AUGUSTA - Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, presented LD 527, An Act to Allow Municipalities to Create Bicycle and Pedestrian Zones with Reduced Speed Limits, at a public hearing before the Legislature's Transportation Committee Thursday.
The bill would empower municipalities to establish bicycle and pedestrian zones with a new speed limit of 25 miles per hour. These zones may be established only in areas where no more than 6,000 vehicles pass through per day and where the speed limit is currently no more than 35 miles per hour.
"Giving towns the opportunity to create a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists will reduce accidents and save lives," said Ankeles. "We need a faster, locally focused way to adapt as more Maine families bike and walk in an increasing number of circumstances."
Bill co-sponsor, Rep. Cheryl Golek, D-Brunswick, and Rep. Sam Zager, D-Portland, also provided testimony in strong support of the bill.
"The local people in our towns and cities are the true experts on what they need to create safe roads," said Golek. "Therefore, they should be given the ability to make such changes to improve the safety of the towns and cities in which they live."
Zager, a family medicine physician at Martin's Point Health Care, recalled treating numerous trauma patients suffering from accidents caused by a vehicle.
"The speed standards we set are very important variables in determining survivability and disability," said Zager. "LD 527 would give municipalities local control to take steps to lower the risk of death in an accident from around 30% at 35 miles per hour to around 12% at 25 miles per hour. That is a profound improvement."
Sierra Club Maine, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, the Maine Association of Planners and at least 12 members of the public also submitted testimony in support of the proposal.
Ankeles is continuing to work with the Department of Transportation to pass the best possible version of the bill. The measure faces further action in the coming weeks in the Transportation Committee, which will make a recommendation on the bill before sending it to the full Legislature for consideration.
Rep. Ankeles is a member of the Legislature's Transportation Committee. He is serving his first term in the Maine House and represents House District 100, part of Brunswick.
Contact:
Brian Lee [Ankeles], 305-965-2744