Keep It Moving

Modern roundabouts actually are quite modern: Though traffic circles and rotaries have been used in communities in the Eastern United States since the early 1900s, the American Society of Civil Engineers says that today’s traffic control systems actually were first created in the mid-1950s in the United Kingdom. The ASCE says the first modern roundabouts in the United States were in Nevada in 1990. Since then, the number of them has increased “from roughly 150 in the late 1990s to more than 7,000 today.” And they are generally “safer and more efficient than traditional traffic circles or signalized intersections.”

East Hampton Town is on the brink of solving a troublesome intersection, and the planned solution is a roundabout. That’s something to get excited about: The more of these created, the more sensible it will seem to use them at dangerous and inefficient intersections.

While there are naysayers who claim that roundabouts destroy rural character, the fact is, the intersection in question — Stephen Hands Path and Long Lane/Two Holes of Water Road — is no longer the pastoral byway it once was. Stephen Hands is now a literal bypass for the trade parade and residents looking to circumvent Route 27 and East Hampton’s Main Street. Meanwhile, traffic attempting to cross or turn left from the stop signs on Long Lane and Two Holes of Water Road are forced to brave a gantlet of fast-moving traffic, poor sight lines and uncertainty about exactly who has the right of way.

Alternative suggestions have surfaced for managing the intersection, including four-way stop signs, a traffic light or even speed bumps — all of which are nonstarters and would only back traffic up more or force vehicles to stop even at hours when there is no traffic to speak of.

A modern roundabout is the answer. It will keep traffic moving and give drivers entering from less heavily traveled roads a fighting chance to traverse the intersection. Just look at other places on the East End where they have been installed — at Toilsome Lane and Route 114 in East Hampton, in North Haven on Route 114, on Scuttle Hole Road, in Riverside — to see that they are a logical solution that keeps the flow steady and calm. Contrast that with the traffic light at Route 114 and Stephen Hands Path, where untenable back-ups are a daily occurrence at this time of year.

Roundabouts are not a suburban or urban construct. In Europe, they are used throughout the countryside and small towns with great success and few problems. While there are those who like to think of roads here as the quiet country lanes they were 50 years ago, that’s not reality. It’s time to put real solutions in place that keep everyone safe — and moving.