Welcome to Portland!

I might have posted about this before, maybe not. Anyhow, I travel to points South several times a year from the Portland Transportation Center. The PTC is home to Concord Trailways and is the current northern terminus for the Amtrak Downeaster (until it extends to Freeport and Brunswick in a couple years).

Here's a map showing the transportation center in relation to the rest of the city:

Until recently, there were no pedestrian connections to the transportation center. Proper sidewalks were recently completed on Sewall Street that make traveling to the station by foot a more pleasant trip when arriving from the North or West. 

For some reason, likely related to budgets, when the Fore River Parkway was built it was done so without any sidewalks or other helpful amenities to allow pedestrians coming from the East, downtown Portland, to reach the station from Congress Street. If you are a car-free visitor to Portland and you arrive to the city by bus or rail, you just might get a slightly negative impression of our infrastructure when you start your journey from the station to the city. As you can see, it's a pretty well traveled area by foot:

The other side of the road looks like it could have been designed with a sidewalk also, but instead a fence was put up right next to the guardrail (it can be hard to keep a car on the road when travelling at 25 MPH through a slight turn) and a few feet on the other side of the fence is a pretty deep gully between the road and the parking lots.

Whether you take the grassy side (or the snowbank side in the winter) or the guardrail side, you don't get much of a break from the passing vehicles. This intersection has no pedestrian crosswalks or crossing signals, despite the connection it provides pedestrians to the nice new trails near the new Mercy Hospital buildings just down the road:

The good news is that I have heard from a few different sources that this little stretch of road will be getting a sidewalk and presumably some crosswalks and pedestrian crossing signals in the future. I'm not sure when, but it's on somebody's to-do list. I'm still a bit unsure about why this was't designed for some level of pedestrian use since it connects the downtown to the mass transit hub, but it's never too late to correct these types of issues.

Fix This: Deering Oaks Benches

These benches along High Street have always baffled me. I have never once seen anyone using them, not even to sleep on. These pictures sum up the problem with this bench placement pretty well:

It would probably make more sense to put these benches somewhere with a scenic view, rather than a view of a somewhat high-speed one way street with a park somewhere beyond. The area right around the Deering Oaks Pond lacks benches, so I would propose a quick fix of moving some of these, if not all of them, over there.

*Update - Someone is seen sitting on one of these benches on Google streetview. What are the odds?

Exit 6 Follow-Up

Allow me to share some information I received from Kathi Earley, in reference to this big post from May. Intrepid readers of this blog likely noticed that large sections of Forest Avenue were repaved and spruced up over the summer and fall. After waiting several months to see if there would be any changes to Forest Avenue where this interchange is and eventually realizing that it would be not touched, I sent an email voicing my concerns to city councilman Kevin Donoghue. Kevin forwarded my message to Kathi Earley, who along with Kevin and others serve on the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System committee.(http://www.pactsplan.org/).

Here are the main points, which leave me optimistic that some issues here will be addressed someday...

• MDOT has developed conceptual plans for making improvements to this Exit, including realignment of each ramp to 'force' drivers to slow down as they enter and exit the Highway. The City has maintained it's position thruout this project's design phase that pedestrians and bicyclists MUST be properly accommodated when MDOT constructs this project.

• The Transportation Committee recently established the intersection area of Forest/Marginal Way/State/Kennebec as the City's primary application for 2012/2013 PACTS funding for Intersections Improvements. While this project, if funded, would not directly focus on the Exit 6 ramps, it is intended to follow improvements we expect MDOT to make and also address the Bayside Trail's alignment to reach Deering Oaks.

As mentioned in my blog post, the lack of any lighting in this area is of concern. It is said that the street lighting was eliminated due to the operating budget. Lighting is likely to be addressed when (not anytime too soon though) when the MDOT next addresses this interchange. A point was made that placing pedestrian crossing signs is tricky with these types of cloverleaf interchanges, which I understand. Obviously a completely redesigned interchange would likely be built to more modern standards which would benefit pedestrian traffic, but the current interchange will likely remain for a long time coming. In regards to my other concern of the lack of crosswalks at the entrance/exit ramps, the MDOT owns the ramps and therefore there are certain laws and regulations I am not familiar with. Kathi also mentioned that i they were allowed to put down crosswalks, that it would have to wait until warmer weather.

So, there's some follow up for you all. Hope everyone is having a good holiday season, stay safe!

Fix This: Post Office Bus Stop

Welcome to the second installment "Fix This." I don't want this blog to have a negative tone so I consider this series to be more of a call to action than a complaint. That being said, pardon my complaints about this bus stop.

Let's start with some photographs:

Note the sign: "No drinking in shelter, violators will be arrested."

.Looking down Park Avenue (reminds you of New York, no?) and the Parkside Neighborhood.

This shelter resembles most of the bus shelters around the city. Some are newer, but have nearly identical floor plans and overall aesthetic appeal.

A few issues that jump out at me:

Lack of seating - The bench in the shelter is large enough to fit one person comfortably, or two strangers awkwardly. Not to mention, there is often someone passed out on this bench.


Overall Size - This stop is always busy when I go by it in the morning (I apologize for taking pictures of it when no one was around). A larger shelter would be good for keeping more people dry and might make the area a bit more attractive. This stop serves three bus lines according to this map from the Metro website, and would make a great 'hub':






Aesthetic value: This stop is on a corner in a neighborhood that could use a fresh coat of paint. Why not start with a new shelter? This is a lower-income area and it sounds silly to represent neighborhood pride with a bus stop, but it would be a start. It's right next to Deering Oaks Park and a shiny new shelter could invite people to the area and serve as an information gatheringg resource with local maps, guides, advertising, etc.


