Connecting ME's population centers

[Derek Pelletier]

Maine+Active+Transportation+Arterials+-+May+2022_forWEB.pdf (squarespace.com)

A proposed bicycle trail system could connect Maine's 25 biggest cities by 2030

Maine Public | By Irwin Gratz

Published June 3, 2022 at 4:47 PM  

The Maine Trails Coalition and seven other groups have outlined a plan to link Maine's 25 largest municipalities with off-road trails. The idea behind these "active transportation arterials" is to make it more likely people will leave cars behind.

The coalition has outlined its plan in a 57-page document. It pegs the cost at $160 million. Kristine Keeney, the Northern New England Manager for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, says the $160 million is a lot of money, but far less than the $240 million the Maine Turnpike is prepared to spend on a six-mile-long highway spur into Gorham. 

"One will create more congestion and put more cars on the road," Keeney says. "And ensure that Mainers will continue to be auto-dependent, with no other options to get around. 

She says completing their plan for active transportation arterials, "is an investment in affordable, equitable, and accessible transportation for everyone."

Keeney says the work outlined in the report could be completed by 2030, if the state were willing to devote just two-and-a-half percent of its transportation budget to bicycle and pedestrian trails.

[George Rheault]

Thank you for circulating.

A total coincidence this news story came on the very same day I discovered the Portland Trader Joe's has returned to blocking access to the Bayside Trail.  Hopefully everyone got a chance to partake of this forbidden pleasure the last 5+ months or so.

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[Scsmedia]

Except the state only has 23 cities, the smallest being Eastport, Maine.  The article itself refers to municipalities which is the correct way to refer to the two types of communities in Maine.


Steven Scharf

207-415-4662

SCSM...@aol.com

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[Stephen Houdlette]

I'm with Steven re messaging. When your largest city is <100k and it drops off quickly from there it sounds kind of deluded. It's not like this is going to be a high-volume network of commuting trips. It's not going to affect mode share. Federal funders aren't confused about this either.

It's a great project and it would be really valuable to those communities and as a draw for serious bikers from away. And I'm all for supporting bike commuting all day/every day. But this is not transportation infrastructure in any significant way and I feel like using that rhetoric sets it up for criticism and failure when a different approach is more likely to get people excited about bikes and this project.

2c

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