Hit the brakes! Speed limit to drop along parts of CR-48
Southold Town Board unanimously approved speed reductions on key stretches of County Route 48 at its Dec. 2 regular meeting.
The changes will reduce the speed limit to 45 miles per hour between Cox Neck Road and Marys Road in Mattituck, Old North Road and Leon Road in Southold, and Chapel Lane and Main Street in Greenport.
Additionally, the speed limit between Leon Road in Southold and Chapel Lane in Greenport will drop to 40 mph. Currently, the posted speed limit along many of those stretches allow motorists to drive at 50 mph.
“[It’s] been well over a decade since that road has been rebuilt, so [the Suffolk County Department of Public Works] has been looking at that area for a long time,” Supervisor Al Krupski told The Suffolk Times.
Mr. Krupski will sign a TE-9 form and submit it to the county, which then sends it to the New York State Department of Transportation for final approval and execution. After that, signage will be installed by the county to implement the changes.
Southold Police Chief Steven Grattan said his department will be “stepping up education” of speed limits on the road. Additionally, they will likely install portable speed signs that flash red and blue strobe lights when motorists exceed the speed limit in the area.
“I think it’s important, the reduction of speed, especially by the Sound View Inn and the Halyard,” Chief Grattan said. “It’s about safety.”
There have been a number of accidents in the area where the speed limit change is set to take effect, Chief Grattan noted, citing pedestrian safety as a top concern.
The changes were approved following community concern and recommendations by the county’s traffic study of the corridor traveled by residents, visitors and those headed for the Cross Sound Ferry in Orient Point.
“I think it’s always safer to listen to trained traffic engineers than to listen to, in my experience, elected officials having an opinion on what traffic safety should look like,” Mr. Krupski said.
Speed reductions in the area had been discussed in October and December 2024 to alleviate some of the fluctuations in speed along County Route 48.
Orient resident Tom Stevenson said he did not support the speed changes at the Dec. 2 Town Board meeting, noting that more than half of accidents in the area are caused by animal collisions.
“Really the thing to do is work on the deer,” he said. “This does nothing about clearing the overgrown edges of the roads like Moors Lane and Route 48. It’s so dangerous because the vegetation has grown in and you can’t see.”
New York State’s point system for speeding will change in February, with speeding tickets for motorists driving up to 10 miles over the speed limit set to increase to four points from three.
