The Suffolk County Public Works Department’s study of traffic on County Road 39 in Southampton, presented at a public meeting on Oct. 16 at Southampton High School, reached an unsurprising conclusion: Traffic is bad, and it’s getting worse each year.
But what can be done about it? At the meeting, the county did not present a definitive plan or improvement that would address the issue, stressing instead that the goal was to gather input from the community and discuss possibilities, of which they presented several.
“The more input we get from the community, the better off we’ll be,” said Bill Hillman, the department’s chief engineer. Pre-emptively addressing skepticism that the engineers analyzed the problem only from afar, without having lived it, Mr. Hillman said that the county has been doing “travel time runs” on County Road 39 for years, its representatives driving the road “countless times” between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m.
The most promising solution, the engineer said, would be a bypass road. Proposals included one that would run along Shrubland Road (near Shinnecock Golf Club) into Noyac. Alternatively, a project could utilize existing routes currently maintained as PSEG or Long Island Railroad rights of way.
A reversible express lane — an elevated road which could allocate additional lanes for the direction that needs it most depending on the time of day — would also work, he said, but it would not fit the character of the community, and the project would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The idea of a bypass was met with suspicion from at least one meeting attendee. While it might help alleviate traffic in downtown areas, a woman in the audience said the tradeoff would be that it could “destroy residential areas.”
Since the county does not know what the project would ultimately look like — or if there will be one at all — there is no information on the funding and finances involved.
“Data has to show that it makes an improvement, or it will not get funded,” said Alex Prego, the assistant chief engineer, during the question-and-answer portion of the meeting. Since funding depends on the Suffolk County Legislature, local constituents would need to form a political consensus.
The engineers also discussed solutions that would not work for County Road 39. Eighty-five percent of workers drive to their jobs on the South Fork, Mr. Hillman said, meaning that improved mass transit “probably isn’t the solution.” One audience member, however, did later advocate for more “robust” L.I.R.R. service. A South Fork Commuter Connection weekday train service is gaining in popularity among some people who head east for work here.
Widening the road to make a third lane would also likely fail, the engineers. An extra lane would increase capacity, he said, but in turn it would increase volume to 4,320 vehicles per hour, which would still exceed the limit for a three-lane road.
“If you add a third lane to County Road 39, it doesn’t work. It will not work. That does not solve the problem,” Mr. Hillman said of the idea.
In 2013, the daily volume of cars on the road was 37,157. By 2023, that number had increased by 20 percent to 44,562.
The duration of peak vehicle traffic on the road also increased, now lasting from 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. “When we used to call it a rush hour, it’s not a rush hour anymore — it’s a rush six hours,” Mr. Hillman said.
In the past, when various agencies tried to address the issue, it was met with opposition, he continued, with opponents arguing that the changes “wouldn’t fit the character of the community.”
In 1969, New York State allocated $160 million to extend Sunrise Highway in a move meant to alleviate the travel burden. A 1984 New York Department of Transportation study concluded, however, that no consensus could be formed for a solution, so the finances were essentially moot.
“From 1969 — when the problem was identified — to 2008, they studied it,” Mr. Hillman said while going through the timeline of events. “Nothing was done.”
Even now, Mr. Hillman is not optimistic that improvements will be made, describing a “do-nothing” alternative. “Quite honestly, I think that’s where we’re going to end up,” he said, making comparisons to Cape Cod, where traffic presents a similar problem.
The audience had the opportunity to ask questions, which were to be written on slips of paper and then read aloud by a public works representative: What about pedestrians and cyclists? Emergency services?
The county hopes to incorporate pedestrian and bicycle-friendly infrastructure, Mr. Prego said about nonvehicular traffic. As for emergency services, “We need to work on that, 100 percent.”
Another audience member asked about the timetable.
At the next meeting, it is hoped there will be more information, Mr. Prego said. The county plans to review the feedback before planning more meetings, which are likely to occur in early 2025. Those who were not at the public meeting can send their opinions about the study to [email protected].
