“As soon as we open it, we know it’s going to be a racetrack.” These are the words of Portland’s senior project engineer about the Baxter Boulevard project. He should be commended for acknowledging what the city has chosen to ignore.

A bicyclist travels on Baxter Boulevard in Portland. The road, which has been closed for just over two years from Vannah Avenue to Payson Park because of a storm and wastewater management project, is slated to reopen at the end of this month. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Portland’s approach to improving safety has been haphazard. Unlike other cities, Portland has no holistic design standards for improving our streets. Portland is clearly capable of progress. Case in point, Deering Corner roundabout, a resounding success. At Baxter Boulevard and Vannah Avenue, however, Portland is paying more money for a less safe solution. Why the inconsistency?

Portland paid a team of consultants to study Baxter Boulevard (Richards and Associates). They identified major problems (speeding, safety, pollution, bike conflicts with walkers). They also presented some clear solutions (narrower lanes, a roundabout at Baxter and Vannah, a dedicated bike path). Twenty-six years and $40 million later, we have made zero progress in these departments.

National Association of Transportation Officials’ guidance for a street like Baxter calls for 10-foot-wide lanes. Portland went for 13 feet. That’s an extra 47,520 feet of asphalt, maintenance, stormwater issues and extra salt washing into our waterways. The 13-foot-wide roadway isn’t trivial: Nine hundred annual deaths are attributable to excessively wide roadways in the U.S., according to Robert Noland in “Traffic Fatalities and Injuries.”

Maine is by far the most dangerous state in New England when it comes to traffic deaths, with a rate twice as high as Massachusetts’. It’s past time Portland adopted urban design standards that serve its people instead of the pavement industry.

Kellan Simpson
Portland