BANGOR, Maine — City officials are interested in hearing directly from Bangor residents and other regular travelers who use Stillwater Avenue and the Interstate 95 off ramp.
The ramp, which was built 11 years ago, prohibits drivers from making left-hand turns. Drivers may go straight ahead into a shopping plaza or make a right turn onto Stillwater.
“That was done as a condition of building the thing with federal funds by the Federal Highway Administration,” said Art Morgan, Bangor’s civil engineer. “One thing they do when evaluating a project is an environmental assessment to make sure federal dollars are being spent the way the public wants them to be spent.
“At the time this was put in, there were a considerable number of citizens concerned that this would increase traffic on Howard Street and the ‘tree streets’ between State [Street] and Stillwater.”
In order to address those concerns, federal planners included a prohibition on any left-hand turn lanes from the exit onto Stillwater.
Over the years, however, more and more people have asked city officials to remove that ban.
“So now we’re looking at having the restriction removed, but we first have to petition MDOT [Maine Department of Transportation] and perform a traffic study of the intersection to see if this change would require any improvements and additional construction,” Morgan said.
If the MDOT approves the change, the Federal Highway Administration would also have to approve it because it was federally funded.
A public hearing — just like the one that was needed for the approval of the exit’s construction in the first place — would have to be held.
“For that reason, I’m soliciting public comments and opinions that will allow me to serve the majority of our citizens’ concerns about that interchange,” said Morgan.
Morgan said he and other city staff members will also have to evaluate the financial feasibility of such a project, if it’s deemed necessary.
“It’s a very busy intersection functioning at an acceptable level right now,” Morgan said. “To create a separate left-hand turn lane, it’s likely it will involve some improvements.”
Morgan has set up an email address — engineering@bangormaine.gov — for citizens to send their comments about the exit and the idea of eliminating the ban on left turns there.
They aimed everyone toward the mall not out of common sense, they did it because the businesses lobbied for it.. It’s time to allow us a left turn… I’m sure Wal-Mart is already lobbying the city council to leave it alone.
The ramp was built to alleviate congestion on Hogan Road. It had nothing to do with businesses lobbying for it. Parkade didn’t even exist when the ramp was built.
The folks making dangerous turns anywhere they can in order to drive toward the tree streets often pose a greater threat to other motorists than whatever nuisance they might cause to these east side residents.
There are other reasons to travel left on Stillwater than just go to the tree streets. There are businesses, a school, and other organizations down that way that are not that handy to get to if one uses the convoluted Broadway exits.
Obviously, this move is because there is another person looking to build where Shaw’s was going to, but could not get the left-hand turn permission. Interesting that it could happen now.
Thank you for doing the math.
And the lack of a left turn lane made the proposed Shaw’s move idiotic until there was one. you can be sure that was the next thing on their docket until they baled out. Bad move anyway. I wonder how much business they lost by closing their store near the mall and relying on the downtown store (not a very nice place to go to).
No, the only change that will have is the traffic signal there where they will build, people waiting extended periods of time to turn left out of Drew St. They will finally adjust that light so it changes quicker.
I have taken that exit several times and cursed it upon remembering I can’t turn left there. That, and there’s no northbound on-ramp there.
Out of curiosity – does any one know why there was never a northbound on-ramp put in there at the time it was built? Looking for a legitimate answer – not people spouting off about this or that! TIA!
Cost?
Probably assumed people would go to the Bangor Mall, exit there and take the north ramps from Hogan Rd. I bet much more congestion, cost and construction would have taken place to make that happen. It really isn’t that far and probably some traffic study may have shown more people go south for the rest of Bangor to do shopping (Union, Broadway) and not as many go North and may not have seen much of an impact.
For the record my spout off answer would have been because it is a federal funded project, they told Bangor they had to choose north or south, a flip of the coin later….tails apparently meant south.
Thanks for the answer — I assumed everything you did as well in regards to using Hogan Rd instead, or the cost of doing the work for both…
I was expecting some spout of answer about the mall business lobbying for this and that, which I have heard on her before in regards to other things. I typically only ask questions I am seeking actual answers to, and not questions that are going to open a can of worms and get people all riled up. But, it has been known to happen from time to time…
It could change but I am actually kind of glad there is North ramp there anyways, the area is a train wreck as it is at times, especially in the holiday season.
I think someone is already spouting a similar answer here about the mall business lobbying or having some direct role on it, or even someone blaming the Howard St residents for a north ramp not being present.
I thought there was or is going to be a traffic study done as far as the ramp setups for Bangor to begin with, that being the case I would have thought they would take this left hand turn matter into consideration and maybe another North ramp is being talked about as some time has passed since this was put together
The money was there, but residents of the nearby neighborhoods didn’t want it because they didn’t want an increase in traffic.
