Biking and Parking on the West End
Happy Monday good folks and fellow complainers. I have been a southern Maine lifer and a resident of Portland for about 6 years.
Overtime, I have witnessed parking become worse and worse for actual residents. When I was a teen (in the mid 2010s) I remember parking being a bit of a pain driving in town, but not terrible.
Now, living near the Deering Ave and Congress St intersection, I best better have the car parked before 6pm. ESPECIALLY if it’s on a Hearts of Pine game day. The amount of people I see walking from my street and several blocks over all decked out in HoP gear is infuriating after my 8th time circling a 5 block radius to try and find any spot.
It feels like city hall wants the tourist and event $$$s without actually investing in the proper infrastructure to accommodate this influx of people.
I am piggybacking off of another recent post complaining about HoP a bit, but it’s hard not to loathe the insane ticket prices as an actual resident with only a five minute walk from the field. It’s like getting dogfucked in your front yard and then getting asked for 100+ bucks if I wanna join in on the fun.
Sea Dogs is infinitely more accessible in price and somehow manages to not clog up the residential streets half as bad as Hearts of Pine does.
Then there’s the biking. I bike from the west end down Forest Ave and a bit past Morrills Corner. It is quite literally impossible to safely navigate that nightmare McDonald’s intersection without utilizing the sidewalk as there is absolutely no bike lane whatsoever. I always slow down and if necessary dismount my bike to move past pedestrians, whom I’ve always had respectful interactions with.
I have been screamed at by unhinged drivers twice for biking on this small stretch of sidewalk. Something tells me I would be yelled at by them just the same if I was in the regular lanes of traffic. This is on top of my already very defensive biking. I never cross in front of a car unless I am locking eye contact with the driver.
Instead of making parking easier, or biking more accessible we get bandaid fixes for pedestrian deaths once every few months. I’m probably being too harsh but I needed to get this out. Thanks for listening.