New bollards, speed bumps and crosswalks have been added to Washington Avenue — part of a regional pilot program aimed at slowing down drivers and boosting safety.
PORTLAND — By Wednesday evening, a cluster of yellow bollards had popped up in the center of Washington Avenue in East Deering. A block down the street featured a freshly painted crosswalk. Then, a curb extension. The stretch of the avenue between Veranda Street and Ocean Avenue had been quietly transformed.
Those temporary changes to Washington Avenue — which also include speed bumps — were completed Wednesday as part of an effort improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists on a speedy and busy section of road that many residents have said is unsafe.
The Greater Portland Council of Governments spearheaded the project, which has led to the addition of temporary safety features in three municipalities around southern Maine. Similar installations recently went up in on Route 1 in Saco and on Westbrook Street in South Portland.
The temporary measures installed are designed to slow down drivers, narrow lanes, and provide better protection for bikers and pedestrians as they navigate the sidewalks and cross streets.
“This is ideally going to be something we get lots of positive feedback from and then a reduction in crashes that results in long-term infrastructure redesign,” said Andrew Zarro, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and a former Portland city councilor.
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Project leaders say the temporary safety features are effectively a test run that could pave the way for potential permanent roadway improvements in the future. Other similar temporary projects are also planned for the next few years.
“We’re working to improve the safety of everyone who uses our roads,” Cashel Stewart, transportation planning manager at GPCOG, said in a news release. “This is an opportunity to pilot safety improvements at intersections and corridors that face the most critical safety issues.”
Zarro said the corridors selected for the temporary installations were ones that had been identified as particularly dangerous based on crash and speed data. The stretch of Washington Avenue between Veranda and Ocean is one of the most dangerous in the region, he said.
The city surveyed residents and found that more than 80% of respondents felt the street doesn’t work well for everyone using it. They pointed to issues like dangerous lane changes, inadequate crosswalks and bike lanes, excessive speed, and heavy traffic. A speed study also found that 12% of drivers broke the 35 mph speed limit during nonpeak hours.
Earlier this year, a spike in fatal crashes involving pedestrians prompted concerns among many city residents. In response, the Portland City Council passed a Vision Zero resolution, which aims to eliminate all traffic deaths and injuries in the city. Vision Zero emphasizes changes to infrastructure, laws and public education to boost safety for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and public transit users, with the goal of eliminating all fatal crashes.
According to data provided by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, there have been 18 cyclist crashes and 21 pedestrian crashes in Portland so far this year. Three of those have been fatal.
LONG-TERM PLANNING
Plans for the changes on Washington Avenue have been in the works since January — before the Vision Zero resolution was passed — but the changes align with the resolution.
“We’ve worked in recent years to improve safety and access on Washington Avenue north of I-295,” Jeremiah Bartlett, transportation systems engineer for the city of Portland, said in a news release. “We can now test strategies to reduce speeds, enhance bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and decrease dangerous turning conflicts. If the data shows that these work, we hope to make them permanent.”
The bollards, crosswalks, speed bumps and curb extensions will be in place until Nov. 15, at which point they will be removed to make way for winter snowplowing.
“These types of projects really are powerful because we can make these changes on a temporary basis,” said Dakota Hewlett, active transportation planner for MDOT. “We can put a design out there then see how it performs and how the public reacts to it.”
While the installation is in place, GPCOG will collect data to assess how successful the projects are at mitigating traffic issues. Depending on how the data turns out, project leaders hope to make the changes on Washington Avenue — as well as those in Saco and South Portland — permanent.
“We need to prioritize people over vehicles, especially in dense and walkable areas. This is not about being anti-car, but it’s about making space for everyone,” said Zarro, from the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. “A well-designed street is one where no one mode dominates.”
The projects are funded by a $637,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, with GPCOG contributing 20% in matching funds.