Maine DOT Leaves Portland Pedestrians Stranded

Plans for a highway widening in Portland, Maine, make
little room for pedestrians. (Photo: Rights of Way)

This morning on Streetsblog Network, Rights
of Way, a blog in Portland, Maine, writes about how the Maine
Department of Transportation (MDOT) is trying to push through a
highway-widening plan near the city’s scenic Back Cove.

Despite a City Council resolution calling for better pedestrian
facilities in the area, and despite flat traffic levels, MDOT is
promoting a multimillion-dollar road expansion that leaves scant
accommodation for those on foot.

Rights of Way reports:

[The state]’s construction drawings conspicuously omit any
pedestrian safety measures in defiance of local elected officials
and…new federal policies (not to mention basic common sense).

The plans would only build a short, 8-foot-wide sidewalk under
the freeway overpasses themselves. This sidewalk wouldn’t be connected
to the Back Cove Trail or the Marginal Way sidewalk. Quite the opposite:
MDOT is actually going to spend a few thousand taxpayer dollars on not
one but two chain-link fences to prevent anyone from using the sidewalk
(at least until volunteers from the neighborhood “repair” the fences
themselves).

This sidewalk would not have any lighting. It would be a narrow,
dark alley squeezed next to speeding freeway traffic. Remember, they’re
calling this a “safety improvement”

MDOT is also refusing to build any crosswalks between the Park
and Ride lot and adjacent sidewalks on the other side of Franklin Street
and Marginal Way.

I used to live in Portland, and this area is one of the city’s
great missed opportunities, a place where the spectacular waterfront
should be a focus of recreation, but where the highway has dominated for
too long. The idea that the situation could get worse instead of better
— at a time when so many municipalities are improving waterfront
access and recognizing the destructive nature of waterfront roadways —
is downright depressing.

The League of Young Voters is
asking Mainers to call the governor and demand a change in the plans.
We’ll keep an eye on this one.

More from around the network: Cyclelicious
has a poll on whether reflective clothing should be mandatory for
nighttime cyclists. Human
Transit has a comprehensive post on cul-de-sacs and their impact on
the number of miles people drive. And Seattle
Transit Blog has a post on Mayor Mike McGinn’s new “Walk. Bike.
Ride” campaign.