Rotaries, Fewer Parking Spaces, and New Bike Lanes: What’s in Bar Harbor’s Draft Vision Zero Plan.
Jan 27, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.
BAR HARBOR—A traffic rotary at the head of the island. Another at the intersection of Bar Harbor’s Eden and West Streets. A bicycle lane on part of Eagle Lake Road. Less parking spaces where vehicles obstruct intersection sight lines in downtown Bar Harbor.
These are just a few of the potential changes meant to decrease fatal and severe injury crashes in Bar Harbor by 2035.
Staff Planner Hailey Bondy went through the town’s Vision Zero Action Plan during the town council’s January 20 meeting.
The 112-page document deploys multiple graphics and large images to explain its intent—a town with no deaths or serious injuries caused by crashes—and how it might get there.
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,” senior transportation engineer Paul Pottle, who is also a Bar Harbor resident, said while presenting with Bondy at an August 2025 town council meeting.
Rather than focusing on no crashes, the initiative focuses on no crashes that involve death or serious injury. Between 2019 and 2023, there were five fatal crashes and 17 that involved severe injury.
According to the report, nation-wide traffic deaths peaked in 2021 and have declined to 42,721 in 2022 and then to 40,901 in 2023.
“Yet, the U.S. fatality rate remains higher than it was a decade ago, and speeding, impairment, and distracted driving continue to cause preventable tragedies. While injury crashes have decreased nationally, they have increased in Bar Harbor, emphasizing the local importance of action,” the report reads.
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.
The majority of crashes occur downtown, the Eagle Lake Road, and on the Bar Harbor Road.
When a crash involves a vehicle and a bicycle or a vehicle and a pedestrian, the report logically states, it’s more likely to cause a fatal or severe injury. Most of the crashes that involved a pedestrian were in downtown Bar Harbor, often on Mount Desert Street. The cause is typically when a vehicle fails to yield to a pedestrian in a right-of-way.
The report also found multiple near-miss locations, particularly along Eden Street and Main Street. It highlights these intersections: Eden and West Street and West Street extension; Main at West and Main at Cottage Street; Maine Route 3 at the Crooked Road.
Challenges include how intersections are designed, maintenance of infrastructure, road characteristics “that do not reinforce speed limits,” pedestrian accessibility, sight lines, lack of bicycle infrastructure.
After looking at data, talking to community members, and meeting in workshops, the report uses what it frames as three networks—trends-based, risk-based, community-based—to create a priority network for improvements.
The head of the island as well as the Hulls Cove area, a portion of the Eagle Lake Road, a portion of Route 102 in Town Hill, and pieces of downtown Bar Harbor were prioritized.
The report then recommends multiple improvements in those priority areas, which include:
- Main Street and Mount Desert Street intersections
- A West Street and Eden Street roundabout (rotary)
- Eagle Lake Road improvements
- Head of the Island roundabout (rotary)
- Hulls Cove intersection improvements
- Kebo Street and Mount Desert Street intersection improvements.
It also looks toward system-wide design changes and improvements such as:
- Pedestrian safety improvement at certain crosswalks
- Pedestrian and bicycle improvements near the schools and community facilities
- Traffic calming toolkit for neighborhood streets
- Better wayfinding as well as modernized traffic signals
- Better design of major intersections
- Audit and reduction of some speed limits
- Removing parking spaces that are obstructing intersections or crosswalks
- Enhancing the design of rural intersections and roads.
It also suggests partnering with multiple state, regional, and federal organizations and creating both a complete streets policy and one that covers e-bikes, e-scooters, and electric shuttles. For programs, it recommends implementing a rapid response program for accidents, a town-wide bicycle and pedestrian plan, and completing a downtown mobility study. It also advocates multiple education and public awareness steps.
Many of the improvements are on state roads, which will require MaineDOT approval.
It would measure its success by looking at injury and fatal crash numbers and collecting the data to do so. It would also look toward federal, state, and regional funding programs as well as local funding actions such as capital improvement programs and local bonding (both supported by property tax), tax increment financing, public and private partnerships, T-Mobile grants, and other funding sources.
MAIN AND MOUNT DESERT INTERSECTION
WEST STREET AND EDEN STREET ROTARY/ROUNDABOUT
EAGLE LAKE IMPROVEMENTS
HEAD OF THE ISLAND ROUNDABOUT/ROTARY
HULLS COVE INTERSECTION
KEBO STREET AND MOUNT DESERT INTERSECTION
PUBLIC FEEDBACK
The draft is live on the town’s website and there is a survey that Bondy hopes people will participate in.
“Bar Harbor is committed to making our streets safer for everyone-whether you walk, bike, drive, or use transit,” it says on the town’s website. The draft Vision Zero Safety Action Plan outlines strategies and recommendations to eliminate severe injuring and fatalities on our roadways by 2035. Please review the draft plan and answer a few questions. Your responses will help guide the final version and set priorities for implementation.”
There will also be engagement events the first week in February.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
The plan can be found here: https://www.barharbormaine.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8720/Bar-Harbor-Vision-Zero-DRAFT-1-9-26_for_print_fullsize?bidId=
The survey can be accessed here: https://polco.us/n/res/vote/bar-harbor-me/bar-harbor-vision-zero-safety-action-plan-feedback
PRESS RELEASES AND BRIEFS
To see all the press releases, click here. To see our news, click here. For the full archive, click here. All of these are on our dedicated website.
You can help keep the Bar Harbor Story Going, bringing free and daily local news for our community. No pressure! It just really helps.
Make a monthly donation
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Discover more from Bar Harbor Story
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.