Letters

I agree with John Gregory about the work traffic using residential streets as shortcuts [“A Few Suggestions,” Letters, February 4].

I have been a resident on Pelham Street in Southampton Village since 1972; my four children grew up there, as well as my grandchildren spending a lot of time at my house. They never had to worry about traffic or other issues that we have today — they could ride their bikes, walk around the neighborhood to see their friends and play with them any time of the day, and the only traffic back then was local, and not very much of it. Now, I never see any children playing around the neighborhood like my children did.

Once the workforce started to get bigger and bigger, County Road 39 could no longer support the volume, so they started using the residential streets to get to Hill Street, for the most part. Now, it’s just steady traffic in the morning and evening, and sometimes it is nonstop, bumper to bumper.

I have contacted the village trustees several times to find a solution, but nothing ever happened. They were supposed to do a residential traffic study, but that never happened, either. I mentioned speed bumps, and they said they were not sure they could do that; I mentioned that Sag Harbor has them on some streets, and also, since Southampton Village is incorporated, they do not need state approval to do anything with the streets in the neighborhood. And I don’t know why nothing was never done.

I am sure, by now, they are fully aware of the residential traffic. The traffic is not only annoying but dangerous at times: Cars race from block to block to get nowhere fast.

If you think about it, there are only three streets that the work traffic can use to use as bypasses in the village: East and West Prospect Street, White Street, and Cooper’s Farm Road. So I cannot see why the trustees cannot fond a viable solution to cut down on the workforce traffic using those three streets — speed bumps, traffic lights that are used only during workforce traffic, one-way streets part of the day, or signs that say “residents only — other traffic use main roads.”

These are only suggestions, but I think something needs to be done. The residents pay property taxes, the workforce does not, and we deserve to have a safe, quiet neighborhood to live in and raise our children.

Louis Pizzanelli

Southampton