A volunteer map editor for the Waze app contacted The Beacon by email this morning to ask where the “Local Traffic Only” signs are posted in Southern Shores on summer weekends so Waze does not direct motorists to take the regulated side streets.
The editor, whose alias is “MrNicGuy,” said he had been “following the various stories of the traffic cut-thru problem at Southern Shores” and is aware that “people blame navigation apps like Waze for [their] cut-thru problems.”
Sometimes, however, he noted, motorists know about a cut-through route and simply choose to take it, regardless of what the navigation app suggests.
If a municipality “has posted ‘Local Traffic Only’ signs,” as Southern Shores has, MrNicGuy said, Waze “can make sure our app does not add to the traffic headache by almost never providing a route through the side streets.”
At MrNicGuy’s request, we gave him the locations of the “Local Traffic Only” signs. He said he also would be in touch with Town Manager Cliff Ogburn.
MOBILE SIGN ON SOUTH DOGWOOD TRAIL INEFFECTIVE: We also would like to point out that the message we observed yesterday on the mobile road sign near the Kitty Hawk Elementary School was not an effective deterrent to cut-through traffic. In somewhat confusing phrasing, the sign advised motorists that if they continued on South Dogwood Trail, they would encounter a delay, and they would be well-advised to stay on U.S. Hwy. 158. A far more effective message to cut-through drivers would be: “Roads Closed Ahead, Local Traffic Only.”
Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/27/22
The Southern Shores Beacon 
Supposedly the town had already notified these apps last year to do the same.
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That was my impression, too. Apparently a lapse occurred.
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SS Beacon -This is fantastic news. Thank you for all you do for the Town of Southern Shores!
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I believe this had been done last year and this year. As a user, one is able to mark roadways as blocked. If KH won’t allow a NO LEFT TURN sign on 158, why can’t they assist us and post a light up sign that reads LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY..?
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The Town Manager has said that he would work with Waze and Google this summer, as he did last summer, to block roads. The jurisdictional issue at the U.S. 158-S. Dogwood Trail intersection has to do with closing the left-turn lane and preventing a left turn. Kitty Hawk did not support that. The NC DOT can work with Southern Shores — and it has on the mainland before the Wright Bridge — on road signage on U.S. 158 without involving Kitty Hawk. Thanks.
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