Town of Mt. Desert, Maine - Comprehensive Plan Update

Whether it is to buy a gallon of milk, go for a walk in Acadia National Park, or commute to work, transportation corridors are the link to the world beyond our doorstep.

Changing development patterns affect the way we use these networks. Mount Desert Island’s success as a seasonal vacation destination can place tremendous strains on the island’s transportation network.

This chapter inventories Mount Desert’s transportation network and where appropriate, quantifies the changing uses of this system.

Our town’s transportation network is, for the most part, comprised of roadways. The various components of this roadway system serve a variety of functions, and the responsibility for building and maintaining the components is shared by Mount Desert and the State of Maine.

Our town has approximately 43 miles of publicly maintained roadways. They vary in function and character from the higher-speed collector highways to residential streets. We have approximately 11 miles of collector roadways, defined by the Maine Department of Transportation as travel routes that collect traffic from local roads and distributes it to arterials (Route 1 in Ellsworth is an arterial), serving places of lower population densities and somewhat removed from main travel routes. The collector routes in Mount Desert include Routes 102, 198 and 3.

We have approximately 32 miles of local roads, defined by MDOT as all roadways not classified as an arterial or collector, and serving primarily adjacent land areas. In Mount Desert, these local roads include Sargent Drive, Pretty Marsh Road, and Indian Point Road.

Topography dictates how our transportation network moves through the town. In general, the major network has a north-south orientation and passes through the valleys of the island. Somes Sound divides the town into two distinct areas, and creates a transportation bottleneck at its northern end in Somesville. Acadia National Park occupies large portions of Mount Desert in both the eastern and western side of the island.

The major roads around Somesville are the hub of our transportation network. Generally, traffic volumes decrease the further roadways are from this hub.

· According to MDOT, Route 102 (south of the intersection with Routes 3/198) has the largest average annual daily traffic in Mount Desert. In 2001 (the latest year in which data is available); more than 9,250 vehicles traveled this corridor per day (Table 1, Figure 1).

· More than 7,000 vehicles per day travel on Route 102 (at the Southwest Harbor town line) and Routes 198/3 (north of Northeast Harbor).

In general, traffic volumes as measured by MDOT have not changed between 1998 and 2001. While route 201 (north of Routes 198/3) has increased by 8%, traffic on Route 3 in Seal Harbor has decreased by 10%.

The seasonal impacts on our transportation network are hard to overemphasize. While no direct comparison is possible with our local road network, a representative comparison can be made based on traffic patterns crossing onto Mount Desert Island.

Thompson Island has a permanent recording station that counts the number of cars traveling onto Mount Desert every hour for every day of the year. Seasonal comparisons between the winter and summer are striking.

- Morning rush hour peaks between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM in both winter and summer. Volumes in the winter range between 600 and 800 vehicles per hour. Volumes in the summer average around 1,200 vehicles per hour.

- Midday volumes drop off after 9:00 AM in the winter to approximately 400 vehicles per hour. In the summer, midday volumes continue to rise after morning rush hour to between 1,400 and 1,600 vehicles per hour.

- Afternoon rush hour peaks between 4:00 and 6:00 PM. In the winter months, volumes reach 1,000 vehicles per hour. In the summer months, volumes during afternoon rush hour in the summer peak at 2,000 to 2,200 vehicles per day.

- Evening traffic volumes quickly fall off to 200 vehicles per hour in the winter months, while during the summer they slowly taper off to 1,000 vehicles per hour by 9:00 PM before plummeting to background traffic volumes by 11:00 PM.

The permanent recording station on Thompson Island counts the number of visitors and commuters traveling to and from the island, but it does not count the increased traffic created from the number of summer residents living on the island. In many cases, this intra-island travel adds significantly to our local road network.

In addition to traffic volumes, MDOT tracks traffic safety by identifying ‘high crash locations.’ A high crash location has to have at least 8 crashes in the last three years and individual crashes must have resulted in property damage or personal injury. According to MDOT’s analysis, there are no high crash locations in our town.

