Last Thursday morning as I was leaving Candy Kitchen with a cup of coffee, I noticed an illustrious group conferring on the diagonal corner.  Present were Town Highway Superintendent Bill Masterson (elected), Town Director of Transportation and Traffic Safety, Tom Neely (appointed), and Councilman Nancy Graboski (elected). Nancy is a resident of Bridgehampton and currently the only member of the 5-person Southampton Town Board to live on the eastern side of the canal. We have been lucky over the past several years to have both Nancy, and previously Dennis Suskind, to raise awareness of the interests of the eastern portions of the Town.

Well this cadre was probably visiting the Candy Kitchen corner because in May there was a serious pedestrian accident. It happened midday during the week, and from what we hear, the pedestrian was crossing in the crosswalk.  The three Town reps were observing the intersection in preparation for a meeting with the NYS Department of Transportation (DOT). Since Montauk Highway is a state highway, only the state can change road markings, lights or signs. Last night, Nancy told the Bridgehampton Citizens' Advisory Committee (BHCAC) that the state engineers were looking at the corner and would return with recommendations. The BHCAC has been active in identifying danger spots and in urging the Town to change speed limits, add crosswalks and implement other traffic signage. In this spot, the BHCAC had relentlessly lobbied to get cones in the crosswalk to aid visibility and to move the bus stops so buses did not block the views of drivers turning from Corwith and School Street.

We may be headed for a 4-way traffic light. But there may be other solutions such as limiting turns. It's a complicated corner—the roads are off-center.  The BHCAC asked for a plan that would maximize pedestrian safety at any cost, even if it were to back up traffic a bit more. While we yearn for unmarked country roads without traffic lights we are well beyond that now.