Active Transportation

Complete Street: “Complete Streets are streets designed and operated to enable safe use and support mobility for all users. Those include people of all ages and abilities, regardless of whether they are traveling as drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, or public transportation riders.” ¹ 

Pedestrian Street: A street meant exclusively for pedestrians. Cyclists would be expected to walk their bikes and the only motorized vehicles allowed would be delivery trucks and emergency vehicles.

Shared Path: “A travel area separate from motorized traffic for bicyclists, pedestrians, skaters, wheelchair users, joggers, and other users. Shared use paths can provide a low-stress experience for a variety of users using the network for transportation or recreation.” ² 

Active Transportation: “Non-motorized transportation options such as walking and biking, and is ideally linked with transit (e.g., bus, rail, ferry) networks.” ³  Although this document mostly refers to walking and biking, active transportation can also include skateboarding, rolling wheelchairs, rollerblading, etc.

Active Transportation Infrastructure: An umbrella term that refers to infrastructure that supports active, accommodating transportation. Examples of this infrastructure include bicycle lanes, shared-use paths, and pedestrian paths. 

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: The release of human-caused carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other planet-warming gasses as the result of burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) and land degradation.

Tactical Urbanism: Low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment, usually in urban areas, intended to improve the street for all road users. This concept is sometimes referred to as Imagine People Here, to highlight the legal way of using short-term tryouts for long-term change.

Mode Share: The percentage of people commuting and traveling by a certain mode of transportation.

Downtown Core: Bar Harbor’s Cottage and Main Streets in the larger established downtown.

Right on the edge of the vast Atlantic ocean, nestled between the crashing waves and the old green mountains, is a town that is full of life. There are a lot of reasons to love Bar Harbor—be it  for the abundance of local businesses, the close-knit community of residents, or the unmatched access to an incredible national park, it’s no wonder that millions of visitors want to also be a part of this place every year.

Being a coastal town, Bar Harbor will experience increasingly severe effects of climate change. Climate change will lead to an “increasing frequency and intensity of precipitation events, increase in droughts and drought intensity, and rising winter temperatures leading to decreased snowfall.” In addition, Bar Harbor faces floods and erosion due to rising sea levels. As oceans become warmer and more saturated with dissolved carbon dioxide, local aquatic species will become scarcer which would be devastating for food security and the livelihoods of residents who work in the lobster industry.  ⁵  Climate change threatens everything in Bar Harbor from our economic security to our shared quality of life. It is up to us to mitigate climate change so that Bar Harbor continues to be a place of joy and abundance for generations to come.

The town declared a climate emergency in November 2019 ⁶  and set up the Climate Emergency Task Force (CETF) to help create a plan to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. This group has outlined the goal of “minimizing greenhouse gas emissions across the Bar Harbor community by 2030.” ⁷  To achieve this goal, the whole community is needed to envision the future of Bar Harbor and come up with diverse and creative solutions in all sectors to move past our reliance on fossil fuels and build a better Bar Harbor in the process.

The transportation sector makes up 54% of Maine’s current greenhouse gas emissions – making it the highest emitting sector of all. ⁸  In Bar Harbor’s November 2021 Climate Action Plan, the strategy for Sustainable Transportation is mostly centered around promoting electric vehicles (EVs). ⁹  To advance our transportation networks, we need to provide people with viable, safe, and enjoyable alternatives to gas-powered vehicles. While EVs can be one alternative, they are not the “silver bullet” to improving and decarbonizing our transportation systems. EVs are currently more expensive and therefore less accessible for low-income people to purchase than gas-powered cars.  ¹⁰  Further, the process of manufacturing them and generating their electricity can have significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. ¹¹  Their batteries require minerals like lithium that are often extracted from countries in the global South at the expense of racialized and oppressed communities. ¹²  Bar Harbor residents and visitors alike need diverse transportation choices beyond EVs to transition to a low-carbon lifestyle that is inclusive to everyone.

If Bar Harbor is committed to decreasing emissions from the transportation sector, we need to invest in infrastructure for active transportation. Active transportation involves zero-emissions modes such as walking, cycling, riding e-bikes, rolling wheelchairs, skateboarding, etc. In order to encourage people to shift away from cars and start using active forms of transportation, the town needs to create infrastructure, especially streets, that are safe and inclusive for all road users. By changing our streets, we can change our behaviors and tackle climate change at the community level.

