Counting on I-95

Everyone knows that Interstate 95 begins in Houlton, Maine, and ends in Key West, Fla. Now, there’s a chance to prove it – or there would be a chance if drivers could accept Maine’s highway numbering system being a bit different.

The Department of Transportation and the Maine Turnpike Authority are well along with a proposal that would change exit numbers on Interstate routes, turn the Lewiston half of the 95-495 loop into I-95, thus directing tourists away from the congested coast and providing a straighter drive north and switching to numbering exits by road mileage. The problem, in addition to the fact that the project costs some $700,000, is mostly to the south. Portions of the Maine Turnpike and Interstate 295, which runs from South Portland, through the heart of Portland and on to Falmouth, share the same exit numbers.

The DOT reports that tourists especially have a hard time figuring out which exit is which and, why, for instance, when driving on I-95 they have to get off the highway to stay on I-95. Any opportunity to keep drivers and their spouse co-pilots from battling over the gazetteer on their way to Acadia

is money arguably well invested on safety. But one proposed change is particularly troubling.

Making exits match mileage markers is a good, practical change if all you’re doing is writing numbers on a map. But if part of the goal is to make driving in Maine a simpler, more inviting event for tourists, listing Bangor as Exit 185 and Houlton as Exit 299, as would happen under the proposal, is not the way to do it. This is purely a psychological hurdle – the length of the highway, of course, is unchanged no matter how the exits are ordered – but the numbers make these cities seem as distant as Newfoundland and the beautiful part of the state north of them seem even farther.

Federal standards require highway numbering systems begin in the southern (or western) part of a state and increase as the road goes north (or east), but there is nothing to prevent Maine from asking for the indulgence of its federal overseers and from visitors and begin its counting in Houlton, which could serve as Exit 1. (Renumbering could begin again once I-95 is properly completed at the top of Aroostook County.) Such a change is worth pursuing because there are real benefits to starting the exits there. For instance, high numbers to the south would be a regular reminder to residents there that Maine really does extend beyond Augusta – a help to reducing the Two Maines problem. Similarly, tourists entering the state from New Hampshire would immediately become aware that Maine stretches far beyond the usual haunts of visitors. North-south numbering would be an invitation to explore the entire state.

Failing that, lawmakers on the Transportation Committee might look for a more creative ways to meet safety requirements without making a trip to Bangor or East Millinocket or Island Falls seem like an impossible drive. There is an opportunity in the exit changes to reduce not only driver confusion but the distance between the Two Maines, a chance the state should not pass up.