Maine Mobility Advocates Question Highway Expansion

Maine transportation advocates are calling on state officials to reject a highway expansion proposal that state transportation officials claim would reduce carbon emissions, reports Annie Ropeik for Energy News. “The toll road aims to offer a more direct route from Portland’s growing suburbs into the city, bypassing local roads that officials say weren’t designed to accommodate increasing commuter traffic.” A Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) spokesperson say the Gorham Connector project is part of “a multi-pronged approach” that also includes land use and transit initiatives.

According to Benito Pérez, the policy director of the nonprofit Transportation for America, any emissions reduction benefits are ‘negligible.’ “Pérez pointed to examples in the Washington, D.C. area, Salt Lake City and elsewhere where highway expansions that aimed to reduce gridlock instead led to more traffic and further need for expansions years later — a paradox known as ‘induced demand.’”

A 2012 study recommended the project in addition to changes to roads, transit, and land use and development patterns, but advocates say “these other efforts are moving more slowly and with less state support than the Connector has received, putting these parallel solutions out of step with each other.” According to Pérez, “The mindset is, ‘we’re designing for vehicles,’ and that’s what they’re measuring for, not measuring for the movement of people.”