Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

Maine DOT Leaves Portland Pedestrians Stranded

10:08 AM EDT on May 12, 2010

exit7_1.jpgPlans 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.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Why We Care About Some Transportation Tragedies More Than Others

Why do we respond to major transportation disasters with so much urgency — and why don't we count our collective car crash epidemic among them?

March 28, 2024

The Toll of History: MTA Board Approves $15 Congestion Pricing Fee

New York City's first-in-the-nation congestion pricing tolls are one historic step closer to reality after Wednesday's 11-1 MTA board vote. Next step: all those pesky lawsuits.

March 28, 2024

Take Thursday’s Headlines Home, Country Roads

Heat Map reports on why rural Americans are resisting electric vehicles, and why it might not matter much for the climate.

March 28, 2024
See all posts