It’s Time For a Bypass of Route 302 in Windham, Maine After What I Experienced

I decided on the way home from Hannaford at the Windham Mall last Sunday that I would stop at Dairy Queen and grab some lunch. They've got a good deal on their double cheeseburger meal for a few hours around lunchtime. So I pulled into the center turning lane just before DQ and waited as there was a line of cars in it backed up at the light. Most of them weren't supposed to be there.

The light turned green and when I got to the entrance to DQ, I had to wait for an opening in the line of cars coming in the opposite direction to make my turn. That's when several cars started honking at me because they assumed I was turning left at the light like all the rest of the tourists headed to the Maine Turnpike and home, and couldn't understand why I wasn't moving.

I finally made it in, much to the disgust of the people behind me because they had to wait for another cycle of the light that they were in the wrong lane to turn for. After getting my food, I was the one that had to wait for several cycles of the light just to get back out into traffic because of the long line of tourists blocking me from turning left, through two lanes of traffic. When my opening did come, I had to move fast to make it through the gap in oncoming traffic.

It's time Windham. I think all of us that live here are ready for a change. Ready to be able to get from point A to point B in our town without being in gridlock. The traffic on the Route 302 corridor through the commercial strip is beyond the road's capacity and it's time to build a bypass.

The amount of traffic on this busy stretch has made it difficult for people to visit the businesses they plan to spend their hard-earned money. If I had realized there would be that much of a struggle to get in and out of DQ, I probably would have kept going on my merry way.

There has been talk of building a "lateral road network" to bypass the commercial strip in Windham for years without any progress. Lots and lots of studies and discussions about the traffic problem have been done, the latest of which looks to "consider new local connector roads, access management, and corridor and intersection improvements for all transportation modes."

As I said. It's time Windham. Back in 2006 Windham Community Development Director Roger Timmons said "I don’t think we can wait much longer." It's 16 years later. We're still waiting.