Increase in coastal traffic in the last decade? (Portland, Bangor: rental car, 2014)

[Last1Standing]

I recently drove from Milbridge to Kittery via route 1 and then 295 in Brunswick and 95 in Portland. I was very surprised at the heavy traffic from Ellsworth all the way to Kittery. In many towns it slowed to a crawl. It took 20 minutes to cross the bridge into Wiscasset. I was taken aback because it was September, not the summer tourist season! I didn't remember the traffic being this heavy in years past. Honestly it felt like the Boston suburbs. It made me rethink my decision to move to Brunswick.

Do you find that the coastal traffic has increased noticeably in the last 10 years? How do locals cope with this?

I guess one lesson is to take 95 all the way to Bangor because the coastal route is no longer pleasurable as it once was. I hate the monotony of 95, but the 6-hour drive to Kittery by route 1 (220 miles) wasn't fun.

[maineguy8888]

If you get stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time, that drive is awful. The last time I tried it, the drive from Belfast to Portland took something like 4 hours. It was stop and go traffic for at least an hour. This was a few years ago. .....I am guessing that it's even worse now.

[Fern435]

Timing is everything with traffic. What day of the week did you drive south?

[AustinB]

No one who wants to get anywhere in a decent amount of time, takes route 1. That's for the tourists and people who have to take it.

[Last1Standing]

Originally Posted by Fern435

Timing is everything with traffic. What day of the week did you drive south?

Friday between 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

[slyfox2]

Increase in traffic everywhere. We always take Route 3 out of Augusta

When we go south to visit family and friends in Pennsylvania, we have always taken the parkways through CN. But last time we went that way, they were very very crowded moving bumper to bumper at 70mph, and with no shoulder, an accident means a huge wait.

And then we'd go across the Tapanzee. But the new bridge is not done yet, and we recently heard that the old one was not supposed to be used for more than 25 years, That was 60 years ago.

So now we head west from visiting out daughter/sIL in Holyoke on the Mass Pike to 87 south, and miss all the traffic. If we are going past the mainline Philly, we take 84 west again.

Anything on the east coast corridor south of Hartford is a mess except at 3 am.

[mainebrokerman]

ive been going thru Wiscasset for 45 yrs and in the summer its always been a back up at certain times

one thing you don't see now as you did years ago is trains.......we don't have to stop and wait for trains as we use to yrs ago



also keep in mind

mdi - bar harbor gets ....3 million visitors a year?????? that's a lot of traffic


they put a second bridge in augusta that starts the rte-3 rte 1 connector from Belfast north (to mdi) - more people may be using rte 1 than years ago(



gas is cheap this yr.....and weather was great for the coast and tourists so this will also influence traffic

[LoLo4444]

Originally Posted by Last1Standing

I was taken aback because it was September, not the summer tourist season!

My husband and I spent our Honeymoon in Maine the last week of September, 2014. We had a rental car and spent most of our time on MDI, while spending a few days visiting Portland, Kittery, and Portsmouth, NH. I can definitely see why summer is the tourist season, but when I think of New England I think sweater weather and Fall foliage. Even though we live in the Orlando, FL area, we hate the heat and prefer the cold. If it wasn't for all the hiking and kayaking we planned on doing, we probably would've visited even later in the year. When we eventually move to Maine (we're planning for Penobscot County), we'll tell family to visit in the Fall so they can have the wonderful experience we had.