Stuck in Gridlock

It’s refreshing: Bill Hillman doesn’t mince words. And Suffolk County’s top engineer, who officially retired last week, will be missed, if only for his candor.

Speaking recently at a presentation on traffic challenges on the South Fork, the start of what is meant to be a comprehensive effort to find some solutions, Hillman came carrying a bucket of cold water. He not only splashed it in faces, he doused any smoldering hope for a moonshot solution to the gridlock that ails South Fork motorists and residents, in the summer and nowadays throughout the calendar.

“We will tell you what works and what doesn’t work as traffic engineers,” he told the gathering. “But you as the community need to tell us what you want us to do. Without the support of the community, we don’t get the support of the elected officials — without the elected officials, we don’t get the funding. Simple, real simple. So the community needs to come together and figure this out.”

Eventually, though, came the headline: Perhaps unburdened, as a soon-to-be-retiree, of the need to be diplomatic, he put it simply: Small measures won’t work. Any solutions are big solutions. And big solutions are simply not going to fly. So nothing is likely to happen.

Bracing, but there it is. So … now what?

It’s not time to panic, nor to embrace pessimism. It’s time for real strategic thinking, and honest dialogue locally — about how bad the problem is, and how serious we are about fixing it. A series of questions needs to be answered. Picture a flow chart.

It starts with: Are we willing to embrace “big solutions”? If the state and county offered the same deal it did in the 1970s, a fully funded bypass from the terminus to Sunrise Highway to, say, roughly just east of Bridgehampton, would this community accept it? Understand: A billion-dollar project is not currently on offer, and it might never be again. But … is it what we want? What we need?

If the answer is yes, it’s time to swallow hard, start lobbying hard — and accept that it’s not going to be a pretty, environmentally sensitive solution. The beloved South Fork will get an ugly scar. Scars are worth the surgery if it’s life-saving. Is that the prognosis here?

If the answer is no, there are many, many more yes/no branches to follow. Understand Hillman’s point: Roundabouts, added lanes, flashing traffic lights — none are solutions. Some will help a bit, some will actually make things worse, in the complicated dynamics of gridlock. We can discuss them, but don’t kid yourself: They are mere window dressing on a building that’s burning.

Some measures that will move traffic more steadily could mean trade-offs with safety. Are we willing to accept a few more motorist and pedestrian deaths a year to save a few minutes of commute? Some strategies, like congestion pricing or toll roads, will raise prices on goods and services; is that something the local consumer will accept?

Mass transit is always hailed as the real solution. Hillman says otherwise: It can be more convenient for some, but it’s not a traffic solution. Moreover, it will never be the preferred choice in a culture based on individuals in cars, SUVs and trucks. What if mass transit were mandated, in some manner? If you work on the South Fork, and you live here, and you don’t drive a work truck to your job, what if a car was no longer an option? What if parking and riding, a train or a shuttle bus or a bicycle — golf carts? — was your only choice?

Do the hamlets and villages need to be rethought? With central parking and business districts where cars and trucks are limited? What if there was no beach parking — only shuttle stops coming from larger parking areas a few miles inland?

Which leads inevitably to the biggest question of all: Where do workers live? Do we commit fully to shipping in a workforce from points west on a daily basis? Or do we embrace smart growth and try to resurrect a community where the workers can afford to live a short distance from where they work? That question has hung in the air for two decades, and our stubborn refusal to make a choice is a choice in itself, which has brought us to the current state of … gridlock, literally and figuratively, emotionally and spiritually. We’re stuck, and we’re doomed to watch the problem get worse.

Bill Hillman’s words seem apocalyptic, in a sense: There are only big solutions, not small ones, and big solutions are mostly fantastical. One response is despair, resignation, retreat. Some communities — he mentioned Cape Cod — simply learn to live with the inconvenience, and that could be this region’s ultimate fate.

How much do you really hate the traffic on the South Fork? Do you hate it enough to truly change things in a meaningful way? Until we can answer that question affirmatively, inaction is the only strategy in play, and we know what that future looks like: It looks like today, but worse.