The intersection of Maine/Railroad/Summer streets is quite busy; I commonly wait through 2 stoplight cycles to get on to Union from Summer street. By creating safer passage for trucks, must the plans compromise the route for passenger vehicles?

This is idiotic. Why aren't they trying to devise a plan to keep big rigs out of downtown entirely? The same minds that gave us the mess on Stillwater Ave are now going to work their magic downtown?

The reason big rigs cant be kept out of downtown entirely is because many businesses depend on big rig long-haul deliveries in order to serve their customers. By necessity at least a dozen would have to move out if that were the case.

vichet great point...there are also business locations in town that require trucks, depending on where they are coming from, to get to them for their respective wares & services (i.e. the oil comps on lower Main St. and the businesses located in the industrial parks)...the greatest reason for the trucks being on most all of our city and secondary roads is because of the gov't weight restriction on I-95 being at 80,000 gross lbs..... so those 6 axled trucks that gross over the 80 must stay off the Interstate system which is a road structurally built to accomodate vehicles of that size..crazy!

Bangorian I agree. They purchase/uproot a dwelling/business, when they could have simply made a nice wide right turn lane on Main St and kept the traffic in the existing flow.

Bangorian is right on, whoever does the traffic "planning" in the city is utterly CLUELESS..

randys is very right ! these lights and roads are all screwed up.

Vichet and PabMainer - you are both right - sort of. The only large trucks delivering on downtown Main Street delivers pianos. Most truck deliveries to downtown are 24 footers. I believe that the real reason is the weight limitations on the Interstate bridges.

It would make more sense to extend the turn lane off of Main Street to Summer Street at a graduated angle. It would cut into the "park" area but it could work. This would also open the entrance to the waterfront area a little more....very helpful during the Folk Festival.

It would cost less than buying up property....Bangor already owns the park.

Mr. Ramsay, "sort of right", your killing me..LOL! (just kidding) I am not too familiar with the area they are trying to redo, but another good example is a friend works for the pavers in the summer and the places over by Dysarts where they do the asphalt and quary stuff, when those guys need to to north they have to go down thru town, up by the hospital thru Veazie, Orono, Old Town, etc. just like the oil trucks from up north going home loaded from the tanks on South Main St (and we all remember the tragic accident with the oil truck) he never should have been forced to run the inner city streets due to the weight limits on 95..sounds like your solution would improve the water front also, I hope the right people get in on the planning...

Typical city of bangor.

Moving the traffic to Cedar St is intended to reduce traffic on Railroad St and that end of Summer St because the City wants the block between Cedar and Railroad St.s to be a part of the Waterfront redevelopment.

All the Interstate infrastructure will handle 100,000 lb trucks, but the federal DOT or Congress is dead set against allowing it, even though our intrepid congressional delegation gamely tries to get it through every few years.

Wait, wait, Traffic Planning?? Designing?? Traffic Lights?? I dodn't know you could use these words for the city of Bangor. Is the idea of one traffic light turning green while the next one down the road turning red considered Traffic Planning? You just end up with cars blocking an intersection. The city spent thousends of our dollars purchasing motion controlled traffic lights which do nothing more than screw up the traffic flow. You would think someone in city hall would have the math knowledge to time the lights and then leave them alone. What's next? Lets make all the streets downtown two way traffic so trucks can go both ways. The city is so bent on this waterfront improvement that the just waste all the money. Oh and OontGroont, you need a qualified engineer to to figure out Stillwater Ave. Something this city doesn't have.

I was just going to write that businesses depend on big rigs....then saw what vichet wrote.....he/she says it all. Think of it this way Bangorian--if you bought it a truck brought it. Those items on the store shelves surely didn't get there by themselves.

I just wish whoever is in charge of the overhead traffic lane signs could work WITH whoever is in charge of painting (!?) the lanes. Especially out on Hogan Road. Total chaos. And Stillwater Avenue is every bit as bad. It really would be nice if there was someone who looked at road plans through the eye of a tourist who doesn't "know" that a lane really doesn't go the way the overhead sign says it does. It's a wonder Bangor doesn't have more vehicle accidents all because of the crazy signs and lights in this city (and I don't even want to get in to the lack of street signs or letters on the signs). Lord, don't buy a map book and expect it to have any relationship to reality around here. That saying, "You can't get there...." is mostly true because of poor traffic planning in this state.

Good plan, will help traffic alot!

It sounds like the planning is already done, the city of Bangor is just using the same plan that society has used for the last 20 yrs. why use what you already have when you can spend money you don't have and BUY something.