Throughout this document, you will find that implementing active transportation solutions is not only about saying “no” to climate change, but it is also about envisioning the Bar Harbor we want to see for the future. Active transportation infrastructure is about saying “yes” to safety, “yes” to better health, “yes” to community building, “yes” to prospering local businesses, and “yes” to greener, less congested streets. It is time for Bar Harbor to reimagine our streetscapes and to build transportation networks that can meet the diverse needs of our community for the decades to come.

Bar Harbor has stayed relatively walkable because it borders Acadia National Park. Active transportation is essential to the experience of tourists, as well as workers and residents of the town of Bar Harbor. Because of the Climate Emergency that was declared in Bar Harbor in 2019, there has been an increased urgency in making MDI and Bar Harbor ready for different modes of climate resilient transportation. Initiatives like the island explorer, (e-)bike rentals, wider shoulders (on Route 3), and of course, the shared-use path are a beginning to a safer Bar Harbor for pedestrians and bicycles.

2014 Bar Harbor Open Space Plan 

The Bar Harbor Open Space Plan was a community wide effort to plan ahead for the next 6 years, focusing on an inventory of open, wild and green spaces and visions for how to protect these spaces. The current Open Space Plan envisions bicycling and walking as recreational. It is advised that the best way to increase bicycle usage is by widening shoulders in the following locations.

The Open Space plan also mentions a 2003 study called MDI Tomorrow that found that 18% of responses sometimes used bicycling for transportation. More than 20% of people who did not bike did so because it was not safe enough and 85% wanted to improve the shoulders and sidewalks. The Open Space plan also mentioned that in 2002, the Maine Department of Transportation advised to add bicycle racks at key destinations. 

Route 3 Project 

The three-year, 18 million-dollar, Route 3 project was completed in the summer of 2019. ¹⁵  The original hopes of having the shared path continue to Hulls Cove seemed too challenging, but the shared path, shoulders, and bus stops that did get built are used and enjoyed year-round. The project paid attention to the historic posts, usages of local stones, native plants, and trees which now gives the entrance into Bar Harbor a new identity – a place full of history where more than one form of transportation is possible.    

2017 Streetscape Plan for Cottage Street

There is already a streetscape plan for Cottage Street ¹⁶  and Lower Main Street ¹⁷ , created by LARK Landscape Architecture Studio in 2017. This document plans to remove some car parking spots to have more trees and create curb bump-outs for public transit stops. LARK’s document describes the current state of Cottage Street as a “sea of asphalt” and proposes to replace some of the pavement with red bricks at some intersections of Cottage Street. These plans bring the street very close to a complete street. Below are recommendations to suggest how these plans could be further improved to make the street more inclusive to all modes of transportation and provide viable, safe and joyful alternatives to car travel in the downtown core.

Renewal of Cottage Street

At the Town Meeting on June 7th 2022, the residents of Bar Harbor will vote on the infrastructure bond to tear up Cottage street to upsize the sewer line and put the electrical lines underground. The renewal of this street allows us to envision the kind of streets we want to have for the future of Bar Harbor. Timing for this infrastructure upgrade (if it is approved) is not yet finalized but would likely happen between summer 2023 through the end of 2024. Additional funds are allocated to extending the Shared Use Path, but it is unclear where this would be extended to. A further project is announced to enhance pedestrian safety on Rodick street, but no funding is allocated. 

Investing in active transportation infrastructure is not only beneficial from a climate perspective, but also promotes the economic growth of Bar Harbor. A report made by the New York Department of Transportation in 2012 shows how the installation of bike lanes on 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City, increased the retail sales between 23rd to 31st Street by 49 percent. ¹⁹  These results show that cyclists are more likely to stop and shop in the city than motorists. Similar studies, such as the one made by the group Advocacy Advance, have shown the same effects in smaller cities and towns, which is why Bar Harbor can expect a higher percentage of economic growth if the streets are more available for bikers and pedestrians. ²⁰  Turning the tourism sector from car-dependent to more bike-friendly could increase the town’s revenues. According to a study from 2012 in Portland, Oregon, bicycle tourists spent 24 percent more on local restaurants and businesses than those who drove. ²¹  In a small, downtown-centered area like Bar Harbor, businesses can therefore benefit tremendously from foot traffic.

