Cutting down public trust

What has been cut down in Warren as the Maine Department of Transportation took out trees and had protesters arrested is more than trees. What has been cut down is public trust.

This road-widening project has little justification. MDOT Commissioner John Melrose repeats his mantra that statistics prove wider is safer. But these are generalized nationwide statistics that are challenged by researchers (see a detailed study at http://www.cts.cv.ic.ac.uk/ staff/wp22-noland.pdf).

For two years, members of a “smart growth” organization called Friends of Midcoast Maine (FMM) have been asking for numbers that tie these statistics to Warren. We have received nothing. Instead, we have MDOT statistics that appear to show this “unimproved” stretch of Route 1 has a lower serious crash rate than surrounding sections of “improved” highway on Route 1 and Route 90 (30 percent of accidents on the “improved” stretches involve death and injury, versus 21 percent in Warren). Call it fate, call it a quirk of history, maybe recognize that narrow, winding roads slow people down and reduce serious accidents, but whatever the reason, on the basis of what MDOT has presented to date, there is not, and never has been, a demonstrated safety issue in Warren. We would not oppose improvements necessary to meet a safety need.

We believe the real reason for the Warren widening is because Warren is caught in a bureaucratic trap. Route 1 is part of the National Highway System (NHS). The feds allow NHS roads that are “sub-standard” to be patched up, but if more serious work is undertaken, the road has to be rebuilt to contemporary standards. In Warren’s case, the roadbed is breaking up and needs to come out. This goes beyond the definition of a repair to that of “reconstruction,” precipitating the application of the standards. MDOT can seek a “design exception,” but it refused to do so. It can also re-label Route 90 as Route 1 (this is why Route 90 was built) and take the Warren stretch of Route 1 off the NHS, but it won’t do this either.

MDOT will not apply for a design exception nor re-label Route 90 because of something the engineers call “highway homogenization.” This is the belief that a highway with different lane and shoulder widths is confusing to drivers and likely to increase accidents; for safety’s sake, the whole road has to look the same. Once again, this is a generalized idea, based on generalized statistics, but without statistical support in Warren.

Finally, this country road has fallen foul of yet another bureaucratic concept. If the “Average Annual Daily Traffic” (AADT) exceeds 8,000 cars a day, which Warren recently reached, with or without a congestion problem (there is none in Warren) the standards call for a bigger road with wider shoulders.

The trees came down, and protesters got arrested, because the AADT hit 8,000, and because MDOT is not willing to reclassify this job as a repair rather than a reconstruction, nor will it apply for a design exception, nor will it re-label Route 90. The trees and protesters have been sacrificed on the twin altars of bureaucratic intransigence and highway homogenization.

Earlier this year, Friends of Midcoast Maine persuaded the Warren folks to accept a proposal that gave MDOT most of what the commissioner wants. We had a meeting with the commissioner at which we felt the remaining differences were negotiable. Instead of talking, he then unilaterally dropped a pre-existing offer on the shoulders and pressed ahead.

As an organization and as individuals we have expended much energy building bridges to MDOT. On its side, there are visionary people within MDOT working to change its culture, show a greater sensitivity to a broad range of public concerns, and support a process that involves genuine dialogue with the public. Together, we could have reached agreement in Warren: it was within our grasp.

Instead, the engineers are in the driver’s seat; bureaucratic imperative and generalized statistics trump local knowledge and experience; and historic, cultural and aesthetic concerns take a back seat to highway homogenization. This is the culture that has made DOT’s throughout the nation a much-feared entity in the conservation world.

We have many pieces to glue together. The stating point is for MDOT to quit having people arrested, put a moratorium on this project, and get back around the table. We none of us can afford this kind of bloody confrontation. It is not going to be easy to resurrect a civil discussion. We are willing to play our part. The next move, commissioner, is up to you.

This commentary was written by the following: Paul Cartwright, chairperson of the FMM; Nigel Calder, Conservation Community representative on Region 5 Regional Transportation Advisory Committee; Peter Shelley, director of the Rockland Office of the Conservation Law Foundation; Steven Burke, Route One Advocacy Group in Warren; Amanda Russell, Friends of Coastal Preservation.