Driving around town as I do makes me think of Roberto Duran. That boxer of days gone by who, at one time, was the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. Of course, besides being a world champion, he is best known for his comment to a referee during a fight against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980. After getting hit more often than a car at the fair’s Demolition Derby, Duran turned to the official and said, “No mas!” He gave up.

I think about uttering that famous phrase every time I near the intersection of Pleasant Street and Mill Street. There is no doubt that the intersection is one of Brunswick’s most difficult transitory areas. For years, even on a good day, you might have cars waiting to turn right onto Pleasant Street. Uncertainty about which lane to turn into and the speed of the cars coming off of Stanwood made the intersection resemble M.C. Escher’s “Relativity.”

In the summer, traffic could be backed up in all directions because for better or worse, there are only so many ways to move from Cook’s Corner and Maine Street to outer Pleasant Street and the highway. While there are some who will make the trek over to McKeen Street and Church Road, the vast majority of people coming off of Maine Street and Route 1 have to cool their jets and warm up their brakes as they sit at the light.

And for what? So a few cars can turn left coming off of Stanwood Street and go on their merry way?

Brunswick and more importantly, the State Department of Transportation, have to come up with a viable solution to this horrid situation. The sooner they come up with a solution the better off we will all be. That is unless we want to be like our little coastal friends to the east, Wiscasset.

The options seem pretty straightforward. The current intersection could be made less congested by removing the option to turn left off of Stanwood. The number of cars that turn left onto Pleasant Street from Mill Street seem relatively light and the traffic flowing out to the highway from Mill Street could continue unimpeded. For the traffic that would have used Stanwood to go to Pleasant Street they still have the option of using Church Road.

Using this option would free up some of the congestion at the light.

An option that might prompt a whole new way to look at traffic around Brunswick would be to turn Pleasant Street into a two-way street. Imagine being able to turn onto Pleasant Street on Maine Street and go the entire length of the street in both directions. No more having to fight traffic coming off of Route 1. No more waiting near the mill just to dash out in front of on coming traffic in hopes of beating one or two cars.

Instead of having only two options to move about two of the town’s main economic areas, there would be a third. It might even help to spur economic growth in the Pleasant Street section now only defined by eastward flowing traffic.

Here is to wishful thinking. You know as I sit here and ponder the ideas I am suddenly confronted with the notion that it has taken me a shorter amount of time to write this piece than it takes to navigate my way through the new light at the corner.

The light at the intersection was good attempt to fix a problem, unfortunately this fix was not simple and it did not correct the problem. It is time that we apply a longterm fix, whatever that is, that will keep traffic moving and not be an impediment to move from one part of town to another. It has to happen before more of us say, “No Mas!”

That’s my two cents…

Jonathan Crimmins can be reached at j_ [email protected].