Bar Harbor Works To Decrease Crashes
Aug 16, 2024
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
BAR HARBOR—In four years in Bar Harbor, there were five fatal crashes and 17 crashes that caused incapacitating injuries.
Even one is too many, town officials have decided, saying in a press release, “Our vision is a Bar Harbor where residents, employees, and visitors alike—walking, biking, driving, or riding the bus can move through the town safely.”
The town hopes to take steps to reduce the number of accidents. The first step might look a bit peculiar to people who don’t know what’s going on. It requires cameras and data collection at what the town believes are key intersections.
Those cameras will be set up for the week of August 19.
It’s all part of the town’s development of a Safety Action Plan which, according to Staff Planner Hailey Bondy, “will identify traffic safety risks and crash patterns and then formulate a plan to mitigate those risks.”
The plan is expected to be developed in the remainder of 2024 and 2025.
“There will be multiple opportunities for Bar Harbor residents, employees, and visitors to weigh in,” Bondy said. “Later this fall there will be a community survey and pop-up events as we begin the process of seeking input on unsafe roadway conditions and potential solutions.”
The cameras people see will be counting both vehicles and people walking and bicycling. They are also looking for near-miss incidents and risky interactions.
“This effort is funded by a Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Grant from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT),” Bondy said. “This work, once completed, will position the Town of Bar Harbor to be eligible for additional grant funding opportunities and serve as a guide for future improvements to roadway infrastructure.”
The Town received the Safe Streets for All Planning Grant in 2022, which awarded the town with $250,000 to support the creation of a Transportation Safety Action Plan. The Town has contracted with Stantec to assist with the Safety Action Plan creation process.
Some key intersections for data collection include but are not limited to:
- The head of the island
- Route 102 and Gilbert Farm Road
- Route 3 and Knox Road
- Route 3 and Crooked Road
- Eden and West street
- Cottage and Main street
- Firefly Ln/ Kennebec Place (by the police department, fire department, and Islander bus stop)
- Ledgelawn and Mount Desert Street
“These intersections were identified based on MaineDOT crash data, we chose locations that historically had crashes or fatalities, and based on community recommendations from a meeting at MDI Biolab that took place on August 29, 2023,” Bondy said.
That meeting included representatives from various towns in the area, including Bar Harbor, Tremont, Ellsworth, and Mount Desert and representatives from the Hancock County Planning Commission, Downeast Transportation, Jax, Acadia National Park, and MaineDOT.
Bondy wanted to emphasize that there will be multiple opportunities for community involvement and those opportunities will be announced early this fall.
A description of the grant from transportation.gov explains, “The purpose of SS4A grant program is to improve roadway safety by significantly reducing and eventually eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries. The program focuses on the development of a comprehensive safety action plan (referred to as an “Action Plan”) and its implementation for all users of our highways, streets, and roadways, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, motorists, personal conveyance and micromobility users, and commercial vehicle operators.”
Bondy is the point-of-contact for this project and is working closely with the town’s planning director, director of public works, fire chief, and police chief through each step of the project.
“I’m very excited that we are moving along and am looking forward to having community engagement events this fall,” she said.
If you have questions, she said, you can reach out to the Bar Harbor Planning and Code Enforcement Department at 207-288-3329.
All images via Town of Bar Harbor
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