Ocean Parkway
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This article is about the Nassau/Suffolk County parkway. For the Brooklyn boulevard, see Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn).
Ocean Parkway is a limited-access roadway that traverses a length of the barrier beaches of south Long Island, servicing a number of parks there, including Jones Beach State Park and Captree State Park. It is unsigned New York State Reference Route 909D.
This Ocean Parkway begins at the southern terminus of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, intersects the south end of the Wantagh State Parkway, and ends just past the southern terminus of the Robert Moses Causeway. It is one of the more unusual parkways of Long Island, with most of its exits not being to freeway standards. For most of its length it is like a divided highway with RIRO access, with right-only intersections forming most of the junctions and turnaround points for traffic coming from the opposite direction. There are three exceptions--the junction with the Wantagh State Parkway, which is a traffic circle, and the junctions with Robert Moses Causeway near Captree State Park and at Bay Parkway in Jones Beach State Park where it becomes Meadowbrook State Parkway, both of which are full cloverleaf interchanges.
Because of its southern location, Ocean Parkway is one of the few parkways in the entire state whose entire length allows truck traffic, albeit for local deliveries only. This is because an exemption to the "No Trucks" regulation was made for any length of parkway that lies south of either Merrick Road or Montauk Highway (Nassau County Route 27A and New York State Route 27A). There are no other truck routes south of this route, making the parkways the default route for deliveries to the beaches.
Originally, there had been plans to extend the parkway to nearby Fire Island, and two attempts were made to authorize construction. However, residents resisted the plan: the first time for economic reasons, the second for environmental reasons. Eventually, park legislation in the 1960's blocked further plans to extend the parkway.
[edit] Exits/Junctions
Note that no interchanges on the Ocean Parkway are numbered. Also note that many of these are not true "exits", but rather at-grade RIRO junctions. Shortly before each of these is a turnaround point for drivers coming from the opposite direction.
| Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|
| This list, from top to bottom, goes eastbound. Scroll up from bottom for westbound junctions. Westbound  feeds into Northbound  Meadowbrook State Parkway. |
|
| Bay Parkway | Full freeway interchange |
| TO Bay Parkway | A westbound, ground level ramp. This is an intersection, not an exit. |
| TRAFFIC CIRCLE: Slow down. JCT  Wantagh State Parkway NORTH TO  Southern State Parkway |
|
| Tobay(Town of Oyster Bay) Beach | Westbound intersection |
| West Gilgo Beach | Westbound intersection |
| Gilgo Beach | Westbound intersection |
| Oak Is. | Westbound intersection |
| Oak Beach Road | Eastbound intersection |
 Robert Moses Causeway |
Robert Moses State Park, Fire Island. Full freeway interchange |
| TRAFFIC CIRCLE: Slow down. END EAST BEGIN WEST |
|
| Parkways of Long Island, New York | |
| East-west | Northern - Southern - Heckscher - Bay - Ocean - Long Island Motor Parkway |
| North-south | Meadowbrook - Loop - Wantagh - Bethpage - R. Moses Causeway - Sagtikos - Sunken Meadow |
| Formerly proposed | Caumsett - Sound Shore - Wildwood - Smith Point - Ponoquogue |
