Taking Hamptons Traffic Seriously

Here’s a “letter to the editor” from me, published this week at the Southampton Press site. It concerns the worsening traffic situation on the South Fork of Long Island, not only the backups on the primary east-west arteries, but the onslaught of diverted traffic onto residential roads (including–no surprise–mine). I make reference to some renderings that a full-time local resident with an architectural background, Jay Fitzpatrick, presented last month to a Southampton Town official committee set up to address the problem. I have met a few times with Jay and Barbara Fair, an involved citizen of the North Sea hamlet. Above is one of his preliminary works, showing what could be a bypass highway atop the existing Long Island Rail Road line. Such a bypass is a decades-old idea on the South Fork, which stirred earlier controversy and died. My letter argues that this outcome was unfortunate. Further background, including my own change of heart on this subject, is to be found in this 2022 post of mine. The idea remains a longshot today, but should be viewed as representative of what a meaningful response to the traffic mess could entail. (I should note that Jay makes the additional point that a bypass route would be of critical importance in the emergency of a mass evacuation to the west.) –July 12, 2024

A Grand Idea