Another new stop light

So there's another new stop light in Southold Town -- this one at the intersection of Route 48 and Youngs Avenue in Southold. There's no doubt that it is needed -- this is a dangerous intersection with a history of serious accidents, including fatalities -- in part because it is the closest major intersection to the Founders Village senior citizens housing complex to the immediate south.

But there's another reason it's needed: the ferry traffic. Is there really any doubt that the significant increase in traffic on Routes 48 and 25 (east of Greenport) in recent years is directly attributable to the ferry? At peak times, Cross Sound Ferry is capable of dumpting 6,000 vehicles a day (!) on our local roads, and we all know a high proportion of them are passing back and forth through Southold (and Peconic and Cutchogue and Mattituck) on Route 48. And that begs the question: Would this stop light have been necessary if ferry traffic hadn't increased by 1,200% since the fast ferry went into service in 1995 (while Southold's population increased by 12%)? I think we all know the answer to that one.

This morning, at a work session at the Town Hall Annex in Southold, the Town Board debated installing yet another stop light at yet another dangerous intersection -- Route 48 and Westphalia Road in Mattituck. You've got to give the council a lot of credit for attempting to mitigate the impact of ferry traffic, but isn't this really just another case of treating the symptom instead of the disease.

Until Cross Sound Ferry traffic is brought under control, all the stop lights in the world won't solve this particular problem.