Traffic calming can make Bangor a better place to live

In quieter times, dogs slept uninterrupted in the middle of my road, kids played in the dirt, and couples out for a quiet walk before bed could review the day in tranquility. My road – slow, rutted, and meandering – was a social ribbon connecting neighbors.

Now my road is a highway, a connector from Bangor’s sprawling suburbs to the city center. During the morning rush hour, cars are backed up at a new traffic light. While the highway department has leveled most of our road’s hillocks and dangerous bends in the name of safety, this has increased speed. My road has become a shortcut to elsewhere. Two of my cats, a dog and a neighbor have been hit by cars. The cats and dog died. The motorist stopped for the neighbor.

The balance between people and the automobile in our neighborhoods has been upset. The average household now has 2.1 cars; these cars and their drivers (that is, us) have driven pedestrians and bicyclists from the streets. Traffic speed and volume are now major issues throughout Bangor. In our mobile society, some things have been gained, but much has been lost.

The concept of traffic calming is simple. It aims to restore balance to our neighborhoods by slowing down traffic or redirecting it to major arteries. An increased number of stop signs, small traffic islands, narrowed street widths, restricted access (e.g. “right turn only”), and raised traffic tables all slow or divert traffic. Parked cars and a painted line at the shoulder serve to perceptually narrow the road and may be effective as well. Many of these are arbitrary. The stop sign in the midst of nowhere serves no purpose other than to encourage motorists to either drive more slowly or stick to main arteries.

Not all measures designed to decrease local traffic have been successful. Speed bumps hinder snow removal, rumble strips are noisy, one-way designations may increase speed, and most motorists honor speed limits by ignoring them. Enforcement works well at the precise moment the police car appears, but not beyond.

Looked at from a larger perspective, can we plan for a city of truly calm neighborhoods in which we can walk to work or the grocery store – a city with less than 2.1 cars per family? Peak oil will occur in 2020. The days of affordable gasoline are limited. Some of the city’s traditional neighborhoods are well suited to life without the automobile. We need to preserve them and return neighborhoods to neighbors while supporting economic growth.

Changing the status quo is not easy and there is no one simple solution. Motorists have a legitimate claim to safe and sensible roads. Emergency vehicles need access. Traffic calming is expensive and will require criteria to determine which streets should be dealt with first. All of us will have to think about development in a new way that recognizes that zoning ordinances and land use policies are intimately connected with traffic. The city cannot endorse a solution that benefits one vocal interest group at the expense of their less assertive neighbors.

But Bangor residents are awakening to the idea that they can have a voice in restoring a human scale to their neighborhoods, that the “sense of place” emphasized by the Brookings Report is what makes our city special. We are not just like everywhere else. Restoring a measure of tranquility to our neighborhoods is vitally important to our lives, as well as to our economic future.

We are now beginning to take the issue of traffic calming seriously, neighborhood by neighborhood. The city we save will be our own.

Dr. Geoffrey Gratwick of Bangor is a member of the City Council.