All about cars

For over 20 years, Portland's Comprehensive Plans have called for a sidewalk and trail connection between Marginal Way and Back Cove Park. This connection would give low-income residents of Kennedy Park and others in East Bayside access to the waterfront from which the freeway has cut them off since the 1970s. It would also serve as a shorter, more convenient route to the Hannaford supermarket, the USM campus, and other destinations on the other side of I-295, and it would link to the Bayside Promenade Trail, which is now under construction: Right now, there's plenty of room for a shared bike/ped pathway through the underpass at Exit 7. MDOT's planned project would also add a traffic light at the northbound onramp (just west of the park and ride lot, where the "1A" shield logo is on the map above), which would give pedestrians and cyclists a safe place to cross. The light will also help manage traffic to prevent it from backing up on the off-ramps.

I've been emailing the DOT for a month trying to get the data they're basing their plan on (I'm a statistician) and to date, they've been ignoring my requests. Next step is certified mail, but the point is exactly the one that you make: I don't think this plan stands up to any kind of fact-based scrutiny. It's a knee-jerk pander to the wealthier whites who want to get quickly from the Old Port to Yarmouth, at the expense of the poorer more diverse community of Bayside.

Source: Rights of Way