The South Fork doesn’t have a Miracle Mile for teenagers to cruise in cars, “American Graffiti”-style, but we have our Main Streets where they cruise on foot, eating their fro-yo and checking out one another’s sneakers and haircuts. And the Main Street that the teens prefer to patrol as a social event is, of course, Sag Harbor’s. Like the rest of us, teens are drawn to Sag Harbor not just because there remain some stores where they might actually be able to buy something — the Kite Shop, the Wharf Shop, Flashbacks, etc. — but because there’s a lot of grab-and-go food reachable on foot, from pizza to Big Olaf.
The issue for East Hampton parents of this demographic, between, say, 11 and 16? You can’t get there from here.
There’s no really timely, simple way to get between East Hampton Village and Sag Harbor Village, and so parents ply the roadway of Route 144 until our tires are worn. Ask a parent. This is “a thing.”
Yes, there is a public-transportation alternative, the Suffolk County Transit S92 bus ($2.25 each way) that can carry you cheaply from the Long Island Rail Road station on the East Hampton side to Sag Harbor. But as anyone who has ever relied on that bus to get to work each day can tell you, the wait can be hair-tearingly interminable, because the buses, scheduled every 15 minutes, originate from Orient Point and stop at all points west and north. (We do love the Suffolk Transit on-demand app, too, but that service works within “zones” and doesn’t cross the town line.)
It’s only six miles from the Buell Lane roundabout to the intersection of Bay Street and Main on the harbor end. We need a shuttle bus that just stitches back and forth on 114 every 15 minutes. We need a Harbor Hauler, Land Ferry, or Turnpike Trotter. We are convinced that ridership would be robust, not just because the teenagers among us would catch that bus frequently but because there are a lot of working adults out there who would be delighted. And that service would allow riders to then tap into the great on-demand county service on either end.
We suggest that the Town of East Hampton explore a Route 114 shuttle, perhaps in partnership with the Town of Southampton and the Villages of Sag Harbor and East Hampton. Paying drivers, and covering insurance, purchasing the vehicle and budgeting for maintenance wouldn’t be a small expense, certainly, but we’ve run some numbers and believe it could pay for itself in the first six months. Maybe an existing service like the Hampton Hopper could add this simple route. All aboard the Turnpike Trolley! (Sag Sloop? Call us if you’d like to discuss catchy names.)