So you go straight into the plaza and blow a u ie right in the entrance and go right ))
People do that to remain legal, but not a good idea if there’s a lot of traffic coming out of the plaza. Still preferable to the scofflaws who turn left anyway.
Actually, that’s illegal. See MRSA Title 29-A, Sect. 2057(11).
But they are not going through the parking lot, They are making a U turn in a thru way. I can drive through the parking lot and come out the end by drew street and be accused of avoiding the red light, that is fine, I guess you can call it avoiding a red light, but I can also tell the officer (I never see this law enforced anyways) that I was going to shop and I changed my mind….he can’t prove my mindset
A through way is a street. Stillwater is the through way, not the Parkade parking lot. In fact, no parking lot is a through way. All the light does on the off-ramp is get you into a parking lot. You can’t go through a parking lot to circumvent a traffic control device.
A violation would be civil, so all the officer would have to do is prove that it was more likely than not that you were trying to avoid obeying a traffic control device.
That thru way does not have a street name from what I see….
If I need to make a left turn and I make a left hand turn at the light or U turn in the parking lot then I was put in a position to disobey a traffic control device regardless of which outcome I choose.
This law I am pretty sure is more intended for sitting at an intersection with a long light, such as you sit at a red light needing to make a right hand turn, you are say fifth in line, you know the light is long so you cut through the gas station parking lot and take a right at the other end.
What this tells me in this instance is if I want to make that left hand turn I need to go park my car in the parking lot then come out to make it really look like I am not avoiding the light. If I U turn at the Bangor Mall, or drive all the way around the mall, or cut through the dead end road and Home Depot, the other strip mall, the Wal Mart parking lot etc, I can still be accused of avoiding the red light it I turn around in them parking lots to come back the way I come from to head back towards the Drew St area. To safely be accused of not avoiding the device I could technically go down the dead end road by Home Depot and come back out and turn around in their parking lot because now I am on a street, same thing with Bangor Mall Blvd, that is now a street named and not a parking lot.
A waste of time to go make a legal left hand turn if you ask me…..
You should read the directional signs on the interstate, then you wouldn’t be surprised.
I see people turning left there all the time. Just take down the stupid sign. The most annoying thing to me is when idiots get in the center lane, and sit there while the traffic is supposed to go to the right, waiting to go straight ahead. This blocks all the traffic behind such vehicles from going to the right.
Exactly, save the money for a study too, ah wait people run red lights too, they should take them down while they are it.
I bicycle in this area frequently. Heading south on Stillwater, the paved bicycle path on the left ends before this intersection. Since it’s illegal to ride a bicycle on the left side of the roadway, I have to somehow cross the street before or at this intersection. I’ve found that the safest way to do this is to stop at the intersection and walk the bike across, since the prohibition on left turns also applies to bicycles. The first thing that needs to be done is to extend the bike path.
I’ve been saying this for years: our fair city needs to officially encourage more bicycling and bus ridership as alternatives to car use. It’s the future anyway, given gas prices and increasing traffic congestion. We can go kicking and screaming into that future, or we can plan for it sensibly.
If the city wants to encourage bus ridership, the FIRST thing they need to do is schedule it for working peoples needs. Employers dont like it when employees are not available for all shifts. How can someone leave the car at home when they live in Veazie and work at the mall until 8 or 9 pm? The last bus left three hours earlier, and even that last bus did not connect with other routes because it was the last trip for that route too.
Our transit system is built around the welfare infrastructure. The new Odlin Road line does not serve the industrial parks very well, but DOES service the methadone clinic and the Ranger Inn. Now tell me, what will tourists think when they hail a bus by the Holiday Inn and get on it to be met by the smell of Alcohol and BO? And what about the new Hotels near the mall? The bus doesnt go there.
I will say that the new Orono service is a step in the right direction, but could be improved by serving whatever is in the Microdyne building now and the Best Western, with an express highway service to the Mall. It could be a paid fare route and run year round. What is the point of it being fare free? Most users are UMO students anyway, and they dont have to pay on any route.
another example of the poor work done by Maine department transportation
i agree,, the incompetence of the state is a shame,, look at the accidents that happen with that south bound on-ramp! or how about the job of cutting trees up the 95 towards millinocket,, how many deer were run over? cut right thru deer yards without even thinking about it.. just another perfect example of why the dept of trans should be eliminated and contracted out.. less state employees would be a big cost savings to this state, let alone stop the laziness.
oh and btw,, have you seen our new rotary in howland? yes i said, howland.. it’s something else all right.
