there process of line painting or other work, please notify the County. If enough of us complain maybe they will fix some of there damage. Any help and ideas are welcome in the pursuit of safer road for us all.

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