Maine

Maine is in the New England region of the United States. Maine is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is sparsely populated, with an estimated 1,318,301 residents (2009 U.S. Census). The state is approximately 320 miles long and 210 miles wide, with a total area of 33,215 square miles. This is equal to the area of the other five New England States combined.

Tourism and outdoor recreation play a major role in Maine’s economy. With large tracts of forested land in its northern region, Maine is a popular destination for deer, moose, and bear hunting, sport fishing, snowmobiling, and skiing. The coastal regions, where the economy is dominated by fishing, lobstering, and tourism, are more heavily populated, particularly in the southern, more temperate area of the state.

Augusta, in Kennebec County, is the state capital. Portland is Maine’s largest city and home to New England’s busiest port, the Port of Portland. Portland is the principal city of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford Metropolitan Area, also known as the Greater Portland area. The Greater Portland area houses almost one quarter of Maine’s total population.

Other major cities in Maine include Auburn, Bangor, Bar Harbor, Biddeford, Brunswick, Ellsworth, and Lewiston, Maine’s second largest city. Bar Harbor is actually a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, but the town is a destination for tourists from all over the world, and the population swells from May through October due to the number of cruise ships harboring here.

Maine travelers are served by two international airports: Bangor International Airport and Portland International Jetport. In addition, four regional airports serve the state. Amtrak provides passenger rail service to Maine, and passenger ferry service is available.

Interstate 95 runs through Maine, as does Interstate 295. U.S. Route 1 starts in Fort Kent, Maine, and runs to Florida. Truckers often use U.S. Route 2, Route 6, and Route 9 as short cuts to Central Canada. The entire Maine Turnpike is part of I-95.

According to a Maine Department of Transportation December 2009 report, both Maine and Vermont will participate in a pilot program allowing the two states to set their own state weight limits for trucks on their interstate highways. Instead of the federal truck-weight cap of 80,000 pounds, Maine now allows three-axle truck tractors with three-axle semi-trailers to have a cap of 100,000 pounds gross vehicle weight to use Maine’s entire highway system. This change was made in an effort to divert large trucks from non-interstate highways and onto the Interstate.

A 2009 study by the American Transportation Research Institute determined that the ability to keep trucks on Interstate 95 instead of moving them to U.S. Route 9 would add approximately a 5 miles to the route, but would result in a time savings of approximately 20 minutes, as the average travel speeds on I-95 were 60-62 miles per hour as opposed to the average traffic speeds of 38-42 miles per hour on Route 9. Opponents of the bill had argued against allowing trucks to carry heavier loads unnecessarily jeopardizing motorists’ safety. Passengers or drivers of cars involved in fatal traffic accidents are far more likely to die because of a collision between a passenger car and a large truck than the driver or an occupant of the truck. Bureau of Transportation statistics indicate that there were 155 fatalities in Maine as a result of traffic accidents in 2009. Large trucks were involved in 21, or 10.3%, of these fatal accidents.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that as of 2008, Maine has approximately 23,000 miles of public roads. In 2000, the state had 3,300 registered trucks.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration there were a total of 648 large truck crashes in 2008. More than 600 of these accidents were non-fatal crashes, while 24 resulted in a fatality. In the same year, 265 truck-related crashes resulted in injury, and 362 crashes required that a vehicle be towed away. A number of driver-related factors were reported in truck accidents, including driving in excess of the posted maximum speed limit, careless or inattentive driving, and failure to yield to traffic. No adverse weather conditions were reported in 66% of fatal truck accidents and in 59% with non-fatal truck accidents. Rain and snow were cited as weather factors in both fatal and non-fatal truck accidents. Truck accidents occurred on major roadways (other principal arteries) 42% of the time and on smaller roadways (minor arteries) and collector roads 23.8%, respectively. In 2008, it was reported that Maine had 787 miles of other principal arterial roadways and a combined 6,537 of minor arterials, major collector, and minor collector roads.