Good Morning All.
One of the best examples of absolutely no forethought of infrastructure
other than motor vehicles is the Maine Mall area.
I’d thought the pandemic would change the beyond aggressive attitudes of
drivers.
By what I can tell, it is the opposite.
Many people I’ve spoken to in the blindness community consider Westbrook not
to be a safe community for pedestrian travel and will not travel here.
From: wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of John
Brooking
Sent: Friday, November 26, 2021 1:05 PM
To: wsmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [wsmac] Letter: Time to make streets safer
Letter to the Editor from the Portland Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee
Link:
https://www.pressherald.com/2021/11/26/maine-voices-the-time-is-now-to-make-portlands-streets-safer-more-vibrant-for-all/
Text below, in case you have trouble getting to the letter online.
------
By John Clark and Winston Lumpkins IV
John Clark is chair and Winston Lumpkins IV is vice chair of the Portland
Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
In recent weeks, we have seen a wave
<https://www.pressherald.com/2021/10/17/vehicle-hits-bicyclist-trying-to-cross-i-295-in-portland/?rel=related>
of crashes
<https://www.pressherald.com/2021/10/07/bicyclist-injured-when-hit-by-vehicle-in-portland/?rel=related&rel=related>
resulting in serious injury
<https://www.pressherald.com/2021/10/06/bicyclist-at-maine-med-with-life-threatening-injuries-after-being-hit-by-boat-trailer/?rel=related&rel=related>
or death
<https://www.pressherald.com/2021/11/07/pedestrian-hit-and-killed-by-vehicle-in-portland/?rel=related>
to bicyclists and pedestrians in the Portland area. While the circumstances
surrounding these individual cases vary, we believe that the true fault lies
with the road infrastructure itself.
Whether we’re traveling by foot, bike or car, our roads are literally killing
us. Nationally since 2009, there has been a 51 percent
<https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/pedestrians/data-details/>
increase in pedestrian fatalities. The first six months of 2021 brought an
increase in U.S. traffic fatalities of more than 18 percent
<https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/usdot-releases-new-data-showing-road-fatalities-spiked-first-half-2021>
, compared to the same period a year before. These tragedies are preventable.
The time is now to redesign our streets to be safer and more compassionate for
all.
Most roads are designed for speeds much higher than the posted speed limit.
This creates conditions that make it too easy for people to drive too fast. The
tragedy is that engineers know how to design safer roads. The solutions – such
as reducing lane width by a foot – are often simple and economical, but there
must be the political will. Road design must prioritize for the safety of all
users above the ease of motorists to travel at deadly speeds, which, when it
comes to a pedestrian’s chances of surviving having been struck, is above 25
mph
<https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/05/31/3-graphs-that-explain-why-20-mph-should-be-the-limit-on-city-streets/>
. (This is not far below the most efficient speed to maximize the volume of
traffic flow.)
Fortunately, a consensus is emerging that we need to rebalance our
transportation systems away from this self-destructive dependence on
single-occupant vehicles and toward a far more diverse array of transport
options.
Locally, we can do our part by supporting local and regional investments in
safer infrastructure projects. There are some recent good examples: The new
roundabout
<https://www.pressherald.com/2021/07/29/portlands-first-traffic-roundabout-set-to-open-friday/?rel=related>
near the University of Southern Maine has calmed traffic and will be less
expensive to maintain over time. The new design <https://verandaplan.org/> for
the Interstate 295 off-ramp onto Veranda Street not only provides a far safer
“T” intersection, but also includes bike lanes, crosswalks and a new waterfront
park to boot. These are win-win solutions that should be applauded, but we need
to do more.
We don’t need to wait for huge and costly projects, however, to create safer
streets. At the intersection of Baxter Boulevard and Preble Street, a “slip
lane
<https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/07/13/cities-are-replacing-dangerous-slip-lanes-with-space-for-people/>
” has been removed, slowing cars as they turn onto Baxter and making the
pedestrian crossing much shorter, in addition to widening the Back Cove Trail.
While associated with a bigger project, this type of improvement can be made
quickly and easily with paint and traffic cones. Slowing cars in residential
areas can be done with low-cost temporary interventions, which allows for
testing of methods before spending millions of dollars on more typical road
projects.
The Portland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee
<https://www.facebook.com/PortlandBikePed/> stands by to support our City
Council and mayor in meeting the needs of our community and creating streets
that are safer, more vibrant places to be.
We hope that the new council, voted in by an overwhelming desire for equity,
justice and fairness, will address the inequities present in the current design
of Portland’s streets. We can, and must, make our streets safe for all
regardless of their mode of transport, be it by foot, bike, wheelchair, scooter
or, indeed, by car, the people of Portland should have the ability to get where
they need to go without fearing for their lives. The time is now to create a
high-quality network of bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly roadways, for equity,
for the planet and for the safety of all of us.
