But, just as certainly community leaders, and citizens in general, are apt to lower their cries for traffic relief now that summer is passing into fall and the drive time between Oak Island and Southport is lessening. That is clearly bad news. Oak Island Town Council last week directed staff to schedule a conference with anybody at all who might have a solution to the particular problems of traffic on Long Beach Road. The idea council outlined is to take a sort of shotgun approach to finding ways traffic congestion may be lightened, especially during high-traffic months. That's a pretty good start.
Traffic tends to be a regional problem and solutions likely require action throughout the region.
It would be good to see local government officials from Southport, St. James and Brunswick County joining with Oak Island in its approach to state transportation officials. A better solution may come for the involvement of other towns. No doubt folks from other towns and the county are being inconvenienced as they travel in and around the Long Beach Road and N. C. 211 area. Of course, any measure now that may help lighten the traffic burden locally is just an interim measure. No discussion of traffic in the Southport-Oak Island area can be held without first recognizing a second, western bridge to Oak Island is the most obvious and ultimate answer, unless the road from that bridge wanders off to Sunset Harbor somewhere.