I read with sympathy Amy Calder’s column, “Wrong-way driving elicits angst,” because last week, driving on Route 201 toward Augusta, I narrowly eluded the nightmare scenario Calder imagines. A car came into view heading toward me in my lane. Fortunately, as I slowed down and edged to the center line, the driver recognized they were in the wrong lane and pulled onto the shoulder.

Still, I was taken aback at Calder’s suggestion that “the thought of people driving impaired to the point where they mistake north from south is a reality the we, nowadays, must accept.” Dangerous driving conditions are not immutable laws of the universe. They’re the conditions we make.

Public transportation options that would give people an alternative to driving to and from the bar are lacking in our region. That’s a policy choice. But wrong-way driving and other dangerous driving behavior I witness every day — speeding, ignoring red lights and stop signs, texting and talking on the phone — are not simply down to impaired drivers.

Road design and signage in the region are poorly thought out and often confusing. For example, it’s not uncommon to see a “do not enter” sign placed in the median between two ramps, such that it could apply equally to both. That’s probably how a lot of drivers end up on the highway in the wrong direction. Even roads with low speed limits are built broadly, like highways, encouraging speeding. Traffic and parking enforcement are minimal. Pedestrian safety is an afterthought here.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for people under age 54 in the United States and according to Forbes, Maine is New England’s most dangerous state to drive in. So no, we don’t have to accept this. We don’t have to live this way.

 

Aaron Hanlon

Waterville

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