WHY WIDEN?

Sixteen people have been arrested in Warren, property has been damaged, obscenities shouted, push has come to shove and threatens to reach clobber. All over a short stretch of country road.

Specifically, a short stretch of Route 1 between Warren and Thomaston in Knox County. The Maine Department of Transportation intends to widen 1.6 miles of the road by adding breakdown lanes in the interest of safety. The protesters intend to stop this project in the interest of preserving its rural character.

As is usually the case, both sides are right. Route 1 is, in theory at least, a major highway and a major highway without broad and safe shoulders is a dangerous thing. Rural character is worth preserving, especially when there is an alternative to its destruction. The alternative is Route 90, a major highway with dandy shoulders. It goes pretty much where Route 1 goes; better still, it’s already built.

It may be that Route 1 will have to be widened someday. Today, however, there are many areas of this state with nothing but narrow roads that are dangerous at highway speeds and that should come first. Duplicate routes with no real gain in transportation efficiency are a luxury this state currently cannot afford.

Protesters in these situations can be an annoyance, the rhetoric can get overblown, the tactics (blocking construction equipment, sitting in trees, filling holes dug for utility lines) often tread the line that separates peaceful civil disobedience from vandalism. They do, however, have a point: This project is not well-planned and will not result in any appreciable improvement in transportation efficiency and safety.

The reason that is true is apparent to anyone traveling Route 1 through the region. After this narrow, tree-lined, moderately winding stretch through Warren comes a slow crawl through Thomaston. Then an even slower crawl through Rockland, with frequent long back-ups both downtown and in the shopping sprawl district on the north side. Then, especially in summer, the insanely long back-ups in Camden at the snarled three-way intersection at Union and Elm and the pedestrian-clogged streets downtown. Then the narrow, tree-lined, moderately winding stretch through Lincolnville Beach. It is hard to imagine all of those deficiencies being remedied ever; it is even harder to imaging DOT fighting all those battles.

Route 90 already bypasses those deficiencies up to the Camden snarl. Perhaps with some very clever, forward-looking planning that separates through traffic from local, the others can be fixed as well. Until such planning materializes – requiring, of course, planners capable of it – DOT should sit down with representatives of the protesters and work out an agreement that addresses genuine safety issues but does not try to turn a country road into a highway. In the meantime, DOT should put up some signs directing through traffic to Route 90, lower the speed limit on Route 1 and quit having people arrested.