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These ramps are plain dangerous in some areas. The westbound LIE ramps at 57 and 56 come to mind immediately. It can be quite a challenge at certain parts of the day to get all the way to the right if you need to go north on Vets or 111.
Dude I could name a dozen of these exits. Every one from 55 to 48 involves a high speed maneuver to go right after exiting the ramp. Designing the ramp back a quarter mile BEFORE the main intersection just makes too much damn sense.
These ramps are plain dangerous in some areas. The westbound LIE ramps at 57 and 56 come to mind immediately. It can be quite a challenge at certain parts of the day to get all the way to the right if you need to go north on Vets or 111.
Exit 57 Eastbound is one of the worst. The majority of the traffic would want to go east / south on Vets. But you first get to the traffic light at Motor Parkway, and you are in a left turn only lane, and the lane to the right, which you must get into, is usually already backed up, making it physically impossible to get into that lane. Probably the best bet is, if you fail to get out of the left turn lane, to just make a left onto Motor Parkway, and then a right onto Vets.
Another bad one is Exit 60 Eastbound. That is the exit for Ronkonkoma Ave. I would suspect that the majority of the traffic would want to go south on Ronkonkoma Ave to get to the Ronkonkoma train station. But it is nearly impossible to get all the way over to the right in that short a distance. If you can at least get out of the left turn lane but fail to get all the way over to the right, you can turn right at the next light, Hawkins Ave. But that only takes you to the north side of the train station. Most of the parking is on the south side. Probably your best bet is to just get off an exit early, Exit 59, but that adds 2 more traffic lights to your trip (Ocean Ave, and Pond Rd).
Some of the Sunrise ones are even worse. Getting off at Nicolls Road WB and Fifth Avenue WB come to mind.
Another bad one is Sunrise WB to the Robert Moses Causeway. Also, to get from Sunrise WB to Higbie Lane, the sign says to take Exit 40, but it's almost impossible to get over to the right fast enough from there. You should take Exit 41, but then you have to sit at the very long traffic light at Udall Rd (no idea why that light is so long).
It's a different type of ramp, but another very bad design is to get from the northbound Robert Moses Causeway to the northbound Sagtikos. On a map, that looks like a seamless connection, and appears to be the only continuous road connecting the south shore and the north shore. But in reality, you have a very short distance to weave across 2 lanes of the Southern State. Coming from the south, it is best (but longer) to take 231 to Southern State to the Sagtikos, since that gives you a much longer time to get to the left side of the Southern State.
I'm still in love with the 347/454 "beautification, bike lanes and pedestrian crossings", where nobody walks or ride bikes and traffic still backs up exactly as it did before they spent millions of taxpayer money based on a plan that was apparently designed by someone who has never even seen the area.
I'll take the entrance/exit ramps on the LIE any day over the entrance ramps on the parkways. You have to accelerate on a curve just to keep speed with traffice to merge, its such a disaster.
It's a different type of ramp, but another very bad design is to get from the northbound Robert Moses Causeway to the northbound Sagtikos. On a map, that looks like a seamless connection, and appears to be the only continuous road connecting the south shore and the north shore. But in reality, you have a very short distance to weave across 2 lanes of the Southern State. Coming from the south, it is best (but longer) to take 231 to Southern State to the Sagtikos, since that gives you a much longer time to get to the left side of the Southern State.
Location: Prince Georges County, MD (formerly Long Island, NY)
1,558 posts, read 2,724,172 times
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When it comes to Long Island roads, I can't stand:
- The quick maneuvers it takes to make a right off an LIE ramp
- The non-existent acceleration lanes on parkway on ramps
- The quick lane merges/drops (southbound on the Meadowbrook merging with the Southern State, for instance)
- Lack of left turn traffic lights at key intersections
- The way parkways pass over major roads with no interchange (this isn't the NJ Turnpike!)
- Overall lack of local/express lanes on highways (the Southern State Parkway NEEDS this)
- Weird interchange designs (the Belt-Cross Island-Southern State mess is ridiculous)
- The lack of high speed north-south routes (not saying it needs to be a full on expressway, but something with limited intersections, and 50-55mph)
- The stupid low speed limits
- Weird exit number schemes (The Northern State Parkway has exits 36 N/S, then exits 36 A/B-- worse is the Southern State with exits 28 N/S, then 28 AN/AS)
- Some tight cloverleaf interchanges just need to be converted into diamonds or SPUIs-- some of those ramps practically have you making a U-turn off the parkway!
Okay, I'm done
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