Complete streets, often combined with green spaces, can also increase the aesthetic and monetary value of streets and real estate as a result. Another study by the Delaware Center for Transportation also showed how the value of properties increased along the bike lane as the location became more attractive for the residents. According to the study, some real estate increased over eleven percent in value. ²²  This would increase the town’s revenue from taxes. In terms of the current parking challenges of Bar Harbor, a more bike-friendly infrastructure could potentially lead to a reduced pressure of traffic and less demand for parking lots. However, we acknowledge that the reduced use of parking lots could potentially reduce the revenue from parking lots to the town. At the same time, this could leave space to turn current parking lots at specific places into housing or businesses to sustain that revenue and even increase it. Other economic benefits save costs as bike infrastructure is less expensive than sustaining car infrastructure.  ²³ 

Investing in bike infrastructure is therefore more affordable and economically sustainable for the local businesses and overall development of the town. By shifting the mode share away from cars and toward pedestrians and bikes, the downtown core can become a less stressful, safer, and more enjoyable place while improving business revenue.

Equity Benefits of Improved Access to Active Transportation

Another advantage of bike and pedestrian infrastructure is that it supports equity and inclusion as it promotes multiple, accessible, and affordable modes of transportation. This makes active transportation more accessible as it is safer. It is also cheaper to purchase a bike compared to a car, which is why active transportation from a public standpoint can support low-income, marginalized communities. By decreasing the mode share of motor vehicles and in turn reducing the GHG emissions from the largest source, we will improve air and water quality for all.

During the spring term of 2022 at College of the Atlantic, instructors Laura Berry and Ken Cline introduced a new course: Community-Based Climate Solution Lab. The mission of this class was to support the Bar Harbor Climate Emergency Task Force to explore ways of mitigating climate change in the community. We, as a group, consisting of Kaia Douglas (kdouglas25@coa.edu), Nynke Ham (nham23@coa.edu), Aishwarya Devarajan (adevarajan24@coa.edu), and Alexandra Löfgren (alofgren25@coa.edu), were assigned to work on sustainable transportation. This class, together with our curiosity and wonder of how Mount Desert Island could become a more bike and pedestrian-friendly place, made us want to look further than EVs. Early on, we recognized the complexities of EVs and their issues regarding climate justice, such as extracting non-renewable minerals from high-conflict areas. All group members had personal experiences with the challenges associated with active transportation and desired a different type of infrastructure on Mount Desert Island. 

After several brainstorming sessions, we narrowed our focus to Bar Harbor downtown and how the town could become a leading example for active transportation. We started by contacting several stakeholders that could give us an important insight into the work. These involved Acadia Park planner John Kelly, the COA alumni and founding member of Bike Coalition in Maine Jeff Miller, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce Alf Anderson, Bar Harbor bike-shop owner Joe Minutolo and Erik daSilva from the Bike Coalition of Maine. These conversations gave us important background to the previous bike infrastructure work that had been done and the complexities of past attempts at creating one-way streets. 

One of the most impactful meetings for our recommendations was with the town manager Kevin Sutherland. He talked about the Streetscape Plan for Cottage Street and was very interested in our work. This motivated us to think further about potential pedestrian streets and bike lanes in Bar Harbor. We also read through several articles and documents showcasing the opportunities in transforming car infrastructure into more inclusive options, with case studies from both the U.S. and around the world. After coming across the example of Provincetown, Massachusetts, as one of the most progressive places for bike infrastructure in the U.S, we contacted the Chair of the Provincetown Bicycle Committee Rik Ahlberg. Our conversation with him was helpful in many ways as Provincetown is also a small tourist town, similar to Bar Harbor. This information, together with the important insights from a bike advocacy workshop with Angela King from the Maine Bicycle Coalition, made us focus on “tactical urbanism” and how to make our visions realistic. We also had several sessions of fieldwork across Bar Harbor where we explored and assessed the ability to bike and walk safely on certain streets and intersections. After much work, effort, and creativity, we have come up with a set of recommendations that can support Bar Harbor to become a more sustainable, enjoyable, and welcoming town for all.

