AUBURN — Adding a center turning lane to Route 4 south of Lake Shore Drive and north of Blanchard Road might be the best solution to accidents there, city and state officials said Tuesday.
But a handful of residents disagreed, saying the only solution was to slow traffic down there and ticket speeders.
“You can put up all the signs, all the flashing lights up there and the people that drive like idiots are going to continue to drive like idiots,” Ralph Nadeau of Maple Hill Road said. “Those that drive sensibly will continue to drive sensibly. And the only way you are going to cure this is enforcement. You have to get them to either obey the law or remove them from the driving public.”
City and state officials reported back on efforts to make the Route 4 corridor between Auburn and Turner safer. That road was the site of numerous accidents last summer.
The city hosted a similar public meeting in October for residents to discuss their concerns about the road.
The trick, according to City Manager Clinton Deschene, is to fix the problem without making other parts of the road unsafe.
“We are looking at the entire corridor, the entire section, not just one piece,” Deschene said. “Because there is concern that whatever we do will move the problem someplace else. We are strongly motivated not to move problems but to fix them.”
City Engineer Dan Goyette said the city’s proposal would add a fifth lane from Lake Shore Drive north to Roy’s All-Steak Hamburgers and Golf Center. That would give turning traffic a safe place to sit while waiting for traffic to clear, hopefully solving rear-end accidents.
Goyette said the city is proposing a 50/50 split of costs with the Maine Department of Transportation.
Regional Engineer Stephen Landry said there is no money for the project as far as the state is concerned. Some currently funded projects elsewhere would need to be canceled or the state would need to find other ways to pay for the project.
Several people said they liked the plan, and Deschene said he would enlist their help in lobbying state legislators to find a way to pay for the work.
But John Roy, owner of Roy’s All-Steak Hamburgers and Golf Center, disagreed. The only solution is slowing down traffic there.
“This is a death route here,” he said. “I don’t know why we’re not saying that we should slow it down and start giving out tickets.”
His father, Mike Roy, agreed.
“Slow the cars down and the ones that don’t want to slow down, let them pay,” the elder Roy said. “After they pay a couple of times, they’re not going to do it again.”
But Landry said the corridor is long and straight with few curb cuts that invites highway speed. An artificially low speed limit or traffic lights would create speed differences and that could result in more accidents on the road.
“People feel nervous when they see someone coming up fast in back of them and they may make irrational decisions because of that fear,” Landry said. “If we give them a safe place to sit until there is a break in traffic, that’s one of the things we should be looking for.”
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- Auburn police Chief Phil Crowell talks about law enforcement details along Route 4 during a public information session in Auburn on Tuesday.
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- Stephen Landry, left, an engineer with the Maine Department of Transportation, and Auburn City Engineer Dan Goyette discuss issues surrounding Route 4 at a hearing Tuesday in Auburn Hall.
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