The late-1960s reconstruction of Franklin Street from a neighborhood street into a highway-style arterial was part of a larger effort to introduce high-speed traffic onto the Portland peninsula.

Over the years, we’ve experienced the limitations of this highway design. Drivers race to get to the next red light, poor intersection design creates congestion and Interstate 295 ramps bottleneck the flow of traffic.

The Franklin Street Redesign Public Advisory Committee – made up of diverse stakeholder groups, including the business community, residents and commuters – found that in addition to failing to handle today’s vehicular traffic efficiently, the highway design negates opportunities of its urban context.

Franklin fails to meet the needs of people walking and biking, and its wide footprint leaves prime real estate inaccessible and unused.

The design of Franklin Street needs to be updated to better handle the transportation needs of our city and contribute to its continued growth as the region’s urban center.

In the last 50 years we have learned a lot about designing for cars in cities. Highways may be efficient for driving long distances, but faster is not better for the diverse activities of a vibrant urban center. Travel speeds of 25 to 30 mph maximize roadway capacity and preserve safety for both drivers and pedestrians.

A city’s health can be measured by the vibrancy of its streets. Great streets are centers of great economic and cultural activity, and they can move a lot of cars.

Sidewalks, crossings and bike lanes maximize the utility of the street and support safer travel speeds. Public space and multi-use development energize the street and reinforce safe driving, in addition to contributing to our city’s cultural and economic life.

The proposed redesign, overwhelmingly supported by the Public Advisory Committee, weaves together the needs of all users in a significantly more balanced manner, improving safety and mobility for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Furthermore, it reclaims land for accessible open space, such as expanding Lincoln Park, and creates economic and community development opportunities that will pay back the investment over time.

Drivers will enjoy improved access to and from 295, avoid backups at intersections and be better able to access the street network. People walking and biking will be better able to cross at Marginal Way and benefit from sanctioned crossings at Oxford and Federal streets. Sidewalks and bike lanes will line both sides of the street, integrating with the city’s trail network.

Franklin becomes a much different street as it nears the waterfront, with traffic volumes dropping down to a fraction of those toward 295. The traffic problem at this end is the lack of left-hand turning lanes.

For this reason, the committee recommends that the left-hand lanes be converted to turning lanes, separating the through traffic from the turning traffic. The city has an opportunity to run a low-cost trial of this design this fall to better learn how this would work.

At Commercial Street, a single-lane roundabout integrates pedestrian and automobile movement; the narrower street gets people across the street more quickly, while the roundabout design facilitates the slow, steady movement of car and truck traffic. A technical analysis by the city’s traffic engineer finds that this roundabout design will accommodate more than twice the traffic projected in the next 20 years, in addition to creating over 17,000 square feet of public space.

Excess land in the corridor is reclaimed for public benefit, creating opportunities for long-term housing and economic development revenue, as well as the creation of accessible public space, like parks and plazas.

The Public Advisory Committee’s recommendations are based on an intensive traffic data analysis and extensive public feedback. City and Maine Department of Transportation staff worked with transportation consultants to examine 20-plus years of transportation data.

Although the recommendations assume robust development and future traffic growth on the peninsula, historical data shows traffic has basically not increased along Franklin Street for decades. Best practices gleaned from other communities across the country where inner-city highways have been redesigned at a human scale have further informed our work.

Public workshops and meetings, sessions with individual stakeholder groups and online surveys – reaching hundreds of residents, employers and commuters – have provided valuable guidance at key decision points since the beginning of the study process in 2008.

The result is a compromise plan, supported by city staff and the MDOT, that seeks to meet the diverse needs of residents, employers, commuters and guests. It positions Portland for ongoing growth and development while strengthening its assets as a vibrant, walkable city.

 

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