LIE Service Road Bypass (Exits 37-44)

The Problem

The stretch of the Long Island Expressway between Exit 37 (Willis Avenue) and Exit 44 (Route 135/Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway) is one of the most consistently congested corridors on all of Long Island. This seven-mile section passes through the commercial heart of Jericho, Syosset, and Woodbury. You’ve got the Jericho Turnpike shopping centers generating merge traffic, the Route 106/107 interchange funneling cars from the north, and the massive Woodbury Common-adjacent office parks dumping commuters onto the expressway every afternoon. Between 4 PM and 7 PM on weekdays, this stretch regularly drops to 10-15 mph. Some afternoons it’s dead stopped for miles. Your GPS shows 25 minutes for seven miles, and it’s not lying.

The Shortcut

The LIE has service roads — officially called the North Service Road and South Service Road — that run parallel to the expressway through this entire section. Most Long Islanders forget they exist because they’re not flashy and they’ve got traffic lights. But when the mainline is stopped, those traffic lights are your best friend.

Eastbound (afternoon rush): Exit at Exit 37 (Willis Avenue). Turn right onto the South Service Road heading east. This road runs through Jericho, passing behind the strip malls and office parks. You’ll cross Route 106/107, continue through Syosset, and the service road deposits you right back at Exit 43 (South Oyster Bay Road) or Exit 44 (Route 135). Merge back onto the LIE and you’ve skipped the entire bottleneck.

Westbound (morning rush): Exit at Exit 44 (Route 135). Take the North Service Road heading west. This road passes through Woodbury and behind the Syosset commercial district. Stay on it past Route 106/107, through Jericho, and merge back on at Exit 37 or Exit 38 (Northern State Parkway). You’ve bypassed the westbound morning crawl.

The service roads have traffic signals at every major cross-street — roughly every half mile. But those lights cycle on timers, and traffic on the service road is a fraction of the mainline volume. You’ll be doing 25-35 mph with stops, which beats sitting at zero on the expressway.

When to Use It

• Weekday afternoons (3:30 PM–7 PM) eastbound. This is when the shortcut shines brightest. The eastbound LIE through this section is a guaranteed crawl during afternoon rush.
• Weekday mornings (7 AM–9:30 AM) westbound. The westbound backup from Exit 44 through the Route 135 interchange is among the worst morning chokepoints on the LIE.
• Anytime there’s an accident between these exits. The LIE has no shoulder in parts of this stretch. One fender-bender and traffic is dead for an hour. The service road is your emergency escape.
• Holiday shopping season (November–December). The Woodbury and Jericho shopping areas generate massive traffic that clogs the LIE exits and backs onto the mainline.

When NOT to Use It

• Weekend midday. The service roads run past major shopping centers — Jericho Commons, Woodbury Village, and multiple strip malls. Weekend shopping traffic on the service road can be as bad as the expressway. The lights back up and left-turners block lanes.
• School dismissal time (2:30 PM–3:15 PM). Syosset and Jericho schools are right along the service roads. School buses and parent pickup traffic make the service road crawl during dismissal.
• Late night (after 9 PM). The LIE is flowing freely at night. Taking the service road with its red lights will actually slow you down when the mainline is empty.

Time Savings

On a typical Wednesday afternoon at 5 PM:

That’s a consistent 10-20 minute savings. On bad days — accident, weather, holiday — the gap widens. The LIE can take 45+ minutes for this stretch while the service road stays at 20 minutes.

Over a month of daily commuting, this trick saves 3-5 hours of sitting in traffic.

Pro Tips

• Learn the light timing. The service road lights at Route 106/107 (Jericho Tpke intersection) are the longest — up to 90 seconds. Every other light is 30-45 seconds. Don’t get impatient and try to cut through parking lots; the lights are faster than you think.
• The South Service Road is better than the North for eastbound travel. The north side has more commercial driveways and turning traffic. South side flows more consistently.
• Right lane only. The service road is two lanes in most sections. Stay right — the left lane gets blocked by people waiting to turn left into shopping centers and office parks.
• Don’t use Waze or Google through here. The navigation apps have caught on to this trick, and they now route people onto the service road during rush hour. When the apps send everyone, the service road gets busier. Check conditions yourself: if the LIE is red on the map but the service road isn’t highlighted, you’re golden.
• Exit 40 (Route 25/Jericho Turnpike) is a key decision point. If you’re on the service road and traffic is building, you can jump onto Jericho Turnpike eastbound here. It parallels the LIE one block north and connects to Route 135 in Syosset.
• Know your re-entry points. Exit 43 (South Oyster Bay Road) has a cleaner merge back onto the LIE than Exit 44. The Exit 44 on-ramp is short and you’re merging into traffic that’s still decompressing from the bottleneck.
• Fill up at the Syosset service road stations. Gas along the service road near Exit 41-42 is consistently cheaper than the stations right off the LIE exits.