Will this be the summer that the Hamptons finally loses its mind?
Just about everyone I talk to says the same thing: “I’ve never seen it like this.” They could be commenting on the sweltering heat, the restaurant prices or the lack of parking. But everyone seems to agree one thing: the massive amount of vehicular traffic. It’s become impossible to go anywhere without some sort of delay.
There’s been lots of attention devoted to the trade parade and how it impacts the village. Unfortunately, the sizable morning and afternoon runoff from the parade impacts residential side streets all over the town.
Beginning at 7 a.m. our quiet residential street gets a torrent of high-speed car and truck traffic racing along the hills and blind curves. In the absence of speed enforcement, we’ve asked for speed bumps, speed humps or even a speed display — to no avail. With no sidewalks, walking the dog or just plain walking becomes a death-defying adventure.
Adding to the traffic mayhem are the giant, wide-body landscaping trucks. Wide enough to take up an entire lane, they double-park for hours at time to do their work. You wonder why they couldn’t park in the driveway. Though at 60 feet long, a lot of them just wouldn’t fit. Couldn’t their size and parking habits be regulated?
The high volume of traffic this summer seems to be pushing us toward a tipping point. It diminishes the quality of our lives on a daily basis.
Without some significant changes, paradise is losing. And may ultimately be lost.
Kim Christian Olson
Southampton
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