Turn Restriction Program Was a Bust in Southampton Village; Officials Will Create New Traffic Committee

A 13-day pilot program meant to mitigate some of the traffic concerns during rush hour in residential neighborhoods off Hill Street in Southampton Village was, essentially, a bust.

Southampton Village officials and police say they are pretty much back where they started when it comes to dealing with the persistent congestion woes that have gotten worse and worse over the past few years.

The Village Board, at its meeting on September 12, had a special comment period for residents and others in attendance who wanted to weigh in with their thoughts about the pilot program. It ran from August 21 to September 6 and prohibited motorists from making left turns off Captains Neck Lane and Lee Avenue to head west on Hill Street between the hours of 4 and 7 p.m. on weekdays.

The left turn restrictions were successful in cutting down on the number of cars using those residential streets as shortcuts, which reduced some of the congestion heading out of the village, giving the residents on that street some “much-needed relief,” according to Southampton Village Police Chief Suzanne Hurteau.

But the turn restrictions essentially shifted the problem to other nearby areas, she said, causing big backups on nearby Halsey Neck Lane. The pilot also failed to deliver on the theory that the turn restrictions would make westbound traffic move faster on Hill Street.

“If anything, it caused traffic to back up more,” Hurteau said, despite the fact that the village’s Department of Public Works put out cones on Hill Street every day to prevent people from making U-turns, which had been a previous problem.

Hurteau spoke at the meeting, going over the many challenges the police force faced with implementing the program and enforcing the rules. She said the department simply does not have the manpower to enforce the turn restrictions, and she went on to say that the traffic woes are not easy to fix for a very simple reason, and it’s not a problem the village can solve on its own.

“The balloon is full — I think we all know that,” she said. “I think it’s important that the county and the state start to pay attention to the East End and the problems we have out here before we lose our workforce.”

While Hurteau stressed the importance of having more involvement from the county and state to address the traffic issues, she also shared other steps the village has taken toward more potential long-term solutions for the issue.

She said she participated in a Zoom meeting with a traffic company that specializes in automated enforcement that does the majority of its work in the Northeast region of the U.S. Currently, the company does not have enforcement of turn restrictions built into its systems, but representatives told Hurteau and Lieutenant Ashley Jones that they would get back to them and see if any of their systems could help with enforcement.

Hurteau implored residents to stay patient.

“I know everyone is frustrated, but we’re all in this together,” she said, adding that officers trying to get to calls, and volunteer fire department and EMS members, deal with the traffic as well. “Half of the village’s workforce [sits in the traffic] — teachers, doctors, nurses. We need them.”

Southampton Village Deputy Mayor Len Zinnanti pointed out that the village had hosted several community forums on traffic that were well attended, and that the village has decided to form a village traffic committee to “discuss and formulate viable options for resolving the issues.”

The committee will include residents from affected neighborhoods both north and south of Hill Street, as well as Zinnanti, Hurteau, and Southampton Village Administrator Anthony Carter, who is in the final weeks of his employment with the village and will be replaced by the new administrator, Scott Russell, in two weeks.

“This is a volume-based regional problem, and we think it would be worthwhile to transmit collective ideas to the Southampton Town Traffic Mitigation Task Force,” Zinnanti said, pointing out the members of the town task force meet regularly with county and state officials.

That task force’s next meeting is on September 18 at 4 p.m., and Zinnanti urged concerned village residents to attend. He said the formulation of the village traffic committee should be complete by the next Village Board meeting on September 24.