Request for safety improvements re: Order 121-25/26

[Christian MilNeil]

Honorable City Councilors,

There's an item on tonight's Council agenda to approve "an Agreement Between the Maine Department of Transportation and Portland" for "plans to improve and pave Congress
Street from Stevens Avenue to Johnson Road, Johnson Road from Congress to South
Portland Town Line, and Skyway Drive from Congress Street to Johnson Road," with City of Portland taxpayers on the hook for a portion of the project costs. 

Given our City's new Vision Zero policy, I'd encourage the Council to demand more information and accountability from MaineDOT when these agreements come up. 

This segment of Congress Street has killed four people in crashes over the past decade – more than 1/10th of the entire City's death toll from traffic violence in that period. Among the victims were 57-year-old Edward Blumenthal, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver on outer Congress near Stroudwater in Nov. 2017.

Long segments of outer Congress Street lack basic sidewalks, and in the 1.3 mile stretch between Stevens Ave. and Jetport Road, the average distance between legal crosswalks is 2,300 feet (0.4 miles). 

Paving projects are among the City's best opportunities to improve roadway safety – but merely re-paving the existing street in its existing configuration will perpetuate these known hazards for many more years to come. 

That's not a mistake that the City Council should make tonight. If MaineDOT can't provide information on how it intends to implement safety interventions in this project, the Council should delay action on this item until they can.

Thanks for your work on this. 

Christian MilNeil
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[Winston Lumpkins]

Dear Honorable Mayor Dion, City Councilors, 

I don't know if you'll have time to read this very late email, however, I urge you to heed Christian MilNeil.  

While improvements to sidewalk ramps are important, I see no mention anywhere of bicycle facilities; there is sometimes a bike lane and sometimes not on outer congress street, in a confusing and dangerous way.  Furthermore, speeds are such that a separated facility may be needed to ensure safety. 

Do not move forward with this project until you are satisfied that the corridor will see significant safety improvements for all users, Pedestrians, Bicyclists and Motorists. 

It may be worth investing city money into this project to incorporate bike lanes if they are not included in current plans, though, the Maine DOT should of course be including them, and they may be included, there just aren't plans provided and they are not mentioned. 

It is far better to delay a project like this a few years than it is to lock in a bad design for another 10 or 20 years.  

The city needs to form a Complete Streets Committee to vet these projects, as PBPAC has repeatedly requested.  Last minute emails are not going to cut it. This is a bad system, I feel bad sending this last minute email, things are not getting properly vetted and compliance with our complete streets policy and vision Zero seems vague.  

Thanks for hearing me out, 

~Winston 

Winston Lumpkins IV (he/him/his)

Past Chair, Portland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
https://www.portlandbikeped.org/

winston....@gmail.com
207-408-1508

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[John Brooking]

Just another anecdote, I’ll mention once again my new’ish office location on the Unum campus on Outer Congress. There is a stop for the #7 Metro bus inbound, which I sometimes take downtown after work, with or without my bike, located across the road from the Unum driveway. There is no sidewalk on that side, and probably for that reason, no crosswalk to get there from Unum. So I have to cross without a crosswalk, watching out for right turners from the driveway, and stand at the stop near the road with no sidewalk. (And, lately, on top of a snow bank because it’s also never shoveled, but that's a separate issue I’m currently taking up with Metro.)

John Brooking

Cyclist, Cycling Educator, Technologist

https://www.facebook.com/CyclingSavvy4ME/, http://cyclingsavvy.org

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[Winston Lumpkins]

In response to concerns Christian, Myself and others raised, some Councilors (Phillips, Michniewicz & Bullett that I'm aware of) pushed to get more of an explanation from the city.  Attached is Director Murray (public works director)' s memo in response to those concerns. 

In short, there are other projects in the works for Bradley's corner and the intersections of Frost and Congress, and this will include a reduction in lane width to 11 feet, which will allow for more consistent bike lane treatments.  Councilor Michniewicz asked what other improvements doing this might preclude, but, Director Murray just reiterated the laen width reduction and left it at that.  It passed. 

Certainly the uneven lane widths and sometimes disappearing bike lanes are an issue which we have raised about outer Congress street, so that will be an improvement, but I'm pretty sure further improvements might be needed to achieve real safety for cyclists and motorists... I'm also not clear if the reduction to 11 foot travel lanes will allow bike lanes along the whole stretch, and how wide those lanes will be, or if they will have any kind of buffer...

One reason we should have something like the Crash Analysis Studio protocol is so that we would have a better understanding about the factors leading to crashes; if we had such analysis for the 4 crashes Christian references we could have a better understanding about how to prevent them, and could better evaluate these improvements.  Certainly, it's possible that these small improvements and a redesign of the frost street and Bradley's corner intersections might help...  

-Winston

Winston Lumpkins IV (he/him/his)

Past Chair, Portland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
https://www.portlandbikeped.org/

winston....@gmail.com
207-408-1508

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[Zack Barowitz]

Thanks Winston. Not great but not a total loss. 

207-838-6120

917-696-5649
ZacharyBarowitz.com

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[Jaime Parker]

There is still time to alter the striping plan.  Do we know when this paving is happening?  I'm hoping we can push for more substantive changes than lane width reductions (and 11' is still pretty wide, but I know it's METRO's preferred width).

Are there sections that could get a road diet (1 lane in each direction and a center turn lane)?  Could we get "protected" bike lanes, or intermittent choke points (using flex posts), at least seasonally?  It might make sense to go section by section and make suggestions for each.  

Jaime Parker

(he/his)
Special Projects Director
Portland Trails
ja...@trails.org
207.329.6180

Non Sibi, Sed Omnibus

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[Christian MilNeil]

Absolutely, there are lots of segments on this stretch that could be striped better. At the very least the city could add some crosswalks – especially at METRO stops. 

The segment around the Fore River bridge, from Waldo Street to the Fore River Trail, has a two-way center left-turn lane – but there are only two spots where drivers could possibly take a left turn along that stretch (one is to Waldo Street, and the other is to the Stroudwater Crossing office parking lot). So it's not really necessary and could be replaced with protected bike lanes and/or median refuge islands for pedestrian crossings. That's also the spot where a driver killed Blumenthal in 2017. 

Similarly, the segment between the Jetport and Westbrook Street has one lane inbound but two lanes outbound. There, too, it's probably feasible to have a merging zone where westbound traffic merges into a single lane south of the Westbrook Street traffic light (similar to how traffic merges on Preble Street north of Marginal Way) to create space for bike lanes and install more crosswalks that aren't exposed to double-threat blind spots, which are a problem in the current 2-lane configuration. 

More generally, though, we need the City Council to have a better process for vetting paving projects like these to ensure MaineDOT is prioritizing safety from the get-go, instead of waiting 'til the last minute and rubber stamping Augusta's plans. 

Christian MilNeil
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