To the Editor:
Looking back, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could have wanted Route 1 in Maine to look like Route 1 in Massachusetts, but it’s understandable if some people felt that a wider road is a safer road and a faster road is a more convenient road.
It’s understandable if some people didn’t foresee Route 1 in Maine starting to look like Route 1 in Massachusetts, but it’s hard to imagine that anyone can see any good coming from the urbanization of the village of South Bristol. That’s the goal of the state’s plan to widen the road through the village.
The state hasn’t made public their specific plans for the widening, but it’s clear that some people will lose their front yards, and maybe even their porches. There’s no denying that a wider, straighter road will encourage higher speeds without increasing the capacity of the road. It will still be two lanes – a two-ended traffic funnel in the village accomplishing nothing.
The state wants to widen the road because they can, and even people who don’t care about this project should be concerned. It’s hard to believe that a decision so destructive could be made entirely by people who have never visited the village except as a requirement of their jobs. If they can do this in South Bristol village, they could widen and straighten any road in any village that depends for its character on narrow winding roads. They could do it in Alna or Damariscotta Mills.
The statistics the state uses to justify the widening are very strange. They say the road must accommodate an average of 2450 cars per day by 2020. That would be more than 100 cars per hour, 24 hours per day all year round. If that were the average number, traffic on a summer day would be backed up from Christmas Cove to the Harrington Road. The width of the road would be the least of the problems.
Why 2450 cars per day? To accommodate population and industrial growth, they say. In fact, the population of zip code 04568 is expected to shrink by 2.48 percent by 2014.
The only industry in South Bristol now operates on the water. The size of the fishing industry is limited by the fish population, not the width of the road. What other industries are looking to expand in South Bristol? What about the existing businesses that are going to lose their property? Surely they deserve more consideration than unnamed future industries.
Even MDOT’s number for current traffic – 1320 cars per day – is highly suspect. Fifty-five cars per hour all day and night, every day of the year? Really? Statistics show that zip code 04568 has 564 people and 255 cars. If every one of those cars made a round trip every day, more than 400 cars would have to come from someplace else and drive through the village and back every day of the year to get 1320 cars going through town.
This might happen in the summer, but in the winter you can circle the island at 6 p.m. and not see another car on the road.
MDOT starts with unbelievable statistics and then wants to accommodate twice as much traffic within six years. It appears that the state has Phoenix envy. They want to plan a town that keeps developing until it runs out of water.
The engineers and planners need to take their eyes off the road and look at the village, its people and its businesses.
The village isn’t broken. Don’t break it.
