Green Light

Sometime in November, it appears that some new traffic patterns will appear along County Road 39. They won’t be brand new — they are the result of a great deal of testing and trial-and-error this year, led by Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle. For the first time, though, they will become the full-time rules of the road.

Generally, that could be beneficial. The ad hoc changes along the busy highway, particularly in the afternoon to try to deal with the outflowing westbound traffic, create confusion and probably add to slowdowns, at least at first. This way, drivers who regularly pass along County Road 39 at any time of day or night will get used to new lane changes and restrictions, which will become particularly helpful at rush hour.

Credit to Southampton Town and Southampton Village officials for lobbying hard to convince the Suffolk County Department of Public Works to work with them. And it took all they had, from the sound of it: Even as they signed off, county engineers seemed skeptical of the machinations and their actual impact.

For the most part, drivers have seen some success when lights start flashing yellow and a modicum of organization comes to the stretch just outside Southampton Village. Coupled with restrictions along Hill Street in the village, designed to keep afternoon rush hour flowing freely to the west, the traffic program kept traffic moving, though slowly — but that’s a success for anyone who has sat on Hill Street or Sandy Hollow Road or County Road 39 itself for long stretches, unmoving, wondering how long a commute they will face this evening.

Credit, too, goes to County Executive Ed Romaine, who has kept the attention on the traffic needs of the South Fork. It’s hard to imagine that anything would have gotten done if Romaine didn’t nudge it forward and give his endorsement. The only way a perplexing problem gets solved is with team effort and all parties engaged.

The lines painted on the roadway will get the most attention, but a subtle change will arguably make even more difference: reprogramming some of the traffic lights to be more coordinated with the changing needs along the corridor throughout the day. There simply are times of the day when a red light is more impactful than others. Small changes can have a big impact on traffic.

All that said, it’s time for Suffolk County officials to simply forget the pipe dream of a bypass road connecting the terminus of Sunrise Highway to East Hampton with a limited-access highway. That ship sailed in the 1970s: It was a hard sell then, at a time when North Sea, Noyac, Water Mill, Bridgehampton and all the other areas affected were less built out. Today, it would be a nightmare, an environmental catastrophe, and a multibillion-dollar impossible lift.

The problem, once again, is too many vehicles, particularly at certain times of the day. It really is that simple. Managing the flow is one strategy to live with the problem; truly solving the problem will mean finding ways to reduce those numbers. New roads are not the answer to that particular dilemma.