The latest analysis from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign finds that drivers struck 6,270 people who were walking or biking on Long Island in the three-year period from 2014 to 2016.
Long Island roads are typical of suburban areas in the United States: local roadways feed collector roads, and collector roads feed major arterials. These major arterials are designed to move motorized vehicles, often at the expense of people using other modes, especially pedestrians and bicyclists. It comes as no surprise that these arterial roadways, as previous TSTC crash reports have found, account for the lion’s share of crashes involving people walking and riding bicycles.
The analysis, We’re Walking (and Biking) Here!, represents a departure from TSTC’s prior Long Island traffic crash analyses:
- While our past Most Dangerous Roads analyses focused solely on fatality data, We’re Walking (and Biking) Here! includes data on crashes, injuries and fatalities.
- This analysis, as the name would suggest, includes data on not only driver-pedestrian crashes, but also driver-bicyclist crashes.
- This analysis includes a crash-per-mile rate (our previous Most Dangerous Roads analysis only included totals).
- In addition to the roads that had the most crashes, We’re Walking (and Biking) Here! also includes a list of intersections ranked by total crashes in each county.
- Unlike our Most Dangerous Roads analyses, which relied upon data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), We’re Walking (and Biking) Here! uses a broader and more recent data set from the New York State Department of Transportation.
We’re Walking (and Biking) Here! found that NY Route 24 (also known as Hempstead Turnpike, Fulton Avenue and Conklin Street) was Nassau County’s most dangerous road for walking and biking. There were 256 crashes involving people walking or biking in this corridor over the period studied. These crashes resulted in a total of 238 reported injures and six fatalities.
Although Route 24 saw the most crashes, the deadliest road in Nassau County was NY Route 27 (also known as Sunrise Highway). With 146 crashes over the three-year period, it ranked third in overall crashes. However, 11 people were struck and killed by drivers on this road during the period studied.
The analysis found that NY Route 25 (also known as Middle Country Road, Jericho Turnpike and Front Street) was Suffolk County’s most dangerous road for walking or biking. There were 224 crashes along this corridor between 2014 and 2016 that resulted in 206 injures and nine fatalities.
Just as in Nassau, the deadliest road in Suffolk was a road with fewer overall crashes. SR-110 (also known as New York Avenue, Walt Whitman Road and Broadway) had 141 total crashes between 2014 and 2016, but 10 fatalities.
Predictably, the roads with the most crashes tend to be longer roads. To control for length, We’re Walking (and Biking) Here also includes a crash per mile rate for the 10 most dangerous roads in each county, as well as interactive maps that highlight the where crashes are clustered in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Nassau County
| Street Name | Crashes | Injuries | Fatalities | Crashes Per Mile |
| SR-24 (Hempstead Turnpike, Fulton Avenue, Conklin Street) | 256 | 238 | 6 | 8.6 |
| Merrick Road | 237 | 231 | 5 | 14.2 |
| SR-27 (Sunrise Highway) | 146 | 134 | 11 | 8.9 |
| Old Country Road | 118 | 113 | 5 | 9.4 |
| SR-25 (Jericho Turnpike, Jamaica Avenue) | 95 | 87 | 1 | 4.2 |
| SR-107 (Hicksville Road, Broadway, Cedar Swamp Road) | 77 | 70 | 4 | 3.1 |
| SR-102 (Front Street) | 76 | 72 | 1 | 16.3 |
| Nassau Road | 67 | 62 | 2 | 36.6 |
| Broadway | 63 | 61 | 1 | 12.1 |
| Grand Boulevard | 62 | 61 | 0 | 13.2 |
Suffolk County
| Street Name | Crashes | Injuries | Fatalities | Crashes Per Mile |
| SR-25 (Middle Country Road, Jericho Turnpike, Front Street) | 224 | 206 | 9 | 3.3 |
| SR-110 (New York Avenue, Walt Whitman Road, Broadway) | 141 | 127 | 10 | 9.7 |
| SR-25A (Main Street, North Country Road, Fort Salonga Road) | 116 | 114 | 5 | 2.6 |
| SR-27A (Montauk Highway, Merrick Road) | 103 | 102 | 2 | 5.8 |
| SR-27 (Sunrise Highway, Montauk Highway) | 94 | 83 | 9 | 0.9 |
| CR-80 (Montauk Highway) | 85 | 75 | 6 | 2.7 |
| CR-13 (5th Avenue, Wicks Road, Crooked Hill Road) | 67 | 59 | 5 | 9.0 |
| CR-2 (Straight Path, Dixon Avenue) | 64 | 61 | 5 | 3.4 |
| CR-100 (Suffolk Avenue) | 63 | 62 | 4 | 8.9 |
| SR-112 (Medford Avenue, Patchogue Road) | 61 | 54 | 4 | 4.5 |
The report also analyzes the most dangerous intersections in each county. In Nassau County, six of the 10 most dangerous intersections were located in Hempstead.
Nassau County
| Street 1 | Street 2 | City | Crashes |
| SR-102 (Front Street) | Franklin Street | Hempstead | 13 |
| Middle Neck Road | Cutter Mill Road | Great Neck Plaza | 13 |
| SR-24 (Fulton Avenue) | Clinton Street | Hempstead | 12 |
| West Merrick Road | South Bergen Place | Freeport | 12 |
| Ocean Avenue | Atlantic Avenue | East Rockaway | 10 |
| SR-24 (Hempstead Turnpike) | Franklin Avenue | Hempstead | 10 |
| Main Street | Jackson Street | Hempstead | 9 |
| Franklin Avenue | Jackson Street | Hempstead | 9 |
| Nassau Road | Lakewood Avenue | Hempstead | 9 |
| Mineola Boulevard | 2nd Street | Mineola | 9 |
Dangerous intersections in Suffolk County tended to be much more dispersed. However, four of the 10 most dangerous intersections also included NY Route 110. This road was already noted as one of Suffolk’s most dangerous.
Suffolk County
| Street 1 | Street 2 | City | Crashes |
| SR-110 (Broadway) | CR-12 (Oak Street) | Amityville | 9 |
| CR-17 (Carleton Avenue) | CR-100 (East Suffolk Avenue) | Central Islip | 9 |
| SR-110 (New York Avenue) | 15th Street/West Hills Road | Huntington Station | 8 |
| CR-100 (Suffolk Avenue) | Brentwood Road | Brentwood | 7 |
| CR-100 (Suffolk Avenue) | CR-13 (Wick Road) | Brentwood | 7 |
| SR-110 (New York Avenue) | Depot Road | Huntington Station | 7 |
| CR-46 (William Floyd Parkway) | Surrey Circle | Shirley | 7 |
| SR-27A (Montauk Highway) | Saxon Avenue | Islip | 6 |
| SR-110 (New York Avenue) | West 16th Street | Huntington Station | 5 |
| CR-50 (Union Boulevard) | 4th Avenue | Islip | 5 |
Find interactive maps and fact sheets at tstc.org.
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Which Broadway in Nassau County? I know of two in Cedarhurst (on the south shore) and Great Neck (on the north shore). And they’re not connected. There are probably more.