With much of the economy put on pause and Mainers told to stay home as much as possible, road traffic is in decline. Maine Public's Morning Edition host Irwin Gratz spoke with Maine Turnpike Authority Executive Director Peter Mills about how traffic patterns on Maine's primary interstate highway have changed since the governor issued a stay-at-home order for the state.Peter Mills: The patterns that we're seeing are that the commuting traffic around Portland is significantly down, meaning that people are simply not going to work, presumably. But the truck traffic that is going through, the tolls that we see it at York, and on the main line north of Portland, are down by lesser amounts. And we think that's largely because the truck traffic and the delivery truck traffic is persisting,
Irwin Gratz: You know, mentioning the toll plaza at York, is there any way to know if we're seeing any increase in out-of-state motorists coming, over what we would normally expect this time of year?
I asked one of our toll superintendents down there to tell me what she'd been seeing. And she said she hadn't seen a lot of New York traffic recently. There was some about 10 days ago, not overwhelming., certainly. There are indications that some of the people from Massachusetts are coming up. Many of them, of course, own properties up here, so that would be expected. But we have not seen a large influx of New York traffic or Connecticut traffic.
You mentioned the Greater Portland region. Are there any other areas along the turnpike where traffic seems to be particularly lower than others?
It's down by about half. And for whatever reason, it seems to persist at about that level over the last week or so. I haven't seen it continue to drop anymore. It's just holding at that level.
The Turnpike is planning to begin a widening project this summer, which as you pointed out, the money is already set aside for. But, of course, the turnpike makes its money through toll revenue. With a reduction in traffic of about half, how long is it going to be before the authority is forced to start doing less?
Well, not this year, but we are seeing a drop in revenue of about 40 to 45%. The reason that revenue is dropping less than traffic is because the traffic that's sustaining itself is truck traffic that pays a higher toll. We are continuing to collect tolls. And we need that toll revenue to sustain the ordinary operations of the road. We have about 17 active construction contracts going on right now under active management. It's all, for the most part, at least outdoor work where people are able to separate from each other and do the work safely. We're very happy that they're able to stay engaged and employed with the economy as it is.
You know, someone might think a less crowded highway might be safer highway. Has there been any indication yet about whether crashes or other mishaps have gone down the last couple of weeks?
Yes. Except for the snowstorm we had last week, which caused a tractor trailer to overturn, I think the accidents are down. It has also made it easier for our paving and capital programs to go ahead. Because we don't have to close lanes as much during the daytime, we're able to keep contractors working during times that we might otherwise have to shut the projects down for traffic considerations. The lower traffic is helping us to get work done that would otherwise be more difficult. You know, two weeks ago we were just trying to figure out how to respond to these various directives and changes, but we're doing what every other business is doing. This building that I'm in has, ordinarily, 130 people in it; today, it probably has 10, maybe 12, including me. But I'm very separated from everybody else and so are the others.
Peter Mills, executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority, discussing observable traffic patterns during the spread of the new coronavirus.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