Signage: The stops could use much larger and better signage of the metro routes. The current Metro schedule isn't overly complex compared to most cities, but the small maps that are on the back of this shelter could use some enlarging and clearer language.


Revenue: This isn't a walkability issue, but why aren't there any advertisements on our bus stops? I know Maine doesn't allow billboard advertising (I still have mixed feeling on this) but I don't see any harm in having a McDonald's ad on the side of a bus stop. It would bring in a little bit of much desired revenue for the system. I've even heard of larger cities which sell advertising rights on bus stops to private corporations and in return the company is responsible for the upkeep of the structure.


Here's an example of a pretty nice bus shelter, on Congress Street. This photo was taken from the side so it doesn't fully do it justice.


I think this shelter even features a heating component during the colder months. While it doesn't take care of several of my points I've mentioned, it does have plenty of seating and is large enough to serve the amount of people that use it. It also is unique and that counts for something. I don't want a clone made of this one, but it shows that Portland can have a proper bus stop away from the Pulse on Elm Street (the main hub).

And to finish with the Post Office bus stop... please fix it!

Fix This: Exit 6 Interchange

Welcome to the first part of a series known as "Fix This." The aim of the series is to bring up some issues that are important to those who 'walk around Portland,' and are interested in the overall health of our city. I will try to do more than simply complain and maybe a few readers will agree with me and people 'in the know' will take note.

As a preface, please check out this post on the Exit 6 interchange here, on the Rights of Way blog. I don't in anyway intend to rip-off or lure readers from Christian's fine blog, which is an inspiration. Walk Around Portland will hopefully someday attract the same clientele but obviously will not be a copy-cat blog. Also, this particular post isn't about redesigning the entire interchange, as much as it is about certain aspects affecting non-vehicular traffic that should be addressed without incurring a major redesign of the area.

Ok, here it goes.

As you may know, the Exit 6 Interchange is the 6th exit off of I-295, which runs through the city of Portland. This interstate through Portland is a much bigger 'fix it,' which may be tackled at a later time. Here is a google map view of the Exit 6 interchange, which interchanges with Forest Avenue (Route 302):

From a pedestrian, ballsiest, jogger, or lost tourist looking for the Old Port perspective (any perspective besides an automobile driver) this interchange clearly disconnects travel from the Portland Peninsula and the rest of the city to the North and West. A few major destinations on the 'wrong side' of the interchange from downtown Portland include the University of Southern Maine campus and the Hannaford grocery store and plaza.

Here are some street level views from the interchange. Note that these were taken on a pretty quiet Saturday morning, so there aren't a lot of cars or pedestrians. This first photo is looking 'away' from town:

And this is from underneath the overpass looking in the opposite direction:

One important thing to note: There are no 'yield to pedestrian' signs anywhere here. That will not solve these problems, but it is a cheap way to at least make some motorists aware that people exist and they need to cross the entrances and exits to the highway.

There are 4 ramps for vehicles getting on and off of I-295 on either side of the road. Two of those ramps have cars coming at you, and two of them have cars basically coming from behind you or to your direct right. I didn't see any speed limit signs through this section, but would assume it would be no greater than 35mph since it is in a dense section of town. Obviously, very few people obey speed limits so I would put the average speed through this area at closer to 40 or 45 miles per hour (roughly 65 kph for the metric system folk).

When you combine that with how few people use blinkers, the area is a dangerous one for anyone not riding in a car. Even the way the lanes are set up give you no indication of whether a car may be turning onto the on ramp or continuing straight. Often a car will simply 'bang a right' just as the on-ramp starts. Cars exciting the highway are easier to deal with, but similarly dangerous in that this is a busy interchange and motorists pay more attention to trying to merge than whether or not a pedestrian is trying to cross.

I have seen a few instances where a car, usually driven by a nice old lady, will come to a complete stop before turning onto an on-ramp to let a pedestrian across. Each time I have seen that, I have witnessed a near rear-end collision and several honks coming from the disgruntled vehicles behind this kind motorist. I don't believe that cars are inherently angry at pedestrians, but when traffic is not calmed in any way it is very pedestrian unfriendly. This interchange, at ground level, is for cars foremost and the sidewalks were clearly an afterthought.

Here we approach the intersection with Bedford Street on the left and Baxter Boulevard on the right, with the USM library on the left. Many students in particular pass through this interchange in order to get from the peninsula to their classes and back.

Here is an view from the USM library, showing part of the interchange:

The area around the interchange could take a few lessons from some surround areas. The intersection in the photo below, where Forest Ave, Bedford St, and Baxter Blvd intersect, was recently redone on the Bedford side to eliminate a turn-only lane with a yield sign, which makes it much easier to cross..

Also, Bedford Street itself was redone beautifully over the last year, complete with bike lanes, plantings and trees, sidewalks off of the street, and a friendly pedestrian crossing area for USM students.

And just a block East of Exit 6, the interstate travels over the Preble St. extension which connects Marginal Way and downtown to Baxter Boulevard. Fortunately for pedestrians, there are no ramps on or off the highway here. It was redone last year also, with improvements under the bridge (lighting makes a huge difference) and a friendly pedestrian crossing zone with flashing yellow lights that are only activated when a button is pressed. (One note about this picture, the bicyclists here get an 'F' grade for riding on the sidewalk, especially when there is a bike lane here).

So, to recap this long and rambling post:

1. The exit 6 interchange needs to be safer and more efficient for non-vehicular traffic to pass through. It is a major thoroughfare for pedestrians as well as vehicles and it should be safe for everyone.

2. At the least, signs should be installed to remind drivers exiting and entering the highway that they need to yield to pedestrian traffic.

3. Lighting should be installed under the overpass to increase safety (or at least the feeling of safety) and the visibility of pedestrians at night.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!