Letters

Kudos to Sagaponack Mayor Bill Tillotson and the trustees, who helped create safer village roads for people of all ages — walkers, runners, cyclists and drivers.

In June 2013, a 14-year-old girl was killed by a car while riding her bike in East Hampton. This tragedy spurred the creation of a Sagaponack “safe roads” citizen group that did research, hired safety consultants and provided a detailed report with recommendations to the village trustees.

Key recommendations — supported by more than 100 homeowners — included road widenings, 4-foot pedestrian safety shoulders and traffic calming measures, such as speed tables. Village trustees embraced some of these improvements, including 3-foot safety shoulders (a compromise) on key high-traffic streets. 

Unfortunately, it took another tragedy to accelerate meaningful action. Last July, an 11-year-old boy on his bicycle was killed while riding on Town Line Road. Since then, village trustees have initiated excellent safety measures across Sagaponack, including street widenings, safety shoulders, stop signs and speed tables.

Sagaponack Village action is supported by data, including from the Federal Highway Administration, which encourages the inclusion of shoulders for safer pedestrian environments. The administration states that pedestrians killed while “biking or walking along the roadway” account for almost 8 percent of all pedestrians killed in traffic crashes. According to the administration, widening paved shoulders provides numerous safety benefits, including reducing “walking along roadway” crashes by 71 percent.

We have more work to do so pedestrians and vehicles can coexist safely. This past May, a Wainscott resident was hit by a car, airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital and remains in a coma. Just last week, a female cyclist in Bridgehampton was hit by a truck and airlifted to Stony Brook. Many of these tragedies are preventable. 

So, where can we go from here? Based upon the work done in Sagaponack, we can embrace the data and the recommended solutions. Easy measures include not compromising on the state and federal recommendations of 4-foot shoulders (not 3 feet), regularly clean shoulders and traffic calming measures like speed tables. 

Collaboration between towns also is critical so that measures done in one hamlet don’t end where the town line ends. For example, Sagg Road and Bridge Lane on the Sagaponack sides have expanded shoulders, but once you cross those roads into the Town of Southampton, those safety measures end. 

Longer term, the towns of Southampton and East Hampton and the Village of Sagaponack could hire road safety planning experts to help spark innovative ideas, such as interior paths where pedestrians would be much safer.

For now, thank you to the Village of Sagaponack for showing leadership. I hope the good actions inspire work across the East End, including substantially greater collaboration. It will save lives.

Jeff Tannenbaum

Katonah