See What Works

A note of appreciation to Southampton Town’s highway superintendent, Charlie McArdle, for refusing to leave things alone.

At this point, it’s become policy at Suffolk County that they don’t have a solution to the chronic traffic problems on the South Fork. Veteran Chief Engineer Bill Hillman, who has always been candid while paying attention to the South Fork’s needs in his county post, summed it up late last year upon his retirement, when he had no reason to be diplomatic: “You as the community need to tell us what you want us to do. … Simple, real simple. So the community needs to come together and figure this out.”

McArdle has taken up that challenge. In the short term, he’s doggedly trying anything to see what works: flashing traffic lights, new traffic patterns with orange cones, police officers at key intersections, limitations on turns onto the region’s two main east-west arteries during commuting hours. On April 21, he’s trying again with an ambitious two-week trial run that uses all of the above.

As we sit here today, there’s no way of knowing if it will work, if traffic suddenly will flow steadily and efficiently out of the bottlenecked South Fork to points west, or if the various adjustments, and the confusion that’s likely to accompany them, will worsen the gridlock.

But McArdle is trying. There is value in experimentation, and it takes a stubborn, persistent advocate to convince county officials to allow such mischief. He’s taken on the responsibility, even though it’s arguably not his purview. Residents of both Southampton and East Hampton towns should commend that.

So, for two weeks, try out the new system. There will be surveys: Answer them. You might hate it. You might love it — and if you do, you might support paying for it to continue all summer. But however it goes, appreciate the effort. This is a nearly impossible puzzle — but one man seems absolutely obsessed with trying to solve it, or at least to find new strategies. If you see him out there, give him a honk and a wave of appreciation.