It’s chaos on Maine roads. Here’s one way to make them safer right now. | Column
An e-bike rides among cars down Main Street in Waterville. (Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer)
The scene on Maine streets has been wild this summer, just from the view through my windshield: cars running red lights, cyclists riding on the wrong side of the road, Segways zooming down crowded sidewalks.
On my commute this morning alone, I passed a kick scooter coming toward me in the bike lane and stopped short for a man who walked into the middle of the road, carrying a crate and cardboard sign toward the median.
Remember when tourists and road work were our biggest summer traffic problems?
Well, they’re still in play, too, as is the aggression that arose when we started fighting over toilet paper and treating traffic laws as optional. In this politically contentious time, the assumptions we make about people based on what they drive can’t be helping either.
With the rise in popularity of e-bikes and other forms of so-called micromobility, the sheer variety of vehicles that have taken to our streets would make for a chaotic scene, even if everyone knew and obeyed the rules. Add erratic behavior by drivers and riders — distracted by cellphones, weaving in and out of traffic, speeding down every open stretch — and the situation has become lethal.
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Sadly, we already knew that, coming off of Maine’s deadliest year on record for pedestrians and cyclists, with 28 fatalities. E-bike and e-moto crashes are also on the rise, from 10 in 2024 to 35 in 2025 and this year on track to be worse, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.
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Officials have begun to respond, including in Portland, where last year’s five traffic deaths led to a call for urgent action. But changing laws and improving infrastructure can take time. There is, however, a way to make our roads safer right now.
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It starts with some self-reflection: Have you ever put a Spotify playlist or temperature setting ahead of your attention to the road? Have you ever acted out your frustration with another vehicle or found yourself in a hurry and done something that, in hindsight, was dangerous?
For me, it’s a yes to all that, and there’s recent evidence that many are guilty of the same.
On a single Monday this month, Portland police cited 64 people for using cellphones, failing to stop or yield and other infractions, as part of an enhanced traffic enforcement operation. I highly doubt these were all scofflaws looking to get away with something. I’d guess that many were acting without thinking and would be horrified if their inattention led to someone getting hurt.
I still see the opposite happen sometimes: a car stopping for pedestrians who aren’t at a crosswalk, giving a bicycle a wide berth or pulling up in a line of traffic to make room for someone else. A hand is waved in return, and everyone goes away feeling good.
It should also be a positive thing that people are finding more economically and environmentally efficient ways to get around, but frequent displays of flagrant disregard for the rules of the road (which, for most of these vehicles, are the same as for bicycles) have made for a rough first impression.
While stricter laws and more robust enforcement are needed for anyone who won’t change voluntarily, there are many of us on the road who would — if we were willing to recognize how we each could do better, before getting a ticket or worse.
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Tagged: bicycles, traffic safety, transportation
Leslie Bridgers is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald, writing about Maine culture, customs and the things we notice and wonder about in our everyday lives. Originally from Connecticut, Leslie came. More by Leslie Bridgers
