Letters

The traffic problem is straightforward to solve; I feel foolish saying that. We have too many cars on the roads, and traffic has grown exponentially. We can’t widen the roads or make new ones, so what will we do to fix this?

Now, let’s talk about a solution.

We should do what they did on the Long Island Expressway, carpooling certain hours every day. Any car with a nonresident of the village (with a sticker) traveling on Hill Street, or, for that matter, any street that has a traffic problem, will require two passengers in the car.

Again, we have the power to enforce it. With today’s technology, you can use cameras to capture cars and license plates and fine violators.

I don’t expect this proposal to be very popular, but it would work. If our politicians have the strength to take this step, they might be the first in the country to change how people drive and improve our lives and air quality. We must arrange parking to make this work.

We can create parking in areas in the Pine Barrens; the environmental world benefits by taking carbon out of the air. While unpopular, cutting down trees is a small price, as it will remove thousands of cubic tons of carbon by removing car emissions. Since it’s maybe a protracted political problem, alternative land should be available in Riverhead, Brookhaven and/or Manorville. Does the Shinnecock Nation have any land available that can be leased from them, providing another much-needed revenue source for them?

Solutions are necessary, even if they require tough choices. This is the responsibility of government.

Jerry Rosengarten

Southampton Village