Aug 09, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The 1932 Criterion Theatre.
BAR HARBOR—Just this week in Bar Harbor, a motorcycle was involved in an accident on Cottage Street. Yesterday, Friday, two vehicles hit each other at the corner of Cottage and Holland, gas from one vehicle leaking into the stormwater drain. The police logs for all of the Mount Desert Island region highlight the fender-benders and more serious accidents that happen each week.
In Bar Harbor, just 12 corridors represent 90% of all the town’s severe crashes and near misses, senior transportation engineer Paul Pottle, told the Bar Harbor Town Council during its Tuesday, August 5 meeting.
Those 12 priority corridors represent about 20% of the town’s total miles.
High crash locations include:
- Eden Street (Maine Route 3) at Cottage Street;
- West Street from Holland Avenue to Bridge Street;
- Main Street from Hancock Street to Newton Way and Atlantic Avenue;
- Maine Route 3 at the head of the island;
- Between the signalized intersection of Triangle Road (Maine Route 102 / ME Route 198) and the town line with Trenton, at the Maine Route 3 crossings of Thompson Island;
- Cottage Street from Eden Street to Maple Avenue;
- Maine Route 3 at Crooked Road.
According to Hailey Bondy, staff planner, Safe Streets for All, a project meant to make everyone safer in town is driving forward with a draft plan currently being reviewed by staff and an expectation that the plan will be put before the town council and public and finalized by the estimated December 2025 deadline.
More than 500 people responded to the project’s safety survey in 2024. The survey was focused on finding out information on making Bar Harbor’s streets safe. An interactive GIS map on the town’s website has had over 700 pins and comments.
“We’ve identified 12 corridors that have the highest priority for the town to address. The bulk of the plan is addressing these corridors,” Pottle, who is also a Bar Harbor resident, said while presenting with Bondy at the Tuesday meeting.
Most of the data currently presented focuses on high-crash areas within the town.
“We’ve been working to create a safety action plan,” Bondy said.
The steering committee for the transportation effort includes many town department heads.
“The real reason we’re here tonight is to introduce and get initial thoughts and start talking about one of the requirements of the grant which is a political commitment,” Bondy said.
That political commitment would be, she said, a goal to “vision zero” by 2035.
That statement would say that the town is committed to reduce all severe injury crashes and all roadway fatalities for all users, which includes pedestrians, bus riders, bicyclists, and drivers.
“This goal was created to align with what is listed in the comprehensive plan,” Bondy said, a plan that mentions people-centered transportation, improving safety on the roadways. “It’s pretty much the bread and butter for the Safe Streets for All.”
Bondy said they are hoping to come to the next town council meeting with that “vision zero” order for the councilors to adopt.
According to the Vision Vero Network, “Vision Zero is not a slogan, not a tagline, not even just a program. It is a fundamentally different way to approach traffic safety.”
The site states that the first step to a strong vision zero commitment is a political commitment that comes from local officials.
Council Chair Valerie Peacock asked whether there was a place in the plan and process where the town could think about potential bigger solutions such as car-free areas, widening sidewalks, ways of connecting into Acadia National Park, and one-way street changes.
Pottle said two sections of the plan are policy-based recommendation and a third is about stakeholders like the national park and large employers.
Peacock said, “I think that conversation needs to happen.”
Pottle said there is space in the process for those broader conversations to happen. The data analysis memo has specific bullet pointed recommendations that stemmed from past town plans and documents.
Bondy said that some of the location-based recommendations within the plan take the most vulnerable road users into account. Some of those location-based recommendations might improve traffic flow for the cars, but also create opportunities so that it is, she said, “pretty all-encompassing.”
STATISTICS
For every 100,000 people, Hancock County sees 18 vehicular-related deaths. Between 2016 and 2020 there were 49 fatal accidents in Hancock County. Those are overall accidents, not just pedestrian and vehicle or bicycle and vehicle.
According to former Police Chief Jim Willis, between 2020 and 2023, there were 11 car and pedestrian incidents in Bar Harbor. Eight resulted in minor injuries, one was fatal, and two resulted in no injury. Of those, two involved car and bicycles.
PLAN BACKGROUND
Bar Harbor received the Safe Streets for All Planning Grant in 2022, which awarded the town with over $200,000 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.
The project is funded by the United State Department of Transportation. There’s a national push to reduce series injury and fatal crashes. The goal is to collect the data, create a draft plan, present it to the public, and then use that plan to create changes that will make those walking, driving, biking, skateboarding, and scootering on the streets safer.
“Most importantly, when completed, this Safety Action Plan will set the town up for additional funding opportunities, both at the federal and state level, that will assist in achieving the strategies recommended by the Safety Action Plan,” according to the town’s website.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
More Than 500 Give Their Input About How To Make Bar Harbor’s Streets Safer
There Will Be Some Extra Cameras On Bar Harbor Streets Next Week
COTTAGE AND LOWER MAIN STREETSCAPES UPDATES SHARED WITH COUNCIL
Will They Or Won’t They?
- There is a GIS Map available. Link here
- To watch the meeting
- Town’s Safe Streets for All page
- Core Elements for Vision Zero Communities
- Managing Speed for Safety
- Where to Start on the Road to Vision Zero
- Moving from Vision to Action: Fundamental Principles, Policies & Practices to Advance Vision Zero in the U.S.
- We Know How to Fix Deadly Streets
Photos: Shaun Farrar and Carrie Jones
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