Dan's Papers - July 4, 2008 - Fourfold Increase in Traffic Congestion

There was a sudden increase in the traffic on our highways a few weeks ago, and though it dropped off dramatically last week, there is considerable fear that it will come back. The increase was 300% greater than the record peak in traffic in the last 20 years. And it caused tie-ups in three separate locations, all in East Hampton. On Monday traffic came to a halt on Three Mile Harbor Road, on Wednesday the problem was up on Floyd Street, and on Thursday the police had to untangle a problem on Grassy Hollow Road.

Prior to a few weeks ago, the record for traffic tie-ups by steers escaping from pastures was in 1994, when one steer got out of a pen in Riverhead and spent considerable time on West Main Street, and then three days later, when he got out again and wound up on North Road, at the Entenmann farm. That was two steers in one year for the East End. After that, for the next 12 years, there was not even one steer on the roads anywhere. And now this.

The six steers on the highway a few weeks ago were actually two that got out three different times on three different days. The sightings resulted in lots of startled people, many of whom were surprised to see the steers just outside their windows. The steers had long horns.

"The steers are quite gentle," said John Faulhaber, who manages Cagramar Farm on Oakdale Avenue in East Hampton. "They're just looking for something to eat, perhaps a little adventure, perhaps a way back home. If this happens again, just call me."

East Hampton Police Chief Todd Sarris said that when the steers were first seen trotting up Three Mile Harbor Road, they tried trapping them. But that didn't work out. "We'd bring two police cars in and they'd just walk around them," he said. "We finally took to herding them. If we walked at them and banged a stick on the asphalt, they'd move along. When we got them near to the pasture, they broke into a trot."

The pasture fence has been tightened up, and the result has been a good one. The steers stay in the pasture.

We've had a report that the tie-ups on Floyd Street and Three Mile Harbor Road were reported by the WINS Helicopter Traffic Report, but we've been unable to confirm this.