Letters

Enough already. Let’s do something about the traffic problem east of the Shinnecock Canal.

The other night, at about 6 p.m., I was one of the lucky ones traveling on County Road 39 going east from a shopping trip in Westhampton. Gee, what happened to the traffic in the other direction? There was no one going the other way. Where were are all the workers, service people and work vehicles that usually fill the westbound lanes at this time?

Aha, there they were — just west of the golf course at Tuckahoe Road, behind an emergency vehicle and cars in the middle of the road. They stretched back as far as I could see at my turnoff on North Sea Road. They were backed up on North Sea Road and even on North Sea-Mecox Road.

If a similar event should happen — and it will for sure, when there is a hurricane — it would be a major disaster, not just an inconvenience for thousands of people. We cannot ignore this obvious and growing problem.

A possible solution has been in existence for many years: mass transit for the bulk of the traffic on our roads. Every morning, including Sundays, our community employs hundreds of workers who come to work — one to a car — and spread out over the East End. At night they go home — one to a car — and flood the westbound lanes.

Mass transit is the answer. We need parking lots west of the canal where eastbound workers can park and then get onto a fleet of buses, and trains, on a schedule to be developed, to go farther east, and to return them westbound to the parking lots. Service vehicles with equipment needed for their work will require special permits to cross the canal.

As the residents of the towns will benefit from less congested roads, the cost of the parking lots, the buses and the maintenance thereof should be paid for by the homeowners of the towns. We are the ones who benefit from the workers who spend hours on the roads to get here, and we should help in solving this problem.

I am sure there will be many obstacles to overcome and questions to be asked in trying to implement such a system, but mass transit will work and will keep the roads open and safer.

Howard and Judi Roth

Southampton