Pathetic what is there like 500 people in town
Have you seen the new rotary in front of the Airport in Bangor? The thought that they would build one is rediculous. What I’ve been saying before they built that thing is all they had to do was rebuild the intersection and replace the inadequate traffic lights there. It would have been much cheaper than building that stupid rotary.
It’s not a rotary it’s a round about and it is the perfect solution to intersections of this type; once you learn how to use it.
Rotaries, round abouts, divergent cow paths or circles of death. Regardless of the name preference they beat the heck out of Bangor’s dumb antique traffic lights (dumber than a pile of rocks) and in addition to slowing converging traffic to a non-lethal impact speed they avoid the cluster ducks that are typical of large intersections poisoned by too many lanes, too many lights and too many clowns blowing through in attempt to beat the traffic and the lights.
Bangor spent tens of thousands of dollars on motion sensors and very few are even used. Maybe if someone in the city knew how to set them up traffic could flow better. Right now, 90% of them are sitting on the stantions not even connected.
The only reasy so many deer were killed when DOT was culling the trees was because that winter had been particularly rough for them. They were starving.
In the long run, the culling of trees will save lives — of animals on foot and of those in motor vehicles. Without the culling, animals were coming right up to the road to forage and weren’t easily seen by motorists.
Poor work? The department did exactly what the people wanted.
I say you might want to give up on reducing traffic to the “tree streets” it’s a local thru-way already, and MUCH shorter route — just put in higher curbs, widen the road and let us use the street like we always have been able too. If residents don’t like it, MOVE. I live off route 1A and traffic is a pain, but why would I lobby people to change the street when it is easier to move?
There are engineers that design this stuff in Bangor? You could have fooled me.
Ya every other state is trying to get rid of rotarys this state is building them dumb
roundabouts are great.
I know it’s a pain not being able to turn left there. Try makeing a right hand turn with a Semi truck. There is no room for the turn with out taking all the lanes and taking a chance of hitting a person in our blind spot cause they “decide” not to see our turn signals. Its a dangerous intersection in a lot of respects and bad planning all the way around. Oh wait it was federaly funded that say’s a lot in its self.
Not everyone understands the issues of large trucks, including blind spots. Besides they are always on the phone, so probably didn’t even realize they were near a large truck.
Well phone’s only part of the problem. Mostly its lack of attention or education for the most part on how people behave around big rigs. We have major blind spots that most people dont know about. We try to watch but sometime there is one that sneeks in and we get them with the trailer. There needs to be better education for drivers on just how to act around big trucks. Most of us try but like any profession there are some of us that do bad things as well.
I can’t fathom Art Morgan stating the intersection is acceptable at the present time. It’s clearly at LOS D (Level Of Service Grade D on an A/B/C/D/F scale, the standard FHWA method) based on uneven pavement, non-MUTCD lane markings, congestion through three lights (north from Stillwater: backups extend through the south mall entrance, Home Depot entrance, and the north mall entrance), and a substandard acceleration lane for the southbound 95 entrance ramp, let alone the lack of a northbound 95 entrance cloverleaf ramp..
A comprehensive solution would include some of the following:
(1) 2 through lanes for Southbound Stillwater traffic: achieved by reducing the Northbound Stillwater traffic from 3 through lanes, to 2 through lanes, shifting the left turn into the plaza over, and restriping and curb resetting.
(2) Expansion of off-ramp collector from 3 to 4 lanes, by expanding roadway on the north side, maintaining 2 right-turning lanes, 1 center lane into the plaza, and adding 1 left-turning lane. Also, a ‘corner cut’ for the expanded right-turning lane, that would allow for continuous traffic at a yield rather than the no-right-on-red.
(3) A corner cut right-turn-lane for Northbound Stillwater to 95 entrance wouldn’t hurt.
(4) Signage improvements.
Outstanding – this needed to happen years ago. Those people on Howard Street played every card they could in an attempt to make their neighborhood into a private, gated community. Now that the Howard Street question has been permanently resolved, it is no longer a distraction. Let’s get this left hand turn in place ASAP.
And that expensive stuff that was done on Howard St. looks awful now too. Faded glory.
abuild it who cares what Howard st nimbys want
I believe a nice round-about would work very nicely .
Bank it to the inside a little and up the speed to 45 mph. It’s hard to text, do your toe nails and go through a round about at 45 yet I’m sure some will try it.
Wow, 11 years!! I guess I need to stop referring to it as the “new exit” now.. I think the deal made with the Mall has payed off, time to allow left turns there, I wouldn’t think it would take too much to convert or add a light to allow for left turns, plus I not going to want to get off at Hogan Road to goto Wings n Things if it gets built..
Provide evidence of this “deal” of which you speak…
I lived in the area of Stillwater when the intersection was first constructed.
I believe the reason it was constructed in the first place was to reduce the Mall traffic on Hogan Road.
