Slow It Down

Consider the number of accidents that we read about every week; in most cases where alcohol and drugs are not a factor the No. 1 cause is speeding.

People get familiar with a road and there is a linked ratio of familiarity to top speed. Fast drivers get frustrated by slower drivers who go “just” the speed limit, and they zoom around to pass them. They meet an equally aggressive driver headed in the opposite direction, and one of them is just a bit too far over the double yellow line.
With either a collision or an out-of-control swerve, tragedy strikes.

The fact that Lloyd Harbor is taking to heart an engineer’s report to upgrade some roads that were likely never meant to be sped upon is a great move on the Village’s part. They don’t need to wait for another fatal accident to do something about the accident side of their road problem.

Now the people of Lloyd Harbor just need to work on the cause side – and so does the rest of the Town.

During the bleak days of winter, with limited foliage obstructing our views, many of us tend to pick up the pace a bit, as long as there is no ice on the road. But as the trees fill in and visibility around bends become limited, we can’t let our comfort for the road outweigh the fact that we are driving partially blind.

We need to slow down – not so much metaphorically as literally. After all, we can’t re-engineer all the winding roads between Cold Spring Harbor and Dix Hills, but we can think to give the road the respect it deserves.

We can give the roads the respect they deserve, and hopefully the Town and villages can continue to give the roads the repairs and upgrades they need to help strike a good balance between safety and speed.