Once again, we can see that our government, even in lean times, always has money to waste on useless projects. This is especially irritating as Nassau County, New York has been essentially bankrupt for years, placed under the receivership of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority on account of chronic mismanagement on the part of both the Democratic and Republican parties. Despite that, the county still somehow found the money for the project that is documented here. At the exit from the westbound Northern State Parkway to Glen Cove Road northbound, I recently noticed construction barrels and tape. I probably wouldn't have given it much thought, but one day I was stopped for the traffic signal there and a light bulb appeared over my head. When I started thinking about what was being done there, I realized what an utter waste of money it is.
In the above two photographs, we see how ridiculous this is. Apparently, someone thought that the corners of these ramps needed to be fitted for handicapped access. Now, please don't try to shout me down as some sort of insensitive lout who doesn't care about the handicapped. I've had my share of physical problems, and I know how difficult getting around can be when unable to walk. I have great sympathy for those whose permanent disabilities make ordinary life difficult for them. With that out of the way, let's examine this particular project.
Well, we don't have to examine it too closely. We can quickly see that these ADA-compliant ramps connect to nothing at either end. North of the ramps (actually two vehicular ramps, so that makes four corners), the sidewalk immediately ends. Somewhat further north, a guardrail immediately abuts Glen Cove Road, so even if someone wanted to walk or move a wheelchair along the west side of Glen Cove Road, that person would have to go into the street-- without a ramp. Similarly, the sidewalk ends immediately south of the southernmost ramp. In other words, a snowball has a better chance you know where than a handicapped person would have of navigating this side of the street. The other side of the street doesn't have sidewalks either.
Above we see that these corners even have the ADA-compliant warning pads that help blind people navigate-- but I simply can't imagine any blind person having a need to walk this route, even assuming that one could do so without a full sidewalk beyond the ramps. For that matter, I can't imagine any person without disabilities walking along this route. It has no stores, shops, homes, businesses, or anything at all that anyone would want to visit. So the question becomes simply, "why?" I'm sure some government bureaucrat has an explanation that makes sense to government bureaucrats. It may well be that some other project here required this work on account of ADA, but if that is the case then ADA needs amending at the least. Even if the project were fully funded by federal money, the federal government shouldn't be wasting taxpayer dollars on such frivolous nonsense. All that is needed here are ordinary curbs without any provision for any pedestrians, able-bodied or handicapped.
