I am just finding this thread now, because I did a search on the Bethpage Bikeway, which I might be riding on during this coming weekend. I wanted to throw in a couple of comments.

I live in the City, right at the Brooklyn/Queens border; and I ride on Long Island very infrequently. But I will have to cross the border for something on Saturday morning; and I was thinking of doing some riding out there after I get done.

The warnings about the hills on the LIE service road at the northern end of the Bethpage Bikeway are useful. If I remember correctly, believe that I rode this Bikeway northward last summer, and I got off of it at Washington Ave. to come back home to the City; so I didn't experience those hills. I am thinking of going south this time; maybe I'll just skip that northernmost bit and start at Washington Ave. I am always happy to avoid hills! I have found that the nice thing about southern Nassau is the same thing that's nice about the southern parts of Brooklyn and Queens, namely, very few hills.

But I found curious the elaborate side-street routes offered in this thread in order to avoid using Merrick Road between the southern end of the Bethpage Bikeway and Cedar Creek Park. Last week I rode that street for almost its whole length between Cedar Creek Park and St. Albans in Queens; and it didn't strike me as terribly noteworthy.

On that day I went down to Jones Beach by bike for the first time. I had first gone out to the Floyd Bennett Field area in Brooklyn from my home in Woodhaven; so from there I went through Rockaway and the Five Towns. I then turned east through East Rockaway and Oceanside, ulitmately joining Merrick Road at Foxhurst Road in Baldwin, and taking it for 5 or 6 miles to Cedar Creek Park and the beginning of the Jones Beach Bikeway.

After riding on the Jones Beach Bikeway down to its end at Tobay and back up, I came home by staying on Merrick Road (with one small detour, noted below) all the way into Queens (where it becomes Merrick Blvd.), until I finally turned off of it at Baisley Blvd. so as to jump over to Rockaway Blvd. I think this was approximately 15 miles.

(I detoured off Merrick Road coming home only in order to avoid its crossing with Sunrise Highway. I turned north at Village Ave. in Rockville Centre, then left at Lakeview Ave., which eventually becomes Hendrickson Ave. I then took that street to its end at Railroad Ave., where I turned left and finally rejoined Merrick Road in Valley Stream.)

So I was on Merrick Road/Blvd. for about 20 miles of my 77-mile trip. While that street is not a joy to ride on, neither does it merit total avoidance. It's no worse than, let's say, Astoria Blvd. in Queens or Lexington Ave. in Manhattan. And it's not as bad as Northern Blvd. in Queens and Nassau, or Old Country Road in Westbury (where I go sometimes because my mother lives there).

I certainly wouldn't class Merrick Road with streets to avoid at all costs such as its neighbouring road Sunrise Highway, or something like Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn or Bruckner Blvd. in the Bronx. Riding on Merrick Road for the two miles necessary to connect the Bethpage Bikeway to the Jones Beach Bikeway strikes me as not a big deal at all.

Of course all major streets are defective in that they don't explicitly allot room for bicycles. This is a symptom of a deep cultural problem; we as a society went the wrong way a long time ago. This problem will probably never be fully solved; it can only be slightly ameliorated in spots. In the context of everyday riding in a densely-populated urban area, Merrick Road is rather unremarkable based on what I have experienced.

If I were just tooling around locally, I would not use Merrick Road and would use other streets because they are far more pleasant. But, if I were on a long ride, I would have no hesitation in using Merrick Road, especially if it were only for a couple of miles.