Take a walk on Bangor’s nice side

Maybe it’s the sudden arrival of summer after a lousy spring that has brightened our collective mood and produced a flurry of downtown civility.

Or maybe Sept. 11 really has caused us all to slow down a bit and consider the welfare of others we meet in the course of day. Then again, it might simply be that in the eight years since the city of Bangor decided to make its streets more amenable to pedestrians, we’re actually starting to see some results. Whatever the reason, I’m prepared to go out on a limb to suggest that Bangor drivers, on the whole, seem to be catching on to this crosswalk business at last. It’s taken a while, but we’re learning.

I come to this bold assessment after a careful, though wholly unscientific, observation of the interplay of motorists and pedestrians in downtown crosswalks during a couple of recent busy lunch hours. And while it’s clear that the local driving population is far from perfect, the courtesy we’re extending to people on foot appears to be improving steadily. Whether on State, Central, Main or Harlow streets, most of the people who stepped into the crosswalks had only to wait for two or three cars to pass before meeting up with a polite motorist willing to let them proceed safely to the opposite curb.

Considering how well marked the crosswalks are downtown, it should not be at all remarkable that a sensible driver would obey the law and allow pedestrians to move unmolested in the streets. But if you’ve lived in the city for a while, you might recall when the atmosphere on the streets was far less civil, and rush-hour traffic resembled a vehicular stampede that slowed for no one. Until the early 1990s, navigating Bangor’s downtown streets safely was best accomplished by the highly alert and the fleet of foot. Without benefit of the many visible crosswalks in evidence today, people back then either waited for the light at the corner to halt traffic or they darted into the street wherever they liked and hoped for the best.

Since 1994, when the city decided to start enforcing its old jaywalking and crosswalk laws again, the slow but steady increase in compliance has been enough to prove that even the most inconsiderate road warriors could be educated over time to change their aggressive ways.

Yet some, as I learned from my recent crosswalk monitoring sessions, apparently never will. There will always be those slow-learners who will never get the message that they must yield on occasion, no matter how many signs in the street spell it out for them in big, black letters: “State Law. Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalk.” And there will always be those utterly clueless drivers who disregard the white-stripes painted on the road, and who choose to ignore the brilliant neon-yellow markers that all but shout for them to slow down from at least a half a block away. Unfortunately for the rest of us, who continue to believe that pedestrians and motorists really can co-exist in relative harmony, there will always be those drivers who refuse to acknowledge the rights of pedestrians who happen to cross their paths, and who tend to regard all red lights, stop signs and speed limits as nothing more than mere suggestions.

While Bangor will probably never be as hospitable to pedestrians as small towns such as Camden and Bar Harbor, the city has come a long way in a decade. And if we need incentive to improve even more, the estimated 60,000 people due to arrive for the National Folk Festival this summer should provide all the impetus we need. It would be great for the city’s image if they all got home in one piece.

Tom Weber’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.