Sidewalk Survey #2

The Active Transportation Committee (ATC) of FWC held our second Sidewalk Survey on the evening of October 3rd. The purpose of the Sidewalk Surveys is to engage our community members in transportation issues and opportunities; educate our community members on ways to improve safety and access for pedestrians and other active transportation users; hear their ideas and solutions; and, identify priorities of our community and create a list of improvements that we can use to partner with the City and the MaineDOT.

The Sidewalk Surveys are simply a group-walk on our streets with discussions about what is good, bad and truly ugly in terms of pedestrian safety and access. While our first survey, on July 10th, focused on roads and streets south of Woodford Street, this time we walked 2 routes that included Woodford Street and north. Both walks have revealed major problems with the timing of traffic lights--pedestrians have to wait too long to get the signal to cross, and have too short a time to actually cross. Furthermore, at some lights, during the walk phase, pedestrians have to contend with turning cars. A second problem we have identified is that many sidewalks are in terrible condition, often not defined and quite literally in the traffic.

The ATC is compiling a list of all the issues and locations, identifying our priorities and working with the City of Portland to fix the most egregious issues. We plan to hold another Sidewalk Survey during the winter because the sidewalk conditions are even worse when the snow is not removed. We also plan to have more in the warm summer months. If you have questions or would like to help with these efforts, please contact Nancy Grant (Committee Chair) at nancylewisgrant@gmail.com.