However, two locations have received a lot of local attention for being dangerous. In Somesville on the Whitney Farm Road is a hump that can be very dangerous at high speeds. Also in Somesville is the stretch of Route 198 between Routes 102 and 233. In the winter months, this stretch of road can become very icy, and the roads hills and sharp corners make it an area of concern.

While the majority of automobile parking is provided by the private sector, there are several public parking areas throughout the Town.

· Northeast Harbor has two-hour restricted parking throughout the village. Parking demand during the peak of the season is very high, and the Police Department hires a seasonal parking officer to enforce these restrictions. Still, parking remains a concern in Northeast Harbor.

· The Sea Street parking lot in Mount Desert is leased from the Town to residents of the Cranberry Isles. The Harbor Master manages this parking area as well as the smaller public lot near the marina. Parking demand far outpaces supply on Sea Street.

In addition to these parking areas, we have several parking areas that receive an inordinate amount of illegal parking through the summer months. These locations include the Seal Harbor Yacht Club, Bartlett Landing, and the Long Pond recreation area.

Maine Department of Transportation’s six-year plan for major infrastructure improvements identifies two potential projects in our town. The first is a reconstruction of 4 miles of Route 3 between Otter Creek and Somesville. The second is the replacement of Kittridge Bridge between Mount Desert and Bar Harbor over Meadow Brook.

Somesville, Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor, and Otter Creek all have sidewalk networks. The sidewalks in Otter Creek are being rebuilt along with the sewer upgrade project, but the sidewalks in the other villages are in need of repair.

There are 120 miles of hiking trails in Acadia National Park. These trails are maintained by the National Park Service and vary in terrain from handicap accessible to expert.

In addition, there are 45 miles of carriage roads and paved automobile roads within Acadia National Park for hiking and bicycling.

While Mount Desert does not have its own airport, the Hancock County/Bar Harbor Airport is located less than 10 miles away in Trenton. This airport provides scheduled passenger service throughout the northeast as well as general aviation services for private individuals and cargo. The full-service Bangor International Airport is less than 90 minutes drive from Mount Desert.

There is private ferry service from Northeast Harbor to the Cranberry Islands. Cranberry Island residents use Northeast Harbor as their shore-side base of operations.

In addition, ferry service to Nova Scotia is available from Bar Harbor, and MDOT runs a state-ferry service to Swans Island and Frenchboro out of Bass Harbor in Tremont.

With 17 propane-powered, fare-free buses, the Island Explorer offers eight routes through MDI communities and Acadia National Park. It is supported by Acadia National Park, MDOT, USDOT, L.L. Bean, local towns, Friends of Acadia, and many local businesses. The Maine Department of Transportation reports that the Island Explorer has reduced air pollution by 33.7 tons since it inception in 1999. Passengers have eliminated an estimated 442,000 personal vehicle trips since then. In 2003, the Island Explorer carried its millionth cumulative passenger and extended the operating season through Columbus Day.

In addition to the Island Explorer, Downeast Transportation runs limited year-round, midday service on weekdays between MDI communities and Bar Harbor or Ellsworth. The service receives financial support from MDOT, MDI towns, and passengers. From 1996-2001, ridership decreased at an average rate of 2.1% every year, and Downeast Transportation is examining ways to alter route design and schedules to improve services for commuters, senior citizens, and youth.

Island Connections is a non-profit organization that delivers meals and provides free rides to appointments, shopping, and other errands for elderly and disabled customers. Thanks to the efforts of over 175 volunteers, the organization serves an average of 300 people per year on 6,000 occasions.

1. A large part of Mount Desert’s workforce commutes from other towns and from off island, putting much stress on the Town’s transportation networks.

2. Current development patterns discourage pedestrian and bicycle opportunities and contribute to increased dependence upon automobiles.

3. There is island-wide public transportation in the summer season, but the lack of density in most of the Town’s and the island’s neighborhoods could make year-round public transportation difficult.

4. There is a great deal of congestion in Somesville, particularly during the summer, as this is the only route to getting to the west side of the island. If the state widened this road, it could greatly change the character of this village. Any considerations of major land-use changes or developments in Somesville would have to be undertaken in light of its impacts upon traffic.

6. Although there are no high crash locations in Mount Desert, there are some sections of roadways that are unsafe and often cause accidents.