It’s 5 o’clock on a hot Friday afternoon in August. Cars piled high with floats and coolers, vans toting kayaks, and SUVs towing motorboats – all trying to make their way northwest through Raymond – are backed up to the Puffin Stop and beyond in North Windham.

Toddlers scream from back seats, older children ask, “Are we there yet?” Adults yell at drivers in front of them, and local residents sit in their cars and curse the tourist season, curse the Lakes Region, and curse the glut of traffic on Route 302.

“If someone doesn’t witness the traffic firsthand,” said Raymond Fire Chief Denis Morse, “it’s hard to believe how bad it is. I truly believe if someone who worked at the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) had to travel that road on Fridays they’d do something about it.”

Morse and many others are concerned about the severe traffic tie-ups on the busy road, not only because of the frustration and inconvenience that result, but because of the increase in the number of accidents and the problems of rerouting traffic in response to these accidents.

A prime example is the accident that occurred last Tuesday in front of Tire Warehouse in Raymond. It took fire and rescue units and the sheriff’s department nearly three hours to extricate the victims, reconstruct the accident, and clear the debris from the scene.

During that time, the traffic had to be rerouted through Gray.

Sometimes, said Morse, traffic must even be rerouted around the back of Sebago Lake on Route 114 through Sebago and Standish.

Morse feels there should be a center lane all the way down Route 302. This would provide emergency vehicles with better access to and from the scene of an accident, help manage traffic flow during an accident, and offer drivers a turning lane that would increase safety on the road.

He also thinks roundabouts at both routes 85 and 121 – similar to the routes 302 and 202 rotary in Windham – would help ease the backup.

Another part of the problem, Morse said, is the location of the Raymond boat launch in Sebago Lake.

“They put the launch in right after people pick up speed (to 55 mph),” said Morse.

Both Morse and Raymond Town Manager Don Willard have met with Maine Department of Transportation officials in an attempt to convince them of the necessity for improvements to the Raymond section of Route 302. But they have both become frustrated at the lack of response.

“We made the point (to MDOT) but we don’t control the decision making,” Willard said. “We haven’t made any bones about it – it’s a big problem.”

Morse believes that the department looks only at the number of accidents and not their severity when making a decision to improve a road.

But according to Mart Rooney, a MDOT transportation planner, that is not the case.

“Safety projects are selected by amount and severity of crashes,” Rooney said.

According to Rooney, the problem is a lack of available money to fund the projects.

“The amount of requests exceed the amount of financial resources ten to one,” Rooney said. “We have to decide from these requests what are viable needs and what are not.”

Rooney added that transportation resources are earmarked for bridge repair, road paving, and improvements to intersections before new capacity projects.

“For example,” Rooney said, “the Gorham Bypass has been in the works for over 20 years and we’re just funding it now.”

The Lake Region Development Council, an organization formed to support and improve the Lakes Region economy, established the Route 302 and You Committee in 2001. The intent was to advocate for improved traffic conditions along the busy road.

Although the committee is not currently meeting, “it’s coming back,” according to the Council’s Vice President Mike McClellan

McClellan added that the Council as a whole has picked up the committee’s mission. They have been working on the Naples bridge at the Causeway, asking the state to move up the bridge project, currently set for 2008.

Several times a summer, the bridge gets stuck in the open position, causing huge traffic tie-ups that “don’t just impact Naples, but Casco, Raymond, Windham and Bridgton as well.”

McClellan agrees that the traffic problems on Route 302 must be addressed.

“It’s hard to get the attention of state leaders,” McClellan said. “It feels like we’re not a priority because we don’t have a lighthouse or a coastline. The challenge is to get people to pay attention to us.”

But the Council and local leaders will continue to try.

“A lot of people are coming together,” said McClellan, “and no matter what happens, that’s a good thing.”

Heavy traffic on Route 302 in Raymond is an all too familiar sight. With only one direct way to get from Windham to Bridgton, the road is often bottlenecked.