Transportation is a complex issue that needs multifaceted solutions. Below is a list of recommendations under three categories that aim to create safer and more vibrant active transportation options in Bar Harbor. The first set of recommendations aim to improve the ability to walk, bike and feel the sense of community in the downtown’s core. The second set is to extend the shared use path along Route 3 from West Street to Mt Desert Street. Third, we suggest steps to envision and build street solutions collaboratively and creatively.

Downtown Core: Improve Walkability, Bikeability and the Community-Feel

• Pedestrian-only areas on Rodick Street and the northern Main Street
  • Crowding in the Downtown core leads to frustration about parking
  • Make Rodick Street a full pedestrian street, since this street is already calm, full of buzzing restaurants but there are limited lines of sight which leads to dangerous situationsCrowding in the Downtown core leads to frustration about parking
  • Make the section of Main Street, North from Cottage Street, a full pedestrian street. This would include Cottage Way
  • Ways to keep pedestrian streets open to delivery and emergency vehicles 
• ‘Complete Streets’ on Cottage Street and south side of Main Street
  • Implement the proposed streetscape plan on both Cottage and Main streets with some upgrades to the plan
  • Decrease downtown speed limit to 15mph
  • Pave the on-street parking spots with pavement or bricks that visually contrast with the gray pavement to make the street look narrower
  • Install signage that clearly tells car drivers to expect bikes in the center of the lane
  • Convert 8 car parking spaces downtown on-street into bike parking spaces with bike racks and invest in bike racks for the pedestrian streets and the municipal parks
  • Remove 13 car parking spaces on the easternmost block of Cottage St to widen sidewalks between the two segments of pedestrian streets

Extend Shared Use Path as Uninterrupted route along Route 3 from West Street to Mt Desert Street

• Continue the Route 3 Shared-use path along the east side of Eden Street all the way to Mt Desert Street
• Mt Desert/Kebo/Eden/Eagle Lake Intersection 
  • Install two more crosswalks (across Mt Desert St and Kebo St) and make them safer by painting the crosswalks a solid color or raising them slightly above the grade of the road
• Route 3/West Street Intersection
  • Remove one of the traffic islands
  • Narrow the car lanes to slow down traffic and make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the intersection on the extended shared path
  • Distinguish the crosswalk of the shared path by painting it or paving it a different color and/or raising it above the grade of the road
  • Add a crosswalk across the southeast side of Eden St to improve mobility of people traveling to or from housing on West St Extension

Strategies: Envision and build street solutions collaboratively and creatively

• Implement a Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee
• Revise the streetscape plan and solicit meaningful, imaginative community feedback
• Use “Tactical Urbanism” strategies to gain public support

These recommendations are based on ten weeks of research and discussion by four College of the Atlantic students as part of a class on Community-Based Climate Solutions. More public input and traffic studies would be beneficial to better understand the community’s patterns and needs. This work is urgently needed if Bar Harbor is to minimize GHG emissions by 2030, as advocated for in the Climate Emergency Task Force’s Climate Action Plan. There are two immediate steps we can take to support these infrastructure changes.

Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee

Bar Harbor needs a new stand-alone Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee under the Town Council to coordinate this work. This committee should be made up of diverse stakeholders in the community who can advocate for non-car transportation with the specific needs of Bar Harbor in mind.

Revise the streetscape plan and solicit meaningful, imaginative community feedback

Before they are implemented, the streetscape plans should be amended to slow down the car traffic and minimize asphalt cover. We have suggested ways to do this in the above recommendations, but further traffic studies and community input are needed to fine-tune the proposal to the specific needs of Bar Harbor. The Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee can coordinate community feedback sessions.