The intent was to not increase traffic heading South on Stillwater based on comments from local residents.
If a left turn is approved on that intersection, will we be complaining later that we cannot get out onto Stillwater Ave. because the traffic is backed up at 5pm? More traffice lights on Stillwater to control traffic at the end of every other tree street? Be careful what you wish for.
Tooo funny!!! i JUST added this to that “fix it’ section. this is a MUST do in my book! I’vr e had too many close calls at that intersection, hard telling about anyone else’s experience
See something. Say something.
A story: The first time I came down the ramp at that intersection, I had to use the potty so bad my back teeth were afloat, it was pouring rain with bad visibility, and I was headed home by the quickest way possible. I got to the bottom, saw no left turn, went HUH??? They’re not forcing me into that Kohl’s parking lot maze, and turned left thinking, come get me if you must, but somebody is seriously screwed up in planning this disaster area. Of course some people need to go towards town there; they would’ve already gotten off the Hogan Rd. ramp for the malls! I’m sure there’s millions of dollars laying around to fix someone’s earlier bad planning.
lol is it just me or is the picture they have NOT stillwater ave in bangor or am i missing some thing
look at the 10 foot wide sidewalks that nobody uses, it’s Stillwater
While they are at it, I would love to see that second straight arrow sign removed. It confuses people into thinking there are two lanes that go straight across the intersection and I always seem to get stuck behind them. When the light turns green to turn right, it stays red to go forward and people end up having to just sit through a green light or find a way to get around the person waiting to go forward.
It’s for redundancy.
If people would pay attention to the THREE sets of signs, motorists in the middle lane would know they can’t go straight.
well something clearly needs to be done at that intersection. its a big fat joke if you ask me. the two right turn are great except when you get out of state people who think the left right lane is a straight lane also. i hate that there is no left turn getting of the highway, especially having a child that goes to fruit street. god forbid i was in a hurry. having to go thru that parking lot is a pan in the rear.
Public comment? As in… the people who designed that off-ramp are brain-dead? Like that?
Probably designed by the same DOT drone who designed the criss-cross at Union and Ohio. The city was told by the then manager to make it that way so all traffic would have to go to his mall.
Not true at all.
I truly feel bad for Mr. Morgan. He undoubtably has a grossly underfunded budget and political red-tape that makes his job impossible. Bangor, Maine is and excellent example of how the employment and retention of antiquated traffic systems benefits no one, from the business community to bedroom community. My preference would be to require everyone entering Bangor from an I-95 exit to park their car at the airport, nearest vacated business, or meth clinic where they could swap it out for a bumper-car, bicycle, or horse and buggy. This would change their Bangor driving experience from the nightmare it now is to a day of fun and adventure.
the reason this was done was bob cimboleck the mayor of Howard st said we needed that you should see their own cim circle on Howard I mean after all he had his finger on the citys pulse about the new arena didn’t he ? Never mind poor example
When i drive down Howard street I try and run over the curbing of that “circle thing” like it isn’t even there, with a big stupid grin on my face.
one that that would create some relief is another exit from the Kohls parking area. Once you get in there your trapped. There should be an exit out the back end somewhere to releive some of the congrestion at the above mentioned intersection. You have a set of traffic lights just before this intersection just to the south that are actually useless/.
There is. Over by where Office Depot used to be.
There is one, carefully hidden back of the former Office Depot store, but you canonly turn right.
This is what happens when we are all forced to go “right.”
put in a roundabout. roundabouts EVERYWHERE!
First things first. There are three lanes and four traffic lights. One of the straight arrow lights needs to go. I can see how tourists would be confused about the center lane.
Also, the original intent of that exit was to improve access to the mall. By legalizing left turns, stillwater traffic headed towards broadway will only get worse.
There is a sign that says left lane only to go straight. People only look at the lights, they do not read the signs. There is also a sign that says no turn on red. Yet people still do it, even though the sign is there and the arrows are red.
Why they didn’t allow direct access to the Mall without entering onto Stillwater is beyond me. Think of the traffic you could take off Stillwater and Hogan Rd, if the mall had a direct access ramp onto and off of I-95.
I agree that this is an annoying and confusing intersection. People think that the center lane goes straight when in fact it goes right. I have more of an issue if you head further south down I95 and need to take the exit to 395 for Bangor.Brewer. Who came up with the ingenius idea to merge the exiting traffic with the ongoing traffic in the same lane! I cant tell you how many times I have had close calls there or seen close ones. I have even been forced to take the next exit before because I could not get off the interstate . Even just putting up a sign to the ongoing traffic warning them that the offramp is also used for traffic exiting might be helpful! Please help me get the word out this is dangerous.