Use Tactical Urbanism strategies to gain public support

Sometimes, it is hard to get public support for an infrastructure change if people have never known anything other than car-oriented streets. People need to “see it to believe it.” To test out proposed infrastructure adjustments, a strategy called “Tactical Urbanism” can be useful.  ⁴⁸  This is a technique where you implement temporary infrastructure such as short-term painted bike lanes or crosswalks, temporary pedestrian streets and new signage to give people a chance to test out the changes before they become permanent. Tactical Urbanism can be used to help municipal officials test out their projects. The Bicycle Coalition of Maine has a campaign called “Imagine People Here” in which they collaborate with towns and communities to implement temporary infrastructure to help people imagine and inhabit something other than car-oriented streets.  ⁴⁹ 

The path forward for Bar Harbor is one that must be imagined and built collectively and collaboratively. This town has an opportunity to build an inclusive and sustainable future that centers the needs of residents of all ages, abilities and economic backgrounds. Part of an inclusive town is the inclusive landscape that supports transportation and community life. A better Bar Harbor is on its way, and it is coming on two wheels and two feet.

For more background on the economic arguments and map colours, check out  this other storymap  that was part of an additional independent study.  https://bit.ly/Arrogance_of_Space 

Small North American Towns Leading the Way

When looking for inspiration about how to make towns more bike and pedestrian-friendly, it is easy to look at European cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen where bikes are the most popular form of transportation. However, it can also be intimidating for North American towns to compare ourselves to these bike havens because our infrastructure is so car-centric. It’s hard to even start to imagine all the changes that need to happen for North American towns to reach that level of bikeability and walkability. That’s why it is useful to learn from other similar North American small towns who are making steps and strokes toward more active, vibrant and sustainable transportation systems. Here are some case studies of North American towns, many of them similar in size and climate to Bar Harbor, that can inspire our work here.

Provincetown, Massachusetts

This is a town very similar to Bar Harbor: its year-round population is 3000, it’s coastal and it welcomes tons of tourists every summer. One thing however is very different: in Provincetown, 20 percent of residents commute by bike all year round. The town has many safe bikeways, clear signage, and loads of bike racks, meaning that cycling is simply the fastest and easiest way to get around. It takes under 7 minutes to ride from one end of town to the other. The streets are old and narrow, but they have addressed this issue by making the main street one-way for cars and two-way for bikes. Bikes are not only accepted, but they are expected. They achieved this level of bikeability by creating a bicycling advisory committee of diverse stakeholders, focussing on inclusive, low-stress streets, and lowering most speed limits to 20 mph or lower. Provincetown’s cycling culture makes the community stronger, and Commercial street, the main Street, is known as “the country’s most distinctive shared space.” ⁵⁰ 

Pella, Iowa

Also a small college town like Bar Harbor, Pella has had success prioritizing inexpensive “low-hanging fruit.” They have focused on putting up bike wayfinding signs, painting sharrows on the road, and installing lots of bike parking. They found that people shop more at downtown businesses when there is more bike parking.  ⁵¹ 

Traverse City, Michigan

This town boosted the number of kids biking to school by 473 percent because of the work of a youth bike advocacy group called Norte. Even though winters are very snowy and harsh, people walk and cycle all year long because of very good road and sidewalk plowing, supported by  bikes being allowed on transit. Because of limited car parking space, many places are more accessible by bike. In the summer, tourists flock to the “bike & brew” tours of the community's breweries.  ⁵² 

Aspen, Colorado

This town found it hard to implement public transit in low-density areas, so they filled the gap with a bikeshare program. They geared it towards low-income riders who don’t own a car or bike and need an easy connection to transit routes or community hubs. They were the first rural community in the US to get a bikeshare program in 2013 and show that bikeshare can be adapted to different contexts.  ⁵³ 

Sheboygan County, Wisconsin

This rural county invested in better bike lanes, bike parking, and bike-friendly transit buses with a special focus on safe routes to school. Ridership rose 23 percent between 2007 and 2010 due to these improvements. The Rails to Trails Conservancy points out that “kids become the biggest losers when all transportation funding gets spent to benefit motor vehicles.” Youth become more independent and healthy when they have safe, active and fun routes to school.  ⁵⁴ 

Nelson, British Columbia

This town is very mountainous and has some steep streets that present a barrier to cycling for some people. Therefore they decided to implement a financing program to help residents buy e-bikes. “The program provides low-interest financing of up to $8,000 [CAD] per house for Nelson homeowners to purchase a commuter bike. The loan is re-paid monthly on the homeowner’s Nelson Hydro electric bill over two or five years.” The small community of 10,000 people has already put in 80 applications for e-bike loans and estimates that they have reduced vehicle travel by 90,000 km.  